Rodds Ramblings – Are Changes in College Hockey For The Better?

July 14

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Change is inevitable. Some change is good and some change isn’t, but invariably changes occur in everyday life. Such is the case in the collegiate hockey landscape as the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association will both look a whole lot different in the near future.

A short while ago it was announced that the University of Minnesota and Wisconsin would be leaving the top hockey conference in the country, the WCHA, to join Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State in a newly formed Big 10 Hockey Conference.

With the departure of two of the top programs in the WCHA came decisions by the remaining schools of the league. At some point or another, a decision was made by the University of Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha, Denver and Colorado College of the WCHA and Miami University of the CCHA to leave their respective leagues and begin a new Super Conference. Those six schools have also extended invitations to Notre Dame and Western Michigan both of which are also current members of the CCHA.

Once Minnesota and Wisconsin decided to leave the WCHA the domino effect began and changes to the college hockey landscape started to take effect. A lot of questions remain about how this will now affect the remaining schools of the WCHA and CCHA, and believe me; I am guessing the transitions of both of those conferences will continue.

For 17-years I did the play-by-play of UMD hockey on KDAL-Radio in Duluth. I was lucky enough to do games at some of the oldest buildings in the league prior to them being torn down, and I was also fortunate enough to broadcast games from all the new super arenas that were built in the not too distant past. I was able to do games at the new rinks in Colorado Springs, Denver, North Dakota, Minneapolis, St. Cloud and the list goes on. That part of change was good. I do however have my concerns about how this new change will be difficult for some of the smaller schools.

Schools like Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State will have, and already do have, far larger resources available to run their athletic programs. The UMD’s of the world, which include; Colorado College, Denver, Omaha and North Dakota may not be on the same tier financially as the Big 10 schools, but they have enough resources to stay competitive in the college hockey world. However, I wonder if Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidji State and Michigan Tech will have enough financial backing to stay as a viable option for incoming athletes.

Once the WCHA loses Minnesota, Wisconsin, UMD, Colorado College, Denver, Omaha and North Dakota the league will be a skeleton of what it once was. Teams like Bemidji that fought for years to get into the WCHA will suddenly be strapped to find quality games and that can be the death knell of a program. Remember, the first obligation for a team in a conference is to play other teams in their conference. Assuming that Notre Dame and Western Michigan join the new Super Conference you will have a new eight school league. That means each team in the new conference would have seven league opponents. If each team is required to play every other team in the league in two series, one series of two games at their home rink and the other series of two games on the road, then you already have 28 games for each team and that would leave very little room for playing outside your conference schedule.

If you are the coach at UMD or one of the other new Super Conference teams which teams from other leagues would you want to play? Your bigger pay days will come by playing Minnesota or Wisconsin, not in playing Bemidji and Mankato. My point is that the smaller schools, who are not in the Big 10 conference or the new Super Conference, will all suffer the effects. Not only will the schools from the WCHA suffer, but also the other schools that remain in the CCHA will also have issues finding teams to play.

There is also now talk of Northern Michigan departing the CCHA and heading back to the WCHA where they played for many years. The move by Northern Michigan would help Michigan Tech which is a natural rival of the Wildcats.

I would assume that from a UMD stand point there will be a large change in travel costs. Instead of taking a bus to the vast majority of their games they will now end up flying to most of their destinations. In the past the Bulldogs would drive to Mankato, St. Cloud, Bemidji, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Michigan Tech and North Dakota and they would fly to Anchorage, Colorado College, Omaha and Denver. The only conference team in easy driving distance in the new Super Conference will be North Dakota. The Dogs could elect, as they have a few times in the past, to drive to Omaha, but that is a lengthy trip during the worst time of the year to drive. Essentially the Bulldogs would most likely have to fly to Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Omaha, Colorado, Denver and Miami and this all at a time when air travel is at an all-time high and budgets are being squeezed.

Unfortunately the move of the Big 10 schools has had a huge impact on every other team in just about every other league in the country. In theory, the Big 10 Conference for hockey is a good one, but in reality it is not. The reality is that many of the teams that play basketball and football in the Big 10 do not have hockey programs. Schools like; Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana and Purdue do not field Division One programs and some do not even field a club team. That leaves the Gophers, Badgers, Spartans, Nittany Lions, Buckeyes and Wolverines as a six team conference. Of those six programs only four are considered legitimate contenders on an annual basis. Obviously with a start-up program at Penn State, and a new rink on campus, they could also be a top contender in the future, but that remains to be seen.

To me an easier solution would have been for the WCHA and CCHA to stay as they were and for Penn State to join either the Hockey East conference or the ECAC where they have natural local rivals and would not have to travel as far to play their games. Now it appears that some teams will lose their natural local rivalries and have to travel further to play games. To me it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but time will tell whether these are good moves or not and hockey fans will have to just need to have a wait-and-see type of attitude.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com