Sandy Gholston; MLive.com --- No, I lay blame squarely at the feet of the six schools (Denver, Colorado College, North Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha, Miami and Minnesota Duluth) who formed the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (and, to a slightly lesser degree, the two schools (St. Cloud State University and Western Michigan University) who most recently pledged their hockey programs to this new conference after being extended invitations.
Those first six are to blame for, in all likelihood, jumping at the change to further define an unsavory class structure in college hockey that divides the perceived elites from those who are considered lesser programs. Once the Big Ten formed a league for hockey, one has to think these schools saw the situation as the floodgates opening to elitism in the sport. The Big Ten was destined to be viewed as an elite league in college hockey with strong television and general media exposure.
The schools that formed the NCHC felt they could not be considered elite if they were playing what they may have perceived as lesser schools (the institutions that they broke away from in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association). So, gripped by an unattractive blend of envy (for the future status of the Big Ten) and arrogance (believing they are somehow above schools like Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University, Minnesota State University and others), the schools that formed the NCHC broke off from those two packs.
Goon's World Extras
▼