BSU Makes it bid.

Bemidji State University sent a delegation from the school to the WCHA meetings and made their presentation this morning to the WCHA in Florida. Word is that the meeting went very well. Obviously the sticking point is that 11 teams is very tough to schedule. Also, apparently some of the Western schools are a little leary of a 11 team league and not seeing key match ups like UND, MN, WI.

Bemidji State makes presentation to WCHA
Bemidji Pioneer ----- Published Monday, April 27, 2009

Bemidji State University officials and a representative of the Leo A Daly architectural firm made a presentation to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Monday morning at Marco Island, Fla. BSU is applying to have its men's hockey team accepted as a member of the WCHA.

"I thought it went very well," said Bemidji State Athletic Director Rick Goeb. "We made our presentation and answered some questions. None of the questions came as a surprise, and we feel like we had very positive feedback."

The Bemidji contingent spent a little more than an hour with WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod and the conference men’s hockey representatives.

Now the representatives will determine the next step. Eight of the 10 WCHA schools must approve Bemidji State's application for admission.

"We expect to hear the results on Tuesday," Goeb said.

The Beavers now compete in College Hockey America but are seeking a new conference home for the men’s hockey program. The CHA will fold after the 2009-10 season because of a lack of teams.

The CHA now is composed of Bemidji, Niagara University, Robert Morris University and Alabama-Hunstville – but both Niagara and Robert Morris are set to join the Atlantic College Conference in 2010-11.

The ideal conference for Bemidji is the WCHA, a 10-team conference with elite teams such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth.

Bemidji brought a strong contingent of representatives to Florida. Included are BSU President Jon Quistgaard; Bill Maki, vice president for finance and administration; Rob Bollinger, executive director of the BSU Foundation; former BSU coach R.H. “Bob” Peters; Doug Leif, a business professor at BSU and the faculuty athletic representative; BSU head coach Tom Serratore; Goeb; and Steve Parker, the senior project manger for Leo A Daly, Bemidji Regional Event Center designer.

Bemidji State’s women’s hockey program already is a member of the WCHA. The presentation this week will be made to the men’s representatives of the WCHA

More on expansion.

This was in today's Red Star and Sickle (Star and Tribune.) I have always said that if Minnesota coach Don Luica wants something to happen in the WCHA, there is a good chance the league office will lean/go his way. I think letting BSU join the WCHA is the right decision and it will be interesting to see how this shakes out now that tDon is on board.

Will the WCHA expand?
The University of Minnesota has made a request to the WCHA to lift the present moratorium on expansion. The 10-team conference's executive committee will decide today whether to make that request an action item at its January meeting at the NCAA convention.

Bemidji State is building a new arena and appears eager to apply to the WCHA if the ban on expansion is lifted. The Beavers are now part of College Hockey America, a crumbling league down to four teams. The Bemdiji State women's hockey team is a WCHA member.

Another hot conference topic is the WCHA Minnesota Hockey Showcase. All four WCHA teams located in Minnesota played in the first showcase on Nov. 1. It drew more than 10,000 at Xcel Energy Center.

Athletic directors from those four will participate in a teleconference call Wednesday to decide its fate.

"It will kind of be a postmortem, where we want to go from here," said Bruce McLeod, the WCHA commissioner.

Schedule changes will have to be made to hold it again next season.

Bemidji State is building a new arena and appears eager to apply to the WCHA if the ban on expansion is lifted. The Beavers are now part of College Hockey America, a crumbling league down to four teams. The Bemdiji State women's hockey team is a WCHA member.

More on re-alignment.

This story by Mike Chambers started a avalanche of speculation and more is starting to come out on this story. It will be interesting to see how this story plays out. First, everyone must know there are two kinds of conversations, there is the front stage and the back stage. The front stage takes place in the newspapers and during the radio interviews, this is the information that can be released. Then there is the back stages, this is the discussion that takes place behind the scenes, the fans aren't privy to this discussion.

I believe some where between these two stories is "the TRUTH" or should we say reality. Like I said before I can see realignment coming eventually, much like the shootout.

DULUTH, Minn. – If an expansion moratorium is lifted in the men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association in January, it could be Bemidji State’s first step toward joining the league.

League commissioner Bruce McLeod confirmed Tuesday that the WCHA executive committee will decide next week if a vote to repeal the existing moratorium should be taken during the NCAA Convention on Jan. 14-17 in Washington, D.C. A simple favorable majority of the 10 league schools would rescind the ban on expansion, which has been in effect for 10 years. That would allow prospective members to make presentations at the WCHA’s annual meeting in May in Marco Island, Fla.

First off, the league members have to go to Marco Island, Florida to make a decision. What can't they do it in Denver or Minneapolis? Looks like Money isn't much of a problem when you living in the WCHA eh?

“We’d like to give Bemidji State a definitive answer, yes or no, about the possibility of joining our league,” McLeod said from his Denver office. “It would be in their best interest to know our intentions so they can make plans for their future.”

The Bemidji State women’s team is already a member of the women’s WCHA.

Bemidji State has never made a formal men’s application to the WCHA because of the moratorium, although the league reached a scheduling agreement with the school in January. The agreement guarantees Bemidji State 12 games with WCHA schools beginning in 2010-11, but the Beavers may be a team without a conference by then.

“Our ultimate goal is to be in the WCHA,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. “With our present league down to four teams, going to the WCHA would be a logical step for us. It would be good timing. [College Hockey America] might only have one more season as a league after this year.”

If the WCHA lifts its moratorium, the opportunity to join the league may be invitation only, said McLeod, and it’s possible Bemidji State would be the only school on the invitation list. Bemidji State has done relatively well against the WCHA, going 11-24-1, including losses to Wisconsin and Denver in the first round of the Division I playoffs.

College Hockey America lost Air Force to the 10-team Atlantic Hockey conference in 2006-07, while league member Wayne (Mich.) State dropped its program in March.