In one of my favorite newspaper column lines ever, Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star Tribune was covering the 1991 finals in St. Paul and he wrote about how in college hoops, "western" teams are from west of the Rockies and in college hockey, "western" teams are from west of the Appalachins.
 
Using that logic, Reusse wrote that: "on Thursday, the Northern Michigan Wildacts, from that wild west cow town of Marquette, Michigan, defended the honor of western hockey by deafeating Maine to advance to the NCAA championship game."
 
So even if it makes no geographic sense, CCHA teams are "western" college hockey teams. Get used to it!
 
 
 
 
>>> Karen/Greg Ambrose <[log in to unmask]> 02/18 1:35 PM >>>
>Karen/Greg Ambrose wrote:
>
>>  I think at the time the CCHA was formed
>> eastern teams had won only 6 out of about 30 times so the WCHA woofing was
>> justified (fortunately it is not today).
>
>Actually, we still like to woof about it (like here); we've just expanded the
>definition of "West" to include the CCHA, i.e., those teams that get sent
>to the
>West Regional if they're good.  (Don't start asking me where teams go if
>they've
>been bad.)  The Eastern conferences are still on their "Twice a Decade"
>policy.
 
I've never understood how schools in the eastern time zone (UM, Ohio St.,
MSU) can be considered western.  Must be going to the NFL school of logic
where the Arizona Cardinals are an eastern division team and the Atlanta
Falcons are a western division team.
 
 
Greg Ambrose
 
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