On Mon, 15 Apr 1996, Nathan Boyle wrote:
 
> Thing question I have is this:  If UAF swaps leagues with MTU, or if UAF
> simply joins the WCHA with no replacement in the CCHA, could the WCHA
> avoid some of the travel problems (that is to say possibly having to make
> two trips to Alaska) by going to divisions?
 
Well, *if* UAF goes to the WCHA (which, by the way, I don't think I have
heard even as a rumor from any official source, unlike the possible move
by NMU to the CCHA), that would open up a whole bucket of worms.
 
It would, as Nathan pointed out, mean that some schools would have to
travel to Alaska twice a season, which is simply unacceptable. Talk to
players who make that trip once a year, and they will tell you once is
almost too much. I am somewhat in awe of the Alaska players who make the
trip *from* Alaska on a regular basis.
 
So is there a way to have schools travel to Alaska just once a season,
yet still get in the games that a schedule would require? Depends on the
schedule.
 
One way would see teams playing just one Alaska school every year. As it
stands now, there are two teams that each WCHA team only plays two games
with, as opposed to four with the other seven.
 
What if one of these two teams was always one of the two Alaska schools?
Then each team would only have to play Alaska schools (in Alaska) once.
This, unfortunately, creates a wildly unbalanced schedule. People already
complain about the way things are now, when a school like Duluth has just
one series, not two with Denver and Colorado College, which is what
happened this season. How would the Alaska schools be ranked in
conference, with many fewer games than anyone else? This is clearly not
the way to go.
 
Someone (I believe it was John Haeussler) suggested that to free up more
nonconference games in the WCHA (which we all want, by the way), that the
WCHA go to playing three games against each opponent rather than four.
Someone else suggested travel partners to make such a thing feasible.
 
It would seem to make perfect sense to make UAA and UAF travel partners,
since they are from the same state, much like Denver and Colorado College.
 
The problem with is that the two schools are 400 miles apart, despite
being in the same state. To give some sense of that distance, that is
like making Maine and Providence travel partners: the two schools that
are the furthest apart in Hockey East are about the same distance apart
as UAA and UAF. Compare to Denver and CC, which are about an hour, maybe
and hour and a half apart.
 
Then someone else suggested the WCHA could break into two divisions: East
and West, with the Alaska schools in the West. Play four games with
schools in your division, and just two other wise.
 
This works well for the teams in the WCHA East (if there were such a
thing), as they are all practically within shouting distance.
 
For the WCHA West, travel is a nightmare. CC, Denver, Nebraska, Anchorage
and Fairbanks (or maybe North Dakota instead of Nebraska)? The schedule
would call for four games in Alaska (two trips for three or four teams),
as well as the travel elsewhere.
 
There might, however, be some way to schedule the trip to Alaska (for the
schools that have to make it) over two weeks, either at Christmas or
Spring breaks, whenever schools have an extra week off. They could stay
for the whole week and tour the tundra (much in the same way Fairbanks
stayed south when they had back-to-back series in the lower 48 with CCHA
foes).
 
But this raises an additional issue: if there are going to be a different
number of games played against each opponent, why bother calling it a
conference? Why not split into a WCHA and a EMWCHA (Even More Western
Collegiate Hockey Association). With a nearly balancing schedule that the
WCHA employs now, I can see fudging it a little bit (although I don't
like), but with the other system, I don't see any reason to even pretend
they are in the same conference.
 
Ideally, we need some more western teams to go DivI. I am very pleased to
hear that Nebraska and Niagara are moving up, and excited about the
recent talk of some of the SUNY schools (maybe a whole conference?), but
the WCHA would be a lot easier to manage without Denver, CC, and UAA. Add
Nebraska, and things are nearly ideal.
 
If an Arizona school were to move up, and maybe a California school or
two, there could be a real, honest to godness WESTERN conference,
although travel in that conference would still be hell.
 
The WCHA would consist of:
Mankato State
Michigan Tech
Minnesota
Minnesota-Duluth
Nebraska Omaha
North Dakota
St. Cloud
Wisconsin
 
all of which are centered around the state of Minnesota, just like the
CCHA is centered (more or less) around the state of Michigan, and Hockey
East is centered (more or less) around the state of Mass, and the ECAC
is centered (again, more or less) around the state of New York.
 
An eight team conference seems much easier to handle than a larger
conference, in terms of playoff numbers, leaving room for expansion, etc.
A closer conference could get away with three games per opponent with
travel partners. There is room if NDSU or Bemidji St. want to move up, etc.
 
The EMWCHA would consist of:
Colorado College
Denver
Alaska Anchorage
Alaska Fairbanks
 
and a couple of more western schools. The small size allows for easier
travel, allowing more non-conference games while still maintaining four
games per conference opponent, room for expansion, etc.
 
But this isn't going to happen. Why not? Well, I can think of two
main reasons (and there are probably many more less obvious ones):
 
1) There are no other western teams, and four schools is too small for
their own conference.
 
2) The WCHA wouldn't want to throw away the tradition of Denver and
Colorado College, who have been in the league forever and a day.
 
As I see it, there are no easy answers to the scheduling questions. Every
plan that has been suggested has flaws, at least as many as the system
now in place. Expansion is the only way out of the problem that I can see.
 
                                -Lee-nerd
                                [log in to unmask]
 
 
"It is not written in the stars that I will always understand what is
going on - a truism that I often find damnably annoying."
                                -Robert Heinlein
 
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