WCHA Expansion Moratorium Lifted

[Chris '03]

The vote was 10-0. Bemidji will likely apply for admission soon.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=101842§ion=News

Let the realignment speculation begin.

[andyw2100]

There was an article in "The Ithaca Journal" in the past few days that discussed this topic, and the possibility of Niagara joining the ECAC. It sounded like Coach Schafer was in favor of it, but that many of the other coaches did not want to travel as far West as Niagara. Until reading the last part of the article, my thought was, "what will this mean to the travelling pair setup the ECAC has now." But a quote from Schafer makes it sound like the answer would be a 2-game series played at Niagara one year and at the other school the next year.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote Chris '03]The vote was 10-0. Bemidji will likely apply for admission soon.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=101842§ion=News

Let the realignment speculation begin.[/quote]

Likely is probably too mild they are already to do it.

[Jim Hyla]

Personally, I'm really enthusiastic about the possibility of ECAC expansion. It will require the Ivies to look at their number of games.

[Beeeej]

[quote Jim Hyla]Personally, I'm really enthusiastic about the possibility of ECAC expansion. It will require the Ivies to look at their number of games.[/quote]

"Oh, look!  A 29!"

[ithacat]

[quote andyw2100]There was an article in "The Ithaca Journal" in the past few days that discussed this topic, and the possibility of Niagara joining the ECAC. It sounded like Coach Schafer was in favor of it, but that many of the other coaches did not want to travel as far West as Niagara. Until reading the last part of the article, my thought was, "what will this mean to the travelling pair setup the ECAC has now." But a quote from Schafer makes it sound like the answer would be a 2-game series played at Niagara one year and at the other school the next year.[/quote]

That might appease some of the travel concerns -- I'd rather see RIT in the ECAC & let Niagara slide into the AHA.

[KeithK]

[quote Jim Hyla][quote Chris '03]The vote was 10-0. Bemidji will likely apply for admission soon.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=101842§ion=News

Let the realignment speculation begin.[/quote]

Likely is probably too mild they are already to do it.[/quote]
It's probably a foregone conclusion that the WCHA will accept Bemidji.  Why go through the process of lifting the moratorium if they don't plan to expand? Bemidji is the most obvious addition, has stated interest in the WCHA for years and already is a member of the women's WCHA.

With the CHA terminal that leaves Niagara, RMU and UAH homeless.  RMU and Niagara might be able to catch on somewhere as a pair although their location would be a big stumbling block.  I just don't see Huntsville fitting anywhere.  Then again, Atlantic Hockey took in Air Force so maybe UAh would work too.  AF appears to be doing the two game set, alternating years thing in AH.

[nr53]

[quote ithacat]
That might appease some of the travel concerns -- I'd rather see RIT in the ECAC & let Niagara slide into the AHA.[/quote]

What of the possibility of having both? They're near each other so they're natural traveling partners and that would also free up a slot for Alabama in the AHA.

This would of course serve to make the ECAC HUGE, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

[KeithK]

[quote nr53][Adding both Niagara and RIT] would of course serve to make the ECAC HUGE, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.[/quote]
I would be very wary of growing the ECAc beyond it's current size. The larger it gets the mroe likely that we'll end up with divisions.  Divisions probably means we play mostly Ivy teams, which increases the likelihood that someday the league would split leaving us playing in a six team Ivy League.

Maybe that's me just being overly paranoid but I really like having Cornell play in a bigger league than just the Ivies in hockey.

[Chris '03]

I'd hate to see a 14 team ECAC. It just seems to big. I'm having a hard time thinking that there's going to be much willingness for major realignment under current economic conditions though. I think it's more likely to end ugly for at least one CHA team.
Here's one reasonable way to shuffle things up within reason.

Bemidji-->WCHA (obvious)
UNO---->WCHA (makes sense as a 12th)
RMU--->CCHA (closest orphan geographically)
RIT--->ECAC (makes sense if you pull in niagara)
Niagara->ECAC (works for everyone but eastern ivies)
Union--->AHA (might they win a playoff series?)
Q-->HEA (academically an ecac outsider. Is a wanna be HEA type school)
UConn-->HEA (women already there, fits the HEA profile. there's 0 institutional support though and they'd get beat like a rented mule- they basically do in AHA)
UAH--->AHA (they've gotta go somewhere. It's them or RMU to CCHA and the other goes AHA)

WCHA-12
CCHA-12
ECAC-12
HEA- 12
AHA- 10

HEA would be most likely to balk at this or any expansion (as might some of the schools being shuffled) but it would be reasonably even and wouldn't break up the academies,  which is the key stumbling block to AFA-->WCHA. I just can't see Army going WCHA with them. Princeton and RPI would make a less than ideal travel partnership but until Penn brings back hockey Princeton is pretty isolated in NJ.

