over their choice to not admit UAH. This now leaves UAH playing as an independent soon and once again the program that just keeps on beating the odds will have to fight against a taller stack. The writer over at US College Hockey Online absolutely drills the CCHA and specifically Alaska's AD for his comments. There literally is no justification for this. Even the over-crowded WCHA found a way to take Nebraska-Omaha and Bemidji State.. Anyway, you can read CCHA's Thumbs-Down To Huntsville Reeks of Elitism shame on each and every member school including ND.
I don't follow this one. As I read the article, 3 schools could have stepped on the deal. Does ND dictate to schools like Mich. how to vote?
I would venture to bet that ND, Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State swing the big lumber in terms of influence in the CCHA. If/when anyone else ever decides to disclose the vote on this one, I will eat my hat if ND, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State voted for expand. The other major conferences stepped to the plate and helped to take the other abandoned teams. The shame isn't just on ND, I was singling them out as an ND fan to save someone from bringing it up later in an attempt to be cute. But this is beyond a head scratcher.. The WCHA has AT LEAST as much prestige yet they managed to not only add Bemidji, but they took Nebraska-Omaha from the CCHA...ergo there is now an opening in the conference and adding UAH would have kept the conference at 12 teams (which they have now). The reasons listed by the Alaska AD are a flat out joke. The UAH arena (the Von Braun center) seats 6,602 for hockey, which is as large if not larger than the vast majority of arenas in the NCAA.. They are quite popular here in North Alabama. They have won at every level they've been at no matter what the NCAA does to them. It's just a damned shame to see this program stuck out on an island, while others simply get richer because of geographic location. Is it fair to single out ND? No. There's shame on all of them. They can all point to the left and blame the next guy but the bottom line is that their decision just set back college hockey 50 years. This is a move that could point toward an attitude of expansion and embrace warm weather schools willing to dive into hockey. I'd be surprised that if UNA makes it 5 years if they have to go the independent route.