The question was posed regarding why 9 of 11 CCHA ADs would vote to put UAF
in the CCHA as a full-time member.  Well, here goes an argument, though I'm
not sure it's conclusively for full membership:
 
The NCAA limits Div I teams to 34 regular season games, HOWEVER, games played
in Alaska don't count toward the limit.  That's why the WCHA teams all have
36 games (the two @ Alaska-Anchorage "didn't count").  If the ADs saw merit in
playing the extra game or two, they could get them easily by admitting UAF.
 
Maybe some stat-minded hockey-l'er out there can come up with a correlation
between playing more/less games and success in the NCAA tournament.  A good
place to start would be ECAC teams compared to just about everybody else, but
CCHA and WCHA teams in specific.  I haven't looked at the stats, but I seem to
remember some memorable falls by Colgate, Harvard, and RPI (though I admit
I also remember some triumphs by those same teams!!).
 
I also heard some rumors a while ago about the NCAA trying to arm-twist some
west-coast schools that run successful club-level hockey programs or have
strong IM hockey interest into joining Div I, then realigning those schools
with Denver and CC out of the WCHA (possibly North Dakota too?).  I think
there would also be some other CCHA ==> WCHA movement in that case too.
Anybody heard anything about that?   FYI, the west coast teams I heard (that I
remember) were CS-Northridge, and Arizona.  There were others, but I forgot.
 
Steve G