The Ones and Zeros: One Way Western Realignment Might Happen

Please note: These are my opinions and not those of UAH Hockey, UAH Athletics, or my mother.

The prevalent rumor during the 2010 Frozen Four in St. Paul was that the full D-I schools are considering banding together against whatever befalls college hockey in a BTHC world. I think this makes sense: if the Championship Cabinet decides that schools are going to drop varsity hockey in droves but would be willing to play a D-II varsity schedule, they might sanction a Division II championship again. If this happens and I’m a D-I school, I want to be ready.

Out west, there are seven schools that are Division I across the board: Bowling Green State University, University of Denver, Miami University, University of Nebraska-Omaha, University of North Dakota, University of Notre Dame, and Western Michigan University. [Note: UNO is transitioning to D-I.]

Many have said, and I agree with them, that a ten-team league is the optimum size for hockey, as this gives you lots of scheduling flexibility. Three teams would need to be picked up to make that reality, and I’ll submit the following for consideration: Colorado College, University of Minnesota-Duluth, and St. Cloud State University. My rationale: CC has a strong rivalry with DU, UMD just won the Frozen Four, and SCSU has a good building to showcase the league.

With 10 teams in the “Division I” conference and six teams in the BTHC, you’re left with nine teams in the west: University of Alaska-Anchorage, University of Alaska (Fairbanks), University of Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji State University, Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan Tech University, Minnesota State University-Mankato, and Northern Michigan University. Having both Alaska schools left over presents a large problem in terms of travel, and the prevailing wisdom has always been that you don’t put them in one conference.

I believe that it is important to countervail the prevailing wisdom.

Again, we’re working with nine teams that are neither fish (because the BTHC stinks), fowl (because the birds have flown the WCHA and CCHA coops), nor good red meat (eastern hockey). A ten-team league is generally optimal, but the presence of both Alaska schools means that travel is a problem. I say we bump things to a 12-team league and split up the two Alaska schools. Let’s grab three teams from Atlantic Hockey: Mercyhurst College, Niagara University, and Robert Morris University. NU and RMU played in the now-defunct CHA, so they’re ready to field an 18-scholarship program, and Mercyhurst seems like they’d come up to speed quickly. The Lakers are in the footprint for something like…

West

• Anchorage
• Bemidji
• Mankato
• Tech
• Northern
• Lake State

East

• Fairbanks
• Huntsville
• Ferris
• Mercyhurst
• Niagara
• Robert Morris

Here’s my divisional Logic:

1. You have to split the Alaska schools. Putting both schools in one division makes travel costs untenable for the the four teams that would be paired with them. If you’re going to make both teams be in this conference, it really doesn’t matter if UAA or UAF is in the “east”. The WCHA schools left out in the cold (Bemidji, Mankato, Tech) will all be in one division together, so you maintain some sense of rivalry, even if the Beavers and Mavericks are relative newcomers. Yeah, UAF has to go farther for travel, but they can always smash a supertanker in half with a hockey stick and get an F16 to magically appear to carry them to the east.
2. It makes sense to have the three Upper Peninsula schools together. If you take the Alaska travel as a given, every effort should be made to have the rest of the divisions as proximal as possible.
3. In the same vein, Bemidji and Mankato should be together based on history and proximity. Because you’ve got two Minnesota schools and four Michigan schools, someone’s going to get left out, and a MN-UP pairing makes sense to me.
4. Ferris-Mercyhurst-Niagara-Robert Morris works as a grouping. Ferris is further from the other three, but it’s not awful—they could be stuck schlepping it to Bemidji.
5. Huntsville needs a place to play. C’mon, this is saveUAHhockey.com. Niagara and Robert Morris are used to the travel to Huntsville. UAH and Ferris played a home-and-home in 2010-11. Mercyhurst is coming to Huntsville on 12/30-31/2011.

How would I schedule games? I’m glad you asked!

1. Teams would play home-and-home against your division every year. This gives you 20 divisional games—five opponents, four games each—only 18 of which count against your 34-game schedule, as you’re playing a series at the Alaska school in your division.
2. Teams would play six non-division games a year: three two-game series against teams from the other division. You’ll want to do this in a way such that it minimizes travel (save for the Alaska schools, for whom travel minimization is impossible) on a year-by-year basis. As an example, Huntsville wouldn’t have to play Tech-Northern-Lake in one season if two of the three were on the road. This leads to an unbalanced home schedule, as you’ll alternate six and seven conference home dates.
3. The outcome of the cross-division travel is that you’re playing each interconference team once on the road every four years. Every fourth year, you will get another two-game exemption when you travel to the other Alaska school.

This “leftovers” conference isn’t something anyone would necessarily love. The Alaska schools now play in the same league. Bemidji and Mankato are kicked out of the WCHA, which both worked very hard to enter. Ferris loses conference games against all the nearby teams. The Atlantic Hockey teams spike their travel costs significantly.

Who likes it? Huntsville for sure, as they’re back in a league. I’d think that Tech would like it at some level, because they’ll stop getting kicked in the head continuing to play familiar teams. Mercyhurst-Niagara-Robert Morris like it at some level because they can be a full-scholarship program, and this league should have some national cachet above AH.

It’s important to remember that the driver for this would be the D-I schools in the west banding together. It’s entirely possible that they’ll do that. If that happens, the other schools in the west will need to lash their boats to each other, and this is the best situation I’ve come up for doing so.

Tags: realignment