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