J. Michael Neal writes:
 
>Eric J. Burton wrote:
 
>>         I want to know who is saying this, is the league, or is it
>> comming out on the Internet on places like USCHO. I think this is just
>> bar room talk. I would say that the WCHA will probably let in one or two
>> more teams but I doubt there will be any more than that.
 
>Then we're going to have to find somewhere else to put teams.  It seems to me
>that Div II hockey is in the process of folding up its tent, particularly out
>here in the west.  I believe I read that the city of Bemidji has funds for a
>civic center in the bonding bill before the legislature, the one currently
>being held up over the issue of state funding for the new arena for the Wild.
>(Is it just me, or would anyone else have preferred a team name that was
>actually a noun?)  If so, this is probably the first step in going D1.
 
        Not to mention successful club programs in the West (Utah
State, Weber State, and at least one of the Arizona schools) that keep
talking about the idea of going varsity.  Diverting UNO to the CCHA
makes short term sense, since it will leave both Western leagues with
an even number of teams, but sooner or later some kind of realignment
seems inevitable.  As Michael said in another post, the teams are a
lot more spread out in the West, and having the two leagues
geographically overlap makes a lot less sense than in the East.
 
        OTOH, maybe the solution is a third Western league, kind of
like the MAAC.
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
        Learn about the NCAA selection process on the web at
       http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?pairwise
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.