Whither (Wither?) the WCHA?

By foxsports
Published

As the season winds along, I find that Gopher fans are falling into two distinct groups concerning Minnesota's leap to the new Big Ten hockey conference next year: those in denial and those who have no clue what to expect. 
A few are in both groups.
Everyone knows that Minnesota and Wisconsin will join Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State (yes, they plan to call their new rink Hockey Valley) when the new league hits the ice next fall. Without two of its marquee teams, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) looked to remain competitive anyway – until…




Massive Sea Change 
Late last summer, many of the remaining WCHA teams announced that they were bolting to join yet another new Division I hockey organization, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). And look who's going:
• Colorado College• Denver• Minnesota-Duluth• North Dakota• Omaha• St. Cloud State
They'll join Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan in what some have already started calling a new hockey super-conference. We'll see. It is a powerful lineup that should make for compelling games every weekend.
Target Center tourney 
In an interesting development, the NCHC has announced it will hold its first post-season conference tournament at the Target Center in Minneapolis in the spring of 2014. The 21-year-old arena, which is home to the NBA Timberwolves and WNBA Lynx, is undergoing a major, multi-year renovation. The NCHC tournament games will be televised nationally but the conference's network partner, CBS Sports Network.
Gutting the WCHA 
The defections of virtually all of the WCHA's headliners to the Big Ten and NCHC left the veteran league, established in 1951, with only three survivors: Minnesota State, Bemidji State and Michigan Tech. You can't operate a conference with three teams so Commissioner Bruce McLeod (no relation, similar mustache) and his assistants scrambling to keep the league viable. By the end of summer they had inked enough schools to remain in business. although the look of the conference will change forever.
New WCHA Schools 
Starting next fall, here's how the lineup will look for the WCHA's 61st season:
Alaska-AnchorageAlaska-FairbanksBemidji StateBowling GreenFerris StateLake Superior StateMichigan TechMinnesota StateNorthern Michigan
The reconfigured nine-team conference looks competitive but next season's lineup sure looks different.
It also marks the end of another venerable Division I hockey conference.
Adieu, CCHA 
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association is finished. The conference worked closely with the WCHA to preserve at least one of the leagues for next season and beyond. The WCHA won out. The CCHA will play a full 2012-13 season and then disband following its tournament in Detroit.
Established in 1971 as a four-team startup with Ohio, Ohio State, Bowling Green and St. Louis University as charter members, the departures of so many teams to the WCHA and NCHC left the CCHA with only one team: Notre Dame. The Irish have chosen to join Hockey East next fall.
Schedules, anyone? 
So far, neither the Big Ten nor the NCHC has publicly announced a 2013-14 schedule. One thing is certain, however: the Gophers and Badgers need to play someone in addition to the other Big Ten teams. And they will. Sources at Minnesota say a number of non-conference games are already scheduled with some of the Gophers' top rivals, including Minnesota-Duluth, Denver and Colorado College over the next three seasons.
One hang-up, however, is North Dakota. The school's ongoing hassles with the NCAA over the use of its Fighting Sioux nickname and logo – which the school has been ordered to stop using – resulted, among other technical problems, in the UND not being available for scheduling in time to make the lineup for the short term. The Gophers are anxious to get The Team Formerly Known As the Fighting Sioux back on the schedule as soon as possible. Look for it to reappear within the next five years.