Re: CCHA teams will join WCHA
1) BC won't get a B1G invite. Geographically, the B1G would invite several other eastern schools first in order to create a suitable bridge (Rutgers, Syracuse, even a very unlikely UConn). Their next focus is on NY, not Boston. B1G can look at the ACC's example, and I don't think the ACC is getting the number of eyes in the northeast they thought they would.
Agreed. Again, I don't think that the B10 would take BC. The only way I see that happening is (1) they take other eastern schools, and (2) Notre Dame says, "we're in as long as you take BC; we will feel more comfortable with another Catholic school at the table." But it's an interesting scenario for college hockey if it does happen.
2) If BC does get poached due to all conference considerations, I don't think HEA collapses.
4) If BC does get poached and HEA collapses and the schools don't find joining the NCHC ridiculous, then the truly best option for the NCHC grabbing the Boston market is to take BU and UNH then walk away. Any other school would provide only incrementally more Boston attention while increasing travel costs, reducing the gate, or resulting in the pie being sliced in smaller chunks than necessary.
Agreed; BC leaving would not necessarily mean the end of HEA.
But what is the NCHC all about? More money? People assume that money always drives conference alignment by itself. For some schools, money is an end in itself; for others, the ultimate goal is winning, and money is a means to an end. I really think that NoDak and Denver were driven more by competitive factors than money itself. They're worried about the B10 being more prestigious than the WCHA would have been. (Not saying they're right.) Dumping the low-prestige D II schools and trying to form a super-conference is about recruiting. "Hey kid, you won't be playing Bemidji and Ferris State. Every school here in the NCHC has been to a Frozen Four in the last 10 years (or whatever it is). The B10 can't say that! Come to NoDak or Denver instead of Wisconsin or Minnesota!"
BC and Notre Dame to the B10 would make the B10 even more attractive. The rest of the sport's powers will want to keep pace. Maine, BU, and UNH (and maybe 1 or 2 others) to the NCHC would leave you with two power conferences of roughly equal prestige. Which is what it's all about for the elite programs, even more than money itself.
Which is why they'd take Maine, too, and I don't think it would come down to TV markets as you suggest.
Again, this all just fun hypothetical speculation based on an unlikely scenario.