[Trotsky]

[quote KeithK]I would be very wary of growing the ECAc beyond it's current size. The larger it gets the mroe likely that we'll end up with divisions.  Divisions probably means we play mostly Ivy teams, which increases the likelihood that someday the league would split leaving us playing in a six team Ivy League.

Maybe that's me just being overly paranoid but I really like having Cornell play in a bigger league than just the Ivies in hockey.[/quote]Agreed, right down the line.

[mnagowski]

RIT--->ECAC (makes sense if you pull in niagara)

I wouldn't mind seeing RIT and Niagara in the league, especially as the game at RIT in the Blue Cross Arena last year had a rather fun atmosphere. But I suspect that RIT is trying to grow its new rivalry with Canisius.

The other thing to consider is that with the recent athletic success that UB has had, coupled with the fact that Buffalo is quickly becoming hockey obsessed, I wouldn't be surprised to see UB try to bring back Div I hockey within five to ten years.

Divisions probably means we play mostly Ivy teams, which increases the likelihood that someday the league would split leaving us playing in a six team Ivy League. Maybe that's me just being overly paranoid but I really like having Cornell play in a bigger league than just the Ivies in hockey.

I don't think I would mind seeing an Ivy-only league, especially if Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard... okay not this year... all kept up the quality of their programs and Penn considered adding a team. We would still be able to the play the traditional rivalry games against the likes of Clarkson and Colgate, and it would give us a little bit more flexibility to schedule OOC games every year. Although now that I think about it, it would be one less banner we could hang up in Lynah...

[CUontheslopes]

I'm sorry but I do not understand why people are so eager to add Niagara to the ECAC. All they'd do is weaken our already weak SOS. Niagara and RIT just are not good hockey programs over the long haul in DI. I think RIT has a chance to be competitive, but we need fewer conference games, not more. We can't get any OOC games because we have so many in conference games which fill us up to near our limit.

I love some of our rivalries in the ECAC, but I'd be just fine with an Ivy Ice Hockey Conference. We could get a better SOS with Ivy games and a lot of OOC games with better teams.

I'd really much prefer we got rid of 2 or 4 teams from the ECAC and had more strong non-conference opponents. Honestly, I miss Vermont and wish we had them back in the conference not QU and i certainly don't want Niagara or RIT.

[KeithK]

[quote CUontheslopes]we need fewer conference games, not more. We can't get any OOC games because we have so many in conference games which fill us up to near our limit.[/quote]
If we had fewer conference games we'd probably end up playing more games against ECAC teams to fill up our schedule. Look at schedules in the ECAC - you have a lot of in conference non-confs. There just aren't that many open non-conf games "available" and the other restrictions (e.g. Michigan won't travel) make it hard to schedule top teams. The situation would be better if the Ivies eliminated the late start date because it's easier to find non-conf games before the season starts.  But if we simply cut the league slate to 18 games (for instance) we wouldn't suddenly have a great SoS.

Besides, the ECAC home and home round robin is perfect.  Why would you want to mess that up just to try to game the tournament seeding process?

[Jim Hyla]

[quote CUontheslopes]I'm sorry but I do not understand why people are so eager to add Niagara to the ECAC. All they'd do is weaken our already weak SOS. Niagara and RIT just are not good hockey programs over the long haul in DI. I think RIT has a chance to be competitive, but we need fewer conference games, not more. We can't get any OOC games because we have so many in conference games which fill us up to near our limit.

I love some of our rivalries in the ECAC, but I'd be just fine with an Ivy Ice Hockey Conference. We could get a better SOS with Ivy games and a lot of OOC games with better teams.

I'd really much prefer we got rid of 2 or 4 teams from the ECAC and had more strong non-conference opponents. Honestly, I miss Vermont and wish we had them back in the conference not QU and i certainly don't want Niagara or RIT.[/quote]

I'd like it because of

Personally, I'm really enthusiastic about the possibility of ECAC expansion. It will require the Ivies to look at their number of games.

I can't imagine the Ivy coaches agreeing to expand unless they can add games to their schedule. If we already play teams like Niagara, why not have them in conference. Then if we get more games, we probably would need to start earlier like the rest of the ECAC and might schedule other strong teams.