Re: The new Super League is going down the tubes.
If I'm UAF or LSSU, I'm desperately rooting against Moorhead making the jump while at the same time trying to make my school look better than the other.
If I'm BGSU or FSU, I'm working my *** off to try to get at minimum 2 AHA schools to give a serious look at changing conferences. If AHA stays at 12 teams, the CCHA and at least 3 D1 hockey teams are in serious jepoardy.
There are still a huge number of things that the current CCHA teams have wait out and see what happens. Depending on those happenings, formation of a program at MSU Moorhead could acutally help the CCHA.
We know the Big 10 schools and Miami are gone. Notre Dame has stated they will not stay in the CCHA, and NMU looks to be headed to the WCHA. So taking those schools out, the CCHA has:
Western Michigan
Ferris State
Alaska
Lake Superior
Bowling Green
That's five schools. We know Western Michigan would like out, but it doesn't look like WMU necessarily controls their own conference destiny right now. Notre Dame is looking at HE and NCHC. If Notre Dame goes to HE, I have a hard time seeing HE also wanting WMU. In that case, WMU might be welcomed into the NCHC to give Miami a short conference trip, or the NCHC might decide to hold at 6 and see if better opportunities come along down the road. What we do know is that despite the fact WMU wants to move on, they were not included in the NCHC news conference. That indicates to me that the NCHC might not be all that hot to trot over WMU.
The Irish could also elect to go to the NCHC. Notre Dame has stated they would like a smaller conference to free up NC games to schedule BC and the Big 10 schools. So if the Irish do decide to go to the NCHC, they may come in with the stipulation that the NCHC remain at 7 teams so they have more NC openings. This would leave WMU out of the NCHC mix, and HE certainly isn't going to pick up just WMU.
WMU could apply to the new WCHA. But if an MSU Moorhead move to DI blocked an Alaska or LSSU move to the WCHA, it could also block a WMU move to the WCHA. Its not like picking up WMU would bring a traditional power to the WCHA, and it would increase travel costs. MSU Moorhead, on the other hand, is a very easy bus ride for most of remaining WCHA teams. Shoot, they could play Friday-Saturday home and home series with BSU, SCSU, and Mankato if they wanted to. I doubt they would, but they are close enough to do it. Picking up Moorhead would put the new WCHA at 7 teams, so they could still decide to raid the CCHA for one more team if they wanted to get to 8. But that might well end up being Fairbanks if UAA pushes the issue, and not WMU.
The bottom line is that a Moorhead move to DI could leave the new CCHA with as many as 5 teams, as opposed to the current thinking of 3. The CCHA could then pick up UAH and not even need one of the AHA teams to move to retain their autobid. If the WCHA decided to move to 8 teams and was successful in getting one of the remaining CCHA schools, UAH could still join and only 1 AHA school would need to be convinced to make the move to retain the CCHA autobid. Of course, much of this also rides with the NCHC and what they do or don't do regarding WMU. But the addition of Moorhead could actually give the CCHA a ray of hope in all of this, because it could take up a WCHA slot and prevent at least one CCHA school from leaving.