College hockey trips itself again...

Here is another great article by Tim Schmitt of the Niagara Gazette. I think there are some really good points to this article. It’s funny that after almost one week we still really have only have on record UAF A.D. Forrest Karr comments about ‘some of the CCHA schools having concerns about UAH’s lack of commitment, location and wanting to shore up the other CCHA schools first’ Yeah! A week later it still sounds pretty weak to me and I know I am not alone.

Finally, I am not sure that college hockey is to this point though, when Schmitt says that "the NCAA needs to step in and reorganize the sport’s governing board and insist that the game is bigger than any one school’s financial well-being." While I do agree with that philosophy, I doubt the NCAA would ever step in and do that. For the most part the NC$$ kind of takes a laissez-faire approach when dealing with member schools. Nor would I want the NCAA to step in.

Soon after the Purple Eagles reluctantly jumped to Atlantic Hockey — a league that offers fewer scholarships and plays in significantly smaller buildings — the WCHA admitted two new members in longtime Niagara rival Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha.

Both made perfect sense — Bemidji has committed to building a new rink, and it essentially told the WCHA if it didn’t get in, the facility wouldn’t get built and the program could die. Omaha, meanwhile, plays in the 16,000-seat Qwest Center and fits in geographically.

That left one College Hockey America team to be spoken for — Alabama-Huntsville — and the CCHA with an odd number of teams.

Perfect, right? UAH could slide into the CCHA, evening things up for scheduling purposes.

That’s when logic stopped in its tracks. The league’s members snubbed the program, very possibly starting a slow walk to the end of the school’s college hockey plank.

And why?

“Some people had concerns about a lack of commitment,” Alaska athletics director Forrest Karr told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Plans are in the works to renovate the Von Braun Center — a barn that holds almost 7,000 for hockey and draws decent crowds. Danton Cole, a former Michigan State star who played seven seasons in the NHL, is UAH’s high-profile coach. And among those often in attendance are Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, whose son Wyatt is a goalie for the Chargers.

While the NHL will do anything to keep a hockey team in a non-traditional hockey market (Phoenix) simply on the pretense that it’s “good for the game,” college hockey seems eager to rid itself of a non-traditional market that’s making a concerted effort.

We’ve said this before and it’s worth repeating — college hockey’s self-serving board has made growth impossible. The NCAA needs to step in and reorganize the sport’s governing board and insist that the game is bigger than any one school’s financial well-being. [Niagara Gazette]