Season Opening Shocker
Posted by: ronNope, it’s not a Canadian team destroying an American counterpart in the opening week of the season, it’s Wayne State suddenly announcing that they’re dropping hockey after this season.
After all of the hoopla surrounding Bemidji State throwing down the gauntlet to the WCHA last season, and the future of the CHA in jeopardy, this certainly puts the nail into the coffin.
A realistic scenario here is that other conferences take these teams in despite the fact there’s been an unwillingness to do so recently, now the situation has actually occured where it might be necessary. The bad news here is that there doesn’t appear to be any clear-fit for Alabama-Huntsville.
The best-case scenario would be a couple of schools announcing the move to Division I Hockey and rebuilding the CHA or a new conference. Worst-case would be a bunch of these CHA teams just calling it quits and being back down to a twelve team tournament in a couple of years. Lets hope something works out in the near future.
This is obviously not the way we all wanted to see the season start.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Most of these teams have no shot at getting into another conference.
Wayne State certainly didn’t. Why? They have no on-campus ice arena, or an arrangement where they are the primary tenant of a facility nearby (like UML). How can one have a competitive team that fans will watch and students have pride in without a home? The WCHA rightfully denied their membership application.
Had Wayne State laid out some plans to build a nice on-campus arena, things could have been different. Look at Quinnipiac as an example. The plans for their new arena was the biggest differentiating factor for their ECAC membership application a few years ago over Sacred Heart, who plays in an off campus facility.
The best way for the remaining CHA teams to ensure their membership in a different conference would be to make the commitment to their facilities that they need, and to fully fund their teams with the maximum number of scholarships permitted in cases where they don’t already do so.