Actually, according to Mapquest, it's almost the same distance from
Minneapolis to Huntsville as it is from Minneapolis to Denver.  And
Huntsville is nowhere near as far as Alaska.

I realize that travel expenses must be a huge cost for western teams that we
in the east can't even imagine and adding a trip every year to Huntsville on
top of 2 to Colorado and one to Alaska is not something a school, wants to
commit to in a severe recession.

Wasn't there some kind of deal made involving the CCHA and WCHA back when
the two Alaska schools were accepted into the established leagues?  Maybe
something like that would work again?

The trouble with the current lineup is that the ECAC and CCHA already have
12 teams, AHA will have 12 teams with the addition of RMU and Niagara.  Only
Hockey East and the WCHA have 10 each.  Hockey East doesn't seem a good fit
for Bemidji nor Alabama Huntsville (although Huntsville is only a few
hundred miles further from Boston than from Minneapolis).  Twelve seems to
be the max any league wants to have.  Otherwise they have to break into
divisions and that gets as political as realigning the leagues.

Clearly, the best choice is to have the WCHA absorb the two CHA teams.
However, that may be the best choice for college hockey.  However the people
making the decisions are WCHA coaches and athletic directors whose interests
are (1) what's best for my school and (2) whats best for the WCHA.  What is
best for college hockey comes in a distant third.

As far as re-aligning all the leagues, it is a fun exercise.  But it is very
difficult because of the factors involved. There are historic rivalries
involved, academic goals, other league involvement etc.

It would have made sense to have Harvard join Hockey East back in the '80's
but Harvard has a commitment to the Ivy League that superseded such a move.
RPI contemplated a move to Hockey East in the '90s but that meant giving up
rivalries with Clarkson, Union and Cornell.  In the end, RPI officials felt
that RPI academics were more aligned with the ECAC than with Hockey East.

So re-aligning across leagues may be a fun exercise but probably requires
more co-operation between schools and leagues than is likely to happen.

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 12:59 PM, Jim Dixon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The problem with the WCHA absorbing the remaining CHA teams (Bemidji and
> Alabama-Huntsville) is trying to convince Alabama Huntsville to move closer
> to the midwest.  I imagine that no athletic director wants to accept the
> travel to Alabama.
>
> Jim
>
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> Jim Dixon
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