UAH to CCHA is not going to happen. We've reported on their site visit. It was not a "site visit" in the classic sense. It was just the CCHA commissioner going there by invitation of UAH, out of courtesy. The CCHA does not want to add expense to its teams by making them have to fly to Alabama.
As opposed to what? Flying driving to Omaha Nebraska? There isn't much of a difference in mileage. One could make the argument that UNO is a lot closer to the schools in the WCHA than the CCHA. I checked the mileage on a few of the distances of travel and this is what I came up with for distances to UAH. I don't buy that argument. That isn't the reason for not allowing UAH or it's not a very good one.
UM - UAH 651 miles
BGSU - UAH 585 miles
OSU - UAH 510 miles
MSU - UAH 672 miles
NMU - UAH 990 miles
ND - UAH 560 miles
LSSU - UAH 951 miles
NMU - UAH 657 miles
MU - UAH 442 miles
UAF - UAH 4137 miles
FSU - UAH 768 miles
Here is the distances from UNO to the various schools in the CCHA.
NMU - UNO 684 miles
UNO - MSU 672 miles
UNO - UM 692 miles
UNO - UMiami 707 miles
UNO - UAF 3270 miles
UNO - NMU 765 miles
UNO - FSU 684 Miles
UNO - ND 545 miles
UNO - OSU 781 miles
UNO - LSSU 903 miles
UNO - WMU 597 miles
You can see there isn't a lot of difference in travel miles and in some cases UAH is closer to some of the schools than UNO is. Here is some of the distances in the WCHA for comparison sake and you will see the UNO is a better fit.
UND - DU 1,029 miles
UND - C.C. 1,100 miles
C.C. - U.W. 1032 miles
C.C. - UMD 1134 miles
C.C - SCSU 1048 miles
MTU - C.C. 1342 miles
C.C. - MSU-M 918 miles
C.C. - UMN 984 miles
C.C. - UNO 609 miles
D.U. - UNO 538 miles
UND - UNO 495 miles
UNO - UMN 377 miles
UNO - UMD 528 miles
My solution:
ReplyDeleteUNO stays in the CCHA ...
Bemidji State to the WCHA ...
Air Force jumps from Atlantic Hockey to the WCHA and joins Colorado College and Denver in the state of Colorado.
Send UAH to Atlantic Hockey to replace Air Force.
Problem solved.
Air Force is not leaving the AHA for the WCHA. That solution rates up there with all the people who say that Anchorage should be kicked out. Air Force is a big fish in the Atlantic Hockey pond. They are more competitive against the teams that only offer 11 or less scholarships (they were a bottom dweller in the CHA, a full scholarship league) and they get to play four games a year against Army. They cannot recruit foreign players unless the nation the player is going to pay for the schooling at the Academy. If a player sets foot in a classroom the first day of his third year, he now has a mandatory stint in the Air Force, which scares away much of the high end talent they would need to field a competitive team in the WCHA.
ReplyDeleteNot going to happen.....
Not buying the recruitment excuse. Aside for 1-2 players here and there, Boston College has been able to win consistently with a roster almost entirely composed of US players.
ReplyDeleteFace it, regardless of which teams are included in a WCHA expansion (UAH, UNO, Bemidji St, AFA), you are going to have competitive balance issues going forward.
Boston College does not have the military commitment (five years?) that Air Force does. A lot of your high end recruits, even if they are US born players, are going to stay away from that.
ReplyDeleteAir Force is not going to be in the WCHA. They are half the reason this mess is going on when they decided they wanted to be in the same conference as Army.
ReplyDeleteMy Prediciton is that UNO will be a member of the WCHA.
I still think that Northern Michigan should be the 12th team in the WCHA.
ReplyDeleteAs an outsider looking in, it seems a bit presumptuous to think/wish that a CCHA team (UNO / UAH / Northern Michigan) would just pick up and leave for the WCHA.
ReplyDeleteThe CCHA isn't in this mess. The WCHA is, largely because the WCHA brass shut the door on the possibility of making an 11 team league work (even as a short-term measure).