According to the NCAA bylaws (se below) all new conferences must wait two years for an 
automatic bid while maintaining stable membership. The Women's Hockey East conference 
had to go through this and both the B1G and 'Super Conference' will have to as well. Not 
subsection (c) - no waivers of the waiting period.

Sean


31.3.4.2 Requirements-National Collegiate Championship. [#] To be eligible for automatic 
qualification in a National Collegiate Championship, a member conference must meet the 
following general requirements: (Adopted: 1/9/06 effective 8/1/06)
(a) Have at least six active members that sponsor the applicable sport in any division (Note: a 
provisional member in the process of becoming an NCAA member cannot be used to meet 
the requisite number); 
(b) The six active members must have conducted conference competition together for the 
preceding two years in the applicable sport; 
(c) There shall be no waivers of the two-year waiting period; and 
(d) Any new member added to a conference that is eligible for an automatic bid shall be 
immediately eligible to represent the conference as the automatic qualifie

On 10 Jul 2011 at 10:32, William Sangrey wrote:

> A couple thoughts,
> 
> I believe (i.e. correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think I am)
> that any league in any sport that has at least 6 eligible members is
> entitled to an auto bid in a tournament.  So if the remaining WCHA,
> CCHA teams and UAH or members of AHA reorganize into two 6 team
> leagues, they would get two auto bids, period.  Thus the net effect of
> creating the Big Ten in hockey may turn out to be fewer at-large
> (something that could become even more pronounced if the left out
> smaller western teams drop D-I hockey and the NCAA reduces the field
> size accordingly). 
Sean Pickett
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