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New WCHA is dead

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Re: New WCHA is dead

Sad. I would like the B6 to pick the castoffs up. They can afford the travel since all the schools are zillionaires due to bb and fb. It would be for the good of the sport.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

Timothy A said:
Sad. I would like the B6 to pick the castoffs up. They can afford the travel since all the schools are zillionaires due to bb and fb. It would be for the good of the sport.
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If the Big Ten schools were interested in the good of the sport they wouldn't have the formed the conference in the first place.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

I don't think we have heard the end of the realignment process yet. This is still not a bus league. 3 of the teams are further from BGSU than Huntsville and another 2 are not much different than going to Huntsville for BGSU. Wouldn't be surprised if BGSU and Ferris State split again and pull in Mercyhurst, RMU, Canisius and Niagara as well as Miami and Western Michigan which are poor geographical fits in the NCHC. That could be a bus league with BGSU in the center. Hockey East has it right in that respect. Cost containment is what is happening here. If that were to happen then Air Force and ASU to the NCHC.

In the meantime I would like to see Atlantic Hockey take in UAH on a provisional basis immediately for a balanced schedule. Better for UAH to try that than to be looking at no mans land in a few years anyway. Should Navy opt in to D1 status in the AHC I don't think Atlantic Hockey would change at all.
 
As a Michigan Tech fan, I am very saddened by this news. I know the Alaska programs are in a downward spiral for many reasons...but was this really necessary? I would like to see the numbers. And I think UAH has been coming along slowly but surely. This is like a family splitting up over a divorce. I hope a reconciliation can be worked out. UAH and Alaska schools, I feel your pain right now. Knowing the MTU athletic staff, I have to think this must have been a painful choice to go along with the other 6 schools in order to survive...Tech has always been about supporting the sport, the athletes, and the college hockey family.


There must be another angle or more to this story...
 
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Re: New WCHA is dead

Squarebanks said:
I’d be supportive of UAF announcing its withdrawal from the WCHA on Monday, effective immediately. We can use the money we save from not having to pay for the other ungrateful seven to travel to AK to pay the withdrawal penalty.

Enjoy your bus league, and try not to run over anybody else with that bus. ✌️
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Here's my biggest question: Nobody put a gun to anyone's head in the late 80s and forced the CCHA and WCHA to flirt with the Alaska schools and eventually allow them into conference membership. And this was at a much much "poorer" time in college hockey, way before the Big 14 Network and affiliated television revenue. The sport is much much richer now but we are unwilling to support smaller schools who wanted to play big time hockey. WHAT HAPPENED
 
mmf said:
or maybe it’s…
…the Alaska schools need to “step up” or “step out.” Of course, stepping up must not include the fact that the Alaska schools highly subsidize each and every team’s travel to Alaska, and that both Alaska schools pay the full cost for all their own travel without subsidy. I’m not sure how to quantify the “fatigue factor” associated with traveling to Alaska once, maybe twice a year when we haven’t tried quantifying that for the seven or eight times we travel outside every year. Good thing the kids that are lucky enough to move to the next level don’t have a lot of travel. B.S.
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Immediately after BGSU Hockey was saved from elimination, the University announced a very public fundraising effort to sustain the program (personally I think the goal was too low). Huntsville was eliminated until their donors stepped up and saved that program. All the hockey world is seeing from the state of Alaska is "legislature this, legislature that,* and none of it sounds convincing enough that either will be very competitive for long. Huntsville seems to be making progress in the right direction, albeit slowly.

I'd be very surprised if the three teams left out had no knowledge this was coming. It's now on those schools to end any speculation on the sustainability of their programs.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

Timothy A said:
Sad. I would like the B6 to pick the castoffs up. They can afford the travel since all the schools are zillionaires due to bb and fb. It would be for the good of the sport.
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Yes! These scumbags are destroying college hockey so they can pursue TV ratings from idiots in central Illinois who never gave a **** about hockey until their school's administrators told them to enjoy it because these admins could make tons of money of it. F them.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

Squarebanks said:
Per team that travels to Alaska. The Fairbanks number is closer to $20,000 plus hotel. Anybody accusing UAF or UAA of not stepping up to support hockey is gloriously clueless.
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I remember there was a big deal when I was at WMU in the early 2000s that at one point UAF was to "stop subsidizing conference visitor trips" to Fairbanks or at least adjust this. Is this accurate? Did this ever happen and if so what is difference in UAF costs from then and now?
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

I want the Alaska schools playing D-1 hockey. How did they obtain major conference affiliation? Anyone have any stories from back in the day?
 
Dirty Dream No. 2 said:
I remember there was a big deal when I was at WMU in the early 2000s that at one point UAF was to "stop subsidizing conference visitor trips" to Fairbanks or at least adjust this. Is this accurate? Did this ever happen and if so what is difference in UAF costs from then and now?
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When the move to the WCHA happened part of the deal was we moved from just paying, basically, billed charges for visiting travel to a set amount per team. I believe it was a better deal overall for us.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

When the Ivies eventually split from the ECAC (and they will...) , this is how they'll do it.
This whole move reeks of the 'Ivy league' hubris.
 
Re: New WCHA is dead

Conference realignment never truly ends... it’s just different fan bases each time who are left to deal with the shock. I think this is just another step (probably a necessary one) in the slow process of getting the conferences geographically aligned better again. I’d like to think the “8th spot” is an opening wake up call for UAH, but I could also see it as a billboard for St. Thomas (granted I have no clue all the steps that they need to do to get from D3 up to D1 in hockey) to look into the possibility. I for one love the idea of a other MN school, but I still think it’s just time before another shuffle happens.
 
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