What exactly is an ideal size for a sports league?  I suspect that it would
be some even number between 8 and 12.  Less than 8 is small potatoes, more
than 12 is bursting at the seams.  Odd numbers, of course, cause interesing
scheduling problems.
 
Division I hockey is expanding.  Some teams are being added in the East
(like Niagara), but most expansion seems to be West of the Mississippi.  Of
course, the South may eventually get in the act, too.  As someone else so
aptly pointed out, the teams have to go somewhere.
 
The only logical solution, at least to me, is not to expand current CCHA and
WCHA membership significantly, but to reorganize with a new league.  We have
the MACC now.  How about an MCHA (Mountain)?  To accomplish this, however,
would require that some teams currently in the WCHA and CCHA realign.
 
Anytime you split a league, you inevitably will cause a great gnashing and
wailing about a treasured rivalry that gets less play.  But so what?  You
can form new hated rivals, and if the league size is kept down to more
manageable numbers, like 8 teams, you can still play a full home and home
schedule while leaving some games open for those special rivalries.
 
Hence, I would suggest AA, AF, CC, Denver, and Air Force to make a nucleus
of a further west league with some more additions - which could include UNO
or Mankato, or Bemidji, or maybe some other program that wants to upgrade.
The WCHA could drop to 8 teams, so that you would have two Western 8-team
leagues, either of which could expand by a couple as needs dictate.  No, I
don't have a list of who should be in those leagues.  But I do want to
suggest that a failure to realign is going to create a patchwork geography
out west that makes no sense at all.  The idea of UNO in the CCHA when they
are geographically in the middle of the WCHA is ludicrous - but then so is
AF in the CCHA.
 
Hey, folks, we've done it before (split off new leagues, that is) - I think
its time we do it again.  And I urge the powers that be (like sure, they're
all reading this saying "Oh- why didn't I think of that?") to consider that
there are actual advantages to smaller leagues.  The only real problem crops
up in the restricted 12 team playoff picture.  But, of course, if we could
expand that to 16, a lot of those problems would be addressed.
 
 
Tom Rowe                                     [log in to unmask]
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