Time for a radical proposal from someone who should know better.  :-)
 
When Niagara goes to join a league, maybe they ought to consider the
*CCHA*.  (WHAT????  No, I'm NOT joking.)
 
I have several reasons for making such a proposal:
 
- In many respects, the people of Buffalo area (and much of western
  New York) "align" themselves with places west rather than east.
  (Buffalo is much more like Cleveland or Detroit than Albany or
  Boston.  And that's not meant as an insult, as I grew up in Detroit!
  Remember, they say "pop", not "soda"... that alone gives them honorary
  Midwesterner citizenship.  :-)  My "gut feeling" is that Michigan
  would be a bigger draw in the Buffalo area than Princeton (no offense
  intended to Princeton!)
 
- Until recently, Kent State was geographically the easternmost team in
  the CCHA.  Niagara is only about 2 hours further east than Kent State
  (given the new 65mph speed limits in NY and PA).
 
- Travel would be VERY easy for the southern MI CCHA teams (it's only about
  a 4 hour drive across southern Ontario from Ann Arbor to Niagara.)  Other
  than the Alaska trip, the farthest would be UIC and Lake Superior, both
  about 10 hour drives.  That's not a huge difference from some of the
  potential ECAC or HE travel.
 
- With the loss of Kent State, the CCHA may be open to accepting another
  team.
 
As always, there's always minuses:
 
- Niagara's new coach is "eastern-affiliated", so would probably much more
  strongly consider an eastern league.
 
- I have no idea what the alumni and administration at Niagara would think
  about this idea.
 
- The Alaska trip would be potentially a big burden on a program in it's
  infancy.
 
In any case, I think this is an option that the Niagara program should
think about.  With the potential that they could consider 3 different
leagues, they may have some more leverage in their "negotiations".
 
- Garrett (who will be waiting for incoming scuds from the east :-)
 
--
Garrett Lanzy        Endicott, NY
 
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