Wait a minute here-- don't teams fly charter to and from Alaska now?  If
they do, then a school doesn't need to be near a big airport to be able to
receive the Nanooks.  Lake Superior has Sault, Ontario, as well as an airport
big enough to handle Air Force One (Chippewa Co., where Bush visited in '92).
Western MI has Kalamazoo-- real planes land there.  Real planes can also land
in Lansing (though for economic reasons I think the airlines now fly commuter
ones).  Kent is near Cleveland and Akron.  Miami is near Cincinnati.  South
Bend is near Chicago.  Big Rapids seems like the worst place, but it's not
that far from Kalamazoo.  Sure, flying will be more difficult, but it beats
bussing from Sault Ste. Marie to Oxford, I'd bet (or even the Soo to almost
anywhere else, given the weather conditions prevalent during hockey season).
So this can be worked out, if the CCHA wants to.  I think Keith hit the big
obstacle there-- many smaller schools will rather play other league members
with "names" (Notre Dame, Michigan, MSU) than Alaska-Fairbanks.  (Some schools
can sell any game, some cannot.)  I still don't know why the league could think
that Fairbanks would settle for affiliate status for more than a short time.
It looks like they let them in to avoid figuring out how to play an 11-team
tournament.
     Now, if schools do actually fly commercial flights, well, what I've said
won't apply.  But it seems like they couldn't-- how easy would it be to get
from Anchorage to Grand Forks or Houghton?
 
--Chris Paine
MSU '90 & '93