Say it isn't so: the WCHA has a credibility problem

WCHA Ref Todd Anderson
No, stop, it can't be true. I think this is a serious issue that is finally coming to a head, however, it took one of the Big Ten Schools getting screwed over before anyone finally decided to take a stand. Maybe now we can get something to finally stick the league office. Like Kevin Allenspach
said no one cared when it happened to SCSU. Let me tell you Kevin we got your back, there are many of us that are steaming mad about it and we want some heads to roll, we will not go away and we will keep bringing the issue up.

Tom Oates: WCHA wants to be big-time, but still acts small
It has won five of the last six NCAA titles, nine of its 10 teams were ranked in the top 20 poll just last week and its programs are regularly raided for talent by the NHL.

But if the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is, as it often proclaims, the premier men's college hockey league in the nation, why does it routinely act like it is a municipal softball league in McFarland?

Why do its bylaws fail to cover crisis situations? Why can't its referees get calls right even with television replays? Why do its leaders vanish when people need answers the most?

A better question is this: How can anyone take college hockey seriously when its premier league is run like a mom-and-pop store in a Wal-Mart world?

The latest blow to the WCHA's image came Friday night when referee Randy Schmidt disallowed a last-second, game-tying goal by the University of Wisconsin in a 3-2 loss at Denver. By now you know the gory details, so I'll spare you the explanation. Let's just say that Schmidt had college hockey's most advanced TV replay capability at his disposal and failed to use it properly.

Schmidt apparently was the only person in the arena who couldn't figure out that UW had scored, a notion that was confirmed the next day when the WCHA admitted he had made a mistake, saying, "The league regrets the error, and acknowledges that the goal should have counted."

WCHA officials thought that would end the issue, which shows how out of touch they really are. Sorry, but it's not that easy to dismiss such an egregious error, in part because the same referee had been involved in a similar incident earlier this season and in part because the loss of even one point could damage UW's NCAA tournament chances in a year when it hosts an NCAA regional.

"It would appear from what people ... on the street are saying, the league's image right now is a little tainted," UW coach Mike Eaves said Monday.

Eaves was choosing his words carefully, but the league's soiled image and lack of leadership and vision was on display again Saturday night when, incredibly, Schmidt was allowed to referee the second game of the series. League officials made that decision even though they had another crew doing a series in nearby Colorado Springs and could easily have switched the two.

But that's not the only bush-league action by the WCHA recently. Two weeks ago, UW had to play a key series against Colorado College without three of its best players, who, like others in the league, were participating in the World Junior Championships. Predictably, UW couldn't buy a goal in the series, losing twice by a combined score of 5-1.

Can you imagine any other college sport scheduling league games when it knew its teams would be losing their best players to another competition?

Meanwhile, UW has appealed to the WCHA to declare Friday's game a tie, which, at this late date, is a reasonable solution. A better solution would have been to play an overtime period the next day.

Unfortunately, league officials couldn't or wouldn't make that decision. No surprise there, which is why the WCHA needs this word of advice: If you want to be big league, start acting like it.