Andy Baggot; Madison.com --- Five Western Collegiate Hockey Association schools -- Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota -- joined forces with Miami (Ohio) out of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association to form a new allegience starting in 2013-14 that was revealed last week.
One of the biggest questions has to do with how the proud and powerful WCHA allowed this to happen. Why would these premier members abruptly abandon a recognized 12-team brand to begin anew?
A college hockey source may have provided it Wednesday morning a couple hours before the presidents, athletic directors and coaches from the six schools took questions.
The source said that officials at Denver and North Dakota strongly questioned the direction of the WCHA during the annual American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Florida in May. There was sentiment to force long-time commissioner Bruce McLeod to step down, but the source said that while people from multiple schools inched up to that line, "no one crossed it.''
When the notion came up of schools possibly seceding from the WCHA instead, it was met with the threat of six-figure fines per institution.
Obviously, that didn't go over very well.
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