It looks like a new round of hockey conference realignment. Seven of the ten men's teams are leaving the Western College Hockey Association (WCHA) It looks like the women's teams are standing pat. The seven teams are planning to form a new conference by the 2022-2023 season. The three remaining schools (Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska- Fairbanks, and Alabama-Huntsville) have been consistently low performing which hurts the pairwise standings of the other schools and has limited the number at-large bids to the NCAA tournament from the WCHA. Increased travel cost to these cost to these three schools is also a factor.
https://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athletics/2019/06/28/wcha-teams-want-to-leave-uaa-uaf-behind/
It looks like a new round of hockey conference realignment. Seven of the ten men's teams are leaving the Western College Hockey Association (WCHA) It looks like the women's teams are standing pat. The seven teams are planning to form a new conference by the 2022-2023 season. The three remaining schools (Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska- Fairbanks, and Alabama-Huntsville) have been consistently low performing which hurts the pairwise standings of the other schools and has limited the number at-large bids to the NCAA tournament from the WCHA. Increased travel cost to these cost to these three schools is also a factor.
https://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athletics/2019/06/28/wcha-teams-want-to-leave-uaa-uaf-behind/
Sucks for the other schools, but it does make a lot of sense for the 7 leaving. I could imagine just the travel costs alone would be worth it, most of these are smaller schools and their athletic budgets probably aren't very large.
The Alaska state budget situation is another factor that impacts this. The whole athletic programs at both schools could be gone if the governor has his way. Penn State has a home series scheduled with Alaska-Fairbanks this season. I presume that means they'll travel to Fairbanks next season. I wonder if those arrangements will be impacted by the budget.
Alabama-Huntsville was an independent prior to the last wave of realignments. I guess they'll go back to that or join Atlantic Hockey, but the Atlantic Hockey teams already have to travel to Air Force. Adding another long distance trip can bust their budgets.
In the articles that I have read, there is speculation as to whether the seven teams from the WCHA will end up in the same conference in two years or form a new smaller subset of the old CCHA. If Miami (OH) and Western Michigan from the NCHC swap with Bermidji State and Minnesota State from the WCHA. Then the new conference would be based entirely in Michigan and Ohio. The downside to this is that the NCHC has put 3 or more teams in the tournament each year and thus done better financially.
In the articles that I have read, there is speculation as to whether the seven teams from the WCHA will end up in the same conference in two years or form a new smaller subset of the old CCHA. If Miami (OH) and Western Michigan from the NCHC swap with Bermidji State and Minnesota State from the WCHA. Then the new conference would be based entirely in Michigan and Ohio. The downside to this is that the NCHC has put 3 or more teams in the tournament each year and thus done better financially.
Interesting... we all know how it would go with Football, they would care less about geography and more about $$$$
However, in this case who knows how much each hockey program even makes (or loses)... the overall benefit could be in travel cost. I believe it would probably be better for fans and rivalries though.
Bowling Green would be the primary old rival that both Miami and Western Michigan would pick up. They're all MAC schools and the rest of the schools are D-II. They won't have Michigan, Michigan State, or Ohio State in-conference like the old days. However, Miami has been playing a home-and-home against Ohio State the last few years. Western Michigan gets to play the in-state "big boys" in the Great Lakes Invitational.
As you say, the biggest advantage would be reduced travel costs. The new conference Michigan-Ohio would be bus trips for all members. The trip between Oxford, OH and Houghton, MI would be a long one, but it has to be a lot cheaper than flying to games in Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
The other question is even if the four schools don't "flip" conferences, will the new conference add an eighth member? A conference having an odd number of members is awkward for scheduling, as the B1G is experiencing. Also, more members can add to the opportunities for at-large bids. If they add members, the four most likely candidates would be from Atlantic Hockey (Mercyhurst, Robert Morris, Niagara, and Canisius). These are in nearby states in the Great Lakes. Atlantic Hockey is generally considered a weak conference and they just got rid of the three weakest teams in their old conference. Mercyhurst and Robert Morris have had some recent hockey success.
The next two years will be interesting to watch.
Roam, I just came across a story on a site called stateofhockey.com. This guys takes the approach of realigning conferences like you are fond of doing. The chances that much, if any, of this happens is not very likely. But it is an interesting read.
https://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/1035760
Roam, I just came across a story on a site called stateofhockey.com. This guys takes the approach of realigning conferences like you are fond of doing. The chances that much, if any, of this happens is not very likely. But it is an interesting read.
https://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/1035760
Interesting read, thanks! I do feel the author is right that the western teams will have a hard time staying relevant if the don't for some sort of coalition out there. Maybe not the powers like Denver... but the rest of them
The whole reason for forming the NCHC was to put the best teams from two conferences (sans the B1G schools) in one conference to maximize the number of NCAA Tournament bids. It's worked very well so far by getting 3-6 teams in the tournament each year since the conference began. They've also won the last four Frozen Fours. However, I wonder if they can keep up that pace. The WCHA shedding the three weakest performers is going to change things. I don't see the current teams in the NCHC wanting to pick up both Alaska teams for travel costs and their lack of competitiveness.
