It’s Been a Year

Remember last summer, when the CCHA kicked UAH in the teeth? That was August 11.

This August, the CCHA is admitting that they’re interested in Penn State possibly becoming the 12th member of the league. Some folks are not happy about that, as it leaves UAH twisting in the wind while a hole that many in the college hockey community felt the Chargers could fill gets taken by a school with a proud club hockey tradition but no varsity experience and no viable, D-I quality arena. Count us among the number of people who are not amused.

In the last year, I’ve heard from a few people that I’d consider “in the know” about off-the-record conversations they’ve had with folks affiliated with CCHA member institutions. The impression that I’ve generally gotten about UAH being denied admission comes down to three points:

1. Cost was a concern for the smaller CCHA schools. Many chose to compare the travel cost to what it took for those member schools to make it to Nebraska-Omaha, which joins the WCHA for this season. While we consider that a fair comparison, it’s clear to us that the CCHA member schools looked at the Mavericks’ move as a fait accompli, and rather than looking at substituting UAH for UNO, they looked at the cost of UAH being in the league as an additional expense, as UNO’s move reduced their costs. It’s certainly one way to look at it, even if you don’t agree with the thought process. It’s also important to remember that the smaller CCHA schools are all public schools in Ohio and Michigan; both states are having a hard time economically-speaking.
2. There was plenty of concern that Bowling Green’s program would no longer be viable, which would potentially leave the CCHA with 11 members if UAH had joined. We largely rejected this argument, but it can be made.
3. Last but not least, CCHA member schools were aware that are a part of the Big Te(leve)n knew that the conference was going to consider expansion this summer. Yes, yes, we’re talking about the much-maligned, but never-really-goes-away “Big Ten Hockey Conference”. If you’ve never read about this, here’s the Cliff’s Notes: if six B10/11 member schools play in a varsity sport, they are allowed to play it under the auspices of the Big Ten. The various proposals for 2010 NCAA conference realignment had Notre Dame moving to the B10/11 as a part of that process. Obviously, this did not happen, but it was a strong possibility this time last August. If Notre Dame joined the Big Ten, that would make six conference schools playing varsity hockey: Minnesota and Wisconsin from the WCHA, and Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State from the CCHA. If those six schools decided to form a BTHC, they would forego an automatic qualifier for at least one [and possibly two; I am not up on the details] season while the conference met eligibility rules for the AQ. The now-defunct CHA had to wait for its AQ, but eventually got it. The BTHC schools, however, are all big enough powers that they’d stand a reasonable chance of making the NCAA tournament as quasi-independents while the league became eligible for an automatic berth.

Obviously, only the first point remains: that Huntsville is an expensive, out-of-the-way place for travel. UAH offered to offset that cost with a yearly payment to the league, widely believed to be $70,000 per year to the league office for its distribution. [This number has never been put officially on the record; suffice it to say that we have good sources on this number.] Considering that 1) this would come out to >$10k for each member school that had to travel to Huntsville each season, 2) the CCHA could distribute it unevenly towards the smaller schools if it chose, and 3) UNO provided no such funding to the league, we consider the financial argument to be a red herring. The larger issue seems to be that, well, the CCHA doesn’t want UAH for its own reasons. We don’t have to like that, but we do have to live with it.

We’ve been quite careful over the last year to express our displeasure with the CCHA’s decision in a respectful manner. If they jump on Penn State going varsity in lieu of accepting a potential future bid by UAH to join the conference, well … we probably won’t be so nice.

What’s a UAH fan to do in the meantime? How about loving the schedule we do have as an independent and supporting our Chargers. If folks want to argue that we don’t support our team, this is the year to prove them wrong. You can’t argue anymore that “no one wants to go see crappy CHA opponents in the VBC” or “we’re tired of seeing the same teams over and over”, because now there is no conference to feed us teams. Sure, BSU and RMU return to Huntsville this year, but they’re not league opponents anymore, and they’re helping the program out by making sure we have a full schedule. Rather than lamenting seeing the Beavers or Colonials four times a season, enjoy it twice and make it special.

Save the Tom Anastos voodoo dolls for the possibility that the Nittany Lions do go varsity.