Its all up in the air. So with a Friday afternoon pending, and with no work pending desperately for my attention, I turn my gaze back toward my beloved Lakers. My thoughts, hopes, and dreams for my program are as follows:
1. Best scenario: LSSU joins the WCHA. Playing with Tech and NMU, in a stable league with dedicated D-I hockey schools, would be a huge bonus for LSSU. I am dreaming that LSSU can head West with its UP brethren.
2. Second best: LSSU forms a new league with NCAA auto-bid permission. Kill the CCHA, its a dead mule rotting in the sun, anyhow. The CCHA has morphed, over the last ten years, into a corporate office existing solely for the protection and financing of UM and MSU hockey. Every top level exec, and every stick of furniture from the CCHA offices is going to be moved to the new Big Ten Hockey HQ (wherever that may be). The CCHA offices, gutted and empty, would be back-filled by the thrid-and-fourth rung administrators currently working in the CCHA will be promoted -- merely be inertia -- into leadership positions. So the CCHA just has to die. A new league with a new plan, a new HQ, and none of the old baggage is the best option (of course, only if the NCAA allows the dead-CCHA's autobid to transfer). Then LSSU can build a new league on a fresh canvass with Niagara, Mercyhurst, Caniscius, Ferris, BGSU, UAH, and itself (And maybe Western and UAF, if the WCHA keeps them out). Put the HQ in Grand Rapids, or K-Zoo, or even in the Soo.
3. Worst: Keep the CCHA, call it the (c)CHA, and fill in empty spots with random AHA teams that just want a chance to add more scholarships. This would be building an ugly house, which nobody wants, on a crumbled foundation. Its such a horrible idea not because of the schools. Its a horrible idea because the CCHA, as noted, is a terrible operation from top to bottom. And in fact, we all know that the CCHA is only existing for the next two years to keep the money flowing to UM and MSU . . . and after that, who cares, right?
Sorry, but the boys in the WCHA complaining about Bruce McCleod aint seen nothing. Bruce is the picture of competence. The WCHA, and Hockey East, are models of well run conferences. Heck, I think the AHA is a well run conference, if only because they know who they are, they know what they want to accomplish, and they strive for uniformity of competition.
The CCHA is a joke.
Look at the WCHA Final Five in St. Paul. Huge event. Huge crowds. The last two years it was in St. Paul without Minnesota, and they still had huge crowds.
Look at the HE finals in Boston.
And then look at the sad-sack, 3/4 empty Joe for the CCHA finals. All the empty seats, apathetic fans (or worse, the dreaded Wallmart Wolverine fans). Its horrible. The play-in and semi-final games at the Final Five and the HE final are huge -- the play in games at the Joe are empty. This is the league officials NOT being able to market the league. Why not move the Final around? Why not try other locations? Why not try other marketing schemes? Nothing -- just a big empty stadium.
Nope, the CCHA must be blown up. The entire staff, down to the MSU and UM kids who get internships (dirty little secret: only MSU and UM kids get internships at the CCHA home office) -- fire them all. Put them all out of work. They have failed miserably.
