Bryan ("The Commish") writes: > This is hot off the presses in this morning's Minneapolis Star > Tribune. It said that one of the prominent restructuring proposals is to > combine the WCHA and the CCHA into one conference and divide it up into > three divisions as such. . . [...] <sigh> Another "scoop" chance lost. :-) I've known about this proposal since Sunday, but for personal reasons, didn't get back to the author to get "permission" to post it here. (I'm afraid that HOCKEY-L wasn't quite as important in my life earlier this week, as I had a kidney stone... bringing new meaning to the phrase "This, too, shall pass." Fortunately, it has. :-) > The paper did not say who came up with this plan, but it is an > interesting idea nonetheless. It will be intersting to see how far this > gets at the WCHA-CCHA meetings. The proposal is from Rick Yeo, the athletic director at Michigan Tech. (Source: personal e-mail from the source. :-) He has formally submitted the proposal to the WCHA for discussion at the upcoming league meeting. Based on offline discussion, I don't think Rick has any expectation that this proposal will be accepted "as is" or in the near future. However, it WILL force plenty of discussion within both leagues, and eventually (I hope) lead to a "structure" that will be better for all of college hockey. <pure speculation alert!> I'm seriously wondering if the proposal hadn't been communicated to the CCHA board before this weeks meeting, and that's why they tabled the NMU request for now. <end of pure speculation alert> There are a few things about the proposal that concern me, and several others not resolved here that would need attention. Concerns: - The 32 game "league" schedule. I really think that if we're going to be making this much of a change, the number of league games MUST be reduced down to 30 or below. After many discussions here on HOCKEY-L, I've become a "convert" in that I think 2 nonleague games in a team's schedule is just not enough; we've got to find ways to encourage east-west cross-league play, and that just isn't going to happen with a 32 game schedule. - Future expansion or contraction: we all know that the current set of teams will not remain the same "forever". The structure needs to be flexible enough to accomidate such changes with minimal disruption. Items needing resolution: - This proposal would require yet another major overhaul of the method for awarding bids to the NCAA tournament. The HE and ECAC certainly wouldn't be happy about each "division" being treated as a seperate league under the current rules (and rightly so!) On the flip side, I don't think it would go over well with "WCCHA" teams to only have 1 set of bids for the "meta-league". (Note that I DON'T consider overhauling the current process to necessarily be a bad thing!) - Awarding of the MacNaughton cup: does it stay just within the division that Michigan Tech is in, or does it apply to the "winner" of the whole league? (This may not seem like a big issue to people outside of the WCHA, but it is. For those who do not know, the MacNaughton cup is awarded to the regular season champion of the league in which Michigan Tech plays. For anyone interested in why, I believe there's a file available from LISTSERV on this subject.) To quote another HOCKEY-L participant [anonymously, since it was in "private" e-mail, but I'm sure long-time list readers will be able to identify the source :-)... besides, I doubt said person will mind]: WHO WOULD WIN THE MAC NAUGHTON CUP?????????? Which is ABSOLUTELY the BEST TROPHY in all of HOCKEY. And I've seen the Stanley Cup....can't hold near as much beer as the MC! Like I said, a big issue for some. :-) - The makeup of the MacInnes Division. Obviously, the intent here is to keep the Michgan schools "together". However, it results in much further travel for the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio schools. That may be seen as "unfair" to them. - Breaking up of some of the "traditional" rivalries that currently exist. Would St. Cloud be happy with not having the chance to play Minnesota every year? BGSU - Michigan? Etc. Unfortunately, I think we can all agree that there would be no way to have such a division structure and still satisfy everyone on this point. That's what I can think of off the top of my head... - Garrett (Michigan Tech '84) -- Garrett Lanzy Endicott, NY HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.