UAH and CCHA - opinion

[Will]

Do you really have to ask? If the B10,er12HC forms they will request and immediately be granted a waiver of the NCAA rule. I can't say what wording they'll put in for a justification but I'm confident that it will happen.

Probably something to the effect of "We're the Big Ten, bitches."

[Josh '99]

though the Big Ten's 11 schools

It's been 20 years, and this still cracks me up.

But on a hockey-related note... back when the MAAC (predecessor to Atlantic Hockey) was created, the NCAA had a two-year waiting period that new D1 conferences had to go through before teams from that conference would be eligible for the NCAA tournament.  (This may have been a hockey-only rule, I'm not sure)  The late-lamented CHA was created a year or two (?) after the MAAC, but in the interim, IIRC, the NCAA increased this waiting period to eight years.  I remember a great deal of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth before it was determined somehow (grandfathered in?) that the CHA would only have to wait two years.  I'm wondering if the prospective BTHC would have an eight-year wait.  Given that at least most of the five other schools that would be in the BTHC are frequent tourney-qualifiers, I would guess that if this rule exists, the BTHC would find a way around it.  It would probably be considered a "re-shuffling" rather than a for-real new conference.

Was this rule a waiting period before the conference got an autobid (Autobids? Was this still during the two-autobids-per-conference era?  I can't remember.) or before the teams in the conference could qualify at-large?  I thought it was the former - didn't Niagara get an at-large bid one year when they weren't in a conference that was eligible for an autobid?  If that's the case, you'd have to figure that the usual suspects from the hypothetical BTHC (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin) would earn themselves at-large bids fairly frequently and make it not too much of an issue.

[Josh '99]

CCHA (

Miami
Notre Dame
Alaska
Northern Michigan
Ferris
Make Superior
Western Michigan
Bowling Green

That's not an awful conference for hockey (LSSU and BGSU and NMU have all won the NCAA tournament, a higher proportion than that of ECAC schools that have done so, and Miami and Notre Dame have been strong lately though without a banner to show for it), but it's pretty bad for marketing purposes, with those schools losing out on ticket sales from home dates with the Big Televen teams.  I wonder whether they could maintain some interlocking scheduling though; a conference with six teams leaves you with a lot of nonconference games.

[Trotsky]

Do you really have to ask? If the B10,er12HC forms they will request and immediately be granted a waiver of the NCAA rule. I can't say what wording they'll put in for a justification but I'm confident that it will happen.

I recall talk that if the Ivies ever broke off they'd immediately qualify for an auto bid without any waiting period.  This would be a little different, though, since the rationale was all the teams have existed for a long time, whereas PSU will be brand new to D-1.

The CCHA is going to be in tough shape.

[KeithK]

Do you really have to ask? If the B10,er12HC forms they will request and immediately be granted a waiver of the NCAA rule. I can't say what wording they'll put in for a justification but I'm confident that it will happen.

I recall talk that if the Ivies ever broke off they'd immediately qualify for an auto bid without any waiting period.  This would be a little different, though, since the rationale was all the teams have existed for a long time, whereas PSU will be brand new to D-1.

From what I've seen (linked article and elsewhere) they would wait for a couple years after PSU started playing before starting up the Big Tweleven. (PSU presumably as an independent until then.) That takes care of some of the "brand new" issue, enough for appearances anyway.

The CCHA is going to be in tough shape.

My thoughts exactly.

[jtwcornell91]

Do you really have to ask? If the B10,er12HC forms they will request and immediately be granted a waiver of the NCAA rule. I can't say what wording they'll put in for a justification but I'm confident that it will happen.

Probably something to the effect of "We're the Big Ten, bitches."

Maybe they'd give them the CCHA's bid, to add insult to injury?

[Give My Regards]

Was this rule a waiting period before the conference got an autobid (Autobids? Was this still during the two-autobids-per-conference era?  I can't remember.) or before the teams in the conference could qualify at-large?  I thought it was the former - didn't Niagara get an at-large bid one year when they weren't in a conference that was eligible for an autobid?  If that's the case, you'd have to figure that the usual suspects from the hypothetical BTHC (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin) would earn themselves at-large bids fairly frequently and make it not too much of an issue.

Right, my bad.  It was autobids that had the waiting period.  Niagara got an at-large bid in the CHA's first season as a conference, when the conference hadn't been granted an auto-bid yet.