Denver would probably like to have Air Force in the same conference. But Air Force wants to be in the same conference with Army. That's why the strange alignment of Air Force in Atlantic Hockey. There probably isn't any rule that says two teams can't play four nonconference regular season games in the same season. Why not play two games at Air Force and two games at Army in the same season? They can still claim bragging rights, but be more geographically aligned.
The October 17-18 series against Alaska-Fairbanks is safe for now. It looks like the two Alaska schools will both play hockey this year. However, if they play in future years, consolidation will likely result in a reduction in sports programs. It sounds like one hockey team. I wonder if they will play all home games in one location or split them between campuses? I also wonder what this will do to the breakup of the WCHA? Does it speed up the process? Having only one team in Alaska reduces the conference visits to Alaska.
The October 17-18 series against Alaska-Fairbanks is safe for now. It looks like the two Alaska schools will both play hockey this year. However, if they play in future years, consolidation will likely result in a reduction in sports programs. It sounds like one hockey team. I wonder if they will play all home games in one location or split them between campuses? I also wonder what this will do to the breakup of the WCHA? Does it speed up the process? Having only one team in Alaska reduces the conference visits to Alaska.
I'd be surprised if they split the games between Anchorage and Fairbanks... one is remote and the other is a relatively big city. Anchorage also has double the student population.
It just would not make sense, if they are indeed becoming one unified school, to have games at the smaller campus in the smaller community.
I hear what you are saying, but somehow they will need to keep a connection between the two campuses. Anchorage currently has 13 sports and Fairbanks has 10. NCAA requires 10 sports to maintain Division II status. Perhaps they divvy them up between the two campuses (5 & 5, 6 & 4, 7 & 3, etc.) based on various criteria (past success, tradition, student population, etc.). However, I'm guessing for a few sports that even though a particular sport may be assigned primarily to a particular campus, they may still play a few games/events at the other campus to maintain the connection.
According to USCHO.com. hockey goes back to 1925 at Fairbanks. Alaska-Anchorage wasn't established until 1954, as a community college. Hockey started in 1979 at Anchorage. So, I don't see Fairbanks giving up college hockey in some form very easily.
A new mascot is also likely: grizzlies, polar bears, prospectors, etc.
Here's a bit of a headscratcher. Alaska Fairbanks just signed a 5-year deal with Nike. One has to assume that Nike knows about the situation with the state budget and hockey conference realignment. I'm guessing that there is language in the contract and an understanding of what will happen under various scenarios.
https://www.webcenter11.com/content/sports/UAF-inks-5-year-deal-with-Nike-517214131.html
Here's the thing though, they aren't going to be separate schools with separate campuses anymore. If I'm reading it right, they want to be all considered one school, not separate.
To me that means it doesn't matter which campus the sport is being played on, since it's all the same school. This setup is different from Penn State University Park and Penn State Altoona. It would be as if Penn State UP and Penn State Altoona where the same school with the same students.
So I don't know if the NCAA rules specify the whole campus thing if the school is completely unified. I am guessing that Fairbanks would be allowed to have less than 10 sports because they really aren't alaska-fairbanks anymore... they would just be University of Alaska, kind of like "West campus" at UP. Still the same school, just divided into a different area
Here's an article from collegehockeynews.com in which the Fairbanks head coach and athletic director put a positive spin on the situation. In general, I tend to find this site to have a little more depth and slightly better quality reporting than other main source (uscho.com). Since there isn't a whole lot of sources for college hockey out there, I take whatever I can get.
https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2019/08/06_Alaska-Nanooks-Staying-Optimistic.php
One thing that I found interesting was that Alaska schools pay travel expenses to Alaska for other teams. I had heard that was true in the past, but didn't realize that was still going on. I also didn't realize this applied to teams in the same conference. I believe teams that travel to Alaska get to play two extra games that season (36 vs. 34 games). There are still the time disruption issues. But there are some advantages for other teams to play Alaska schools from time to time. Perhaps playing as independents may not be so bad from a scheduling standpoint. The one major disadvantage is they lose the opportunity to play more games in a conference tournament and to win an automatic bid to NCAA tournament.
One thing that I found interesting was that Alaska schools pay travel expenses to Alaska for other teams. I had heard that was true in the past, but didn't realize that was still going on. I also didn't realize this applied to teams in the same conference. I believe teams that travel to Alaska get to play two extra games that season (36 vs. 34 games). There are still the time disruption issues. But there are some advantages for other teams to play Alaska schools from time to time. Perhaps playing as independents may not be so bad from a scheduling standpoint. The one major disadvantage is they lose the opportunity to play more games in a conference tournament and to win an automatic bid to NCAA tournament.
Interesting... kinda like the rules for Hawaii in football (if those are still around)
It looks like a new round of hockey conference realignment. Seven of the ten men's teams are leaving the Western College Hockey Association (WCHA) It looks like the women's teams are standing pat. The seven teams are planning to form a new conference by the 2022-2023 season. The three remaining schools (Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska- Fairbanks, and Alabama-Huntsville) have been consistently low performing which hurts the pairwise standings of the other schools and has limited the number at-large bids to the NCAA tournament from the WCHA. Increased travel cost to these cost to these three schools is also a factor.
https://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athletics/2019/06/28/wcha-teams-want-to-leave-uaa-uaf-behind/
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