The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

[Bill]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Boy, a six-team league with Fairbanks and Huntsville and 16 non-conference games would've been rough. We certainly would've been happy to be a part of it, but that would have been a very weird league.

GFM

They likely would have had to bring in a couple of Atlantic Hockey schools to make it more viable.

[Jimjamesak]

Boy, a six-team league with Fairbanks and Huntsville and 16 non-conference games would've been rough. We certainly would've been happy to be a part of it, but that would have been a very weird league.

GFM

18 NC games, the games in Fairbanks wouldn't have counted.

[davyd83]

Boy, a six-team league with Fairbanks and Huntsville and 16 non-conference games would've been rough. We certainly would've been happy to be a part of it, but that would have been a very weird league.

GFM

Among those left in the CCHA, there were talks with Robert Morris, Mercyhurst, Niagara, even Buffalo. LSSU and UAF set their sights on the WCHA. When talks with those "Eastern" schools didn't pan out, then the full scale merger between the leftovers came to fruition.

[Pink Pony]

http://www.dailypress.net/page/conte...id/512141.html

Turned out to be a big mistake by not joining the WCHA back then.

[PerkyforPrez]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Among those left in the CCHA, there were talks with Robert Morris, Mercyhurst, Niagara, even Buffalo. LSSU and UAF set their sights on the WCHA. When talks with those "Eastern" schools didn't pan out, then the full scale merger between the leftovers came to fruition.

Lucky for Northern because they would have been in a league with less then 6 teams.

[gfmorris]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

18 NC games, the games in Fairbanks wouldn't have counted.

16. You'd have been playing a 20-game conference slate, because no way are some teams signing up to go to Alaska twice in a year every other year in a six-team league. But everyone would've gotten the Alaska games exempt, which means that everyone would have had 14 NC dates + 2 Alaska dates. No way you're getting 16 NC dates in this climate. When UAH played in the CHA, UAH played the following number of games: 31, 34, 37, 35, 31, 32, 34, 36 (counting an NCAA game), 31, 30, and 33 (counting an NCAA game). All of those game totals come with CHA tournament appearances in them, and everyone got in the tournament, and UAH was often in the title game (six times in 11 seasons). A six-team league is untenable, and that doesn't include the fact that there would be concerns about LSSU and UAH dropping their program.

We've seen the CHA fail. No, collapsing the CCHA was going to happen unless there was a mass defection of AHA schools. If you bring CC, NU, RMU, MC, and maybe RIT (doubtful as they play without scholarships), and then you take UConn to HE, you've gone from killing the CCHA to killing AHA. Now, maybe that's a mercy killing, but as an alumnus and fan of a program that was nearly felled by the conference alignment stuff, I'm pretty darn sensitive to it.

GFM

[aparch]

Turned out to be a big mistake by not joining the WCHA back then.

A $200,000 entry fee and no revenue from the Final Five for two years (the length of time before the WCHA was imploded), yep that sure was a mistake on NMU's part.

[davyd83]

Turned out to be a big mistake by not joining the WCHA back then.

Why is that? It would have cost NMU a ton of money over those two years to end up where they are now.

[davyd83]

Lucky for Northern because they would have been in a league with less then 6 teams.

St Cloud leaving after pledging their commitment to the WCHA paved the way for the rest of the former CCHA members to join the WCHA.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

St Cloud leaving after pledging their commitment to the WCHA paved the way for the rest of the former CCHA members to join the WCHA.

St. Cloud's groveling to get into the NCHC, after their President adamantly and publicly declared they would not have accepted any offer to join, was by far the most laughable and embarrassing part of the whole shakeout.

[aparch]

St. Cloud's groveling to get into the NCHC, after their President adamantly and publicly declared they would not have accepted any offer to join, was by far the most laughable and embarrassing part of the whole shakeout.

:thumbsup: Yep!

[manurespreader]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

St Cloud was the worst no doubt, but WMU wasn't far behind.

Also the reasons why UND left are not just one thing. It was a number of things and the small programs were having a say. One thing UND didn't like was the way the votes were going and what they felt like they were giving up monetarily what with that big rink. I can't see them suddenly saying to the smaller programs, "ok you can come back", unless there is some change and they have a bigger say financially.

I also think that reality has hit and the nacho is assessing the fallout financially. I'd be real surprised if they met the goals they set for themselves.

This shake up has proved one thing, If you compare how things are right now vs how things will be in the future with some proposed change or other, it might not come out like you want it to.

[RaceBoarder]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Conference realignment talk makes my head spin

Honestly, I'd be really peeved if we go back to something that is very similar to what we had... This would further prove the whole "if it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT" line of thinking

[Jimjamesak]

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

North Dakota and Denver thought they were bigger than they really were. They got tired of being on equal status with the small schools. They conned Miami, UMD, UNO, and CC into believing they'd be forming this Super Conference with Notre Dame and TV money and everything was gold.

Truth was Notre Dame reminded them what real power is and put DU and NoDak in their place over ND's own TV deal. They thought they could hardball Notre Dame thinking they had nowhere to go. Hockey East took on Notre Dame TV deal and all, DU and NoDak went scrambling for two more teams, got a lame TV deal, and the rest of the schools ended up on the Island of Misfits.

[Squarebanks]

North Dakota and Denver thought they were bigger than they really were. They got tired of being on equal status with the small schools. They conned Miami, UMD, UNO, and CC into believing they'd be forming this Super Conference with Notre Dame and TV money and everything was gold.

Truth was Notre Dame reminded them what real power is and put DU and NoDak in their place over ND's own TV deal. They thought they could hardball Notre Dame thinking they had nowhere to go. Hockey East took on Notre Dame TV deal and all, DU and NoDak went scrambling for two more teams, got a lame TV deal, and the rest of the schools ended up on the Island of Misfits.

The really ironic thing is nobody on the national sports scene gives a flying **** about UND or DU athletics. Notre Dame, on the other hand....