UAH Could Join The CCHA On Tuesday

[Bleeding Orange]

I think there is some "behind the scenes" stuff going on.

Penn State anyone? I believe the CCHA may have an eye on the Ninny Lions program going Div1.

Huge financial backing, Eastern presence, easier travel in comparison.

Discuss.

This was certainly a pretty surprising move, but there could be something to what you have come up with here. Certainly, PSU is much more of a 'name' school, and would have a greater potential to bring the casual hockey fan to CCHA rinks than UAH would. Still, I haven't heard anything definitive that would lead me to believe that PSU is moving up. The other scenario, I suppose, would be a potential departure of UAF, and a desire for the conference to drop down to ten members. That would to my knowledge make scheduling much easier, and we might be able to get rid of this stupid cluster system in such a scenario.

Still, I'm not a fan of the decision. I think it is in the best interest of every collegiate hockey conference to do all that they can to help spread the popularity of the sport, and this is a decision that will likely mean the end of hockey at UAH simply because it doesn't seem that there is anywhere else for them to go. I realize that there are immediate financial decisions that must be taken into account for the existing member schools, but in my opinion it does the sport itself no good whatsoever to be complicit in the contraction of overall participation.

As a caveat, hopefully there is something else available for the Chargers. They are slated to be the host school for the 2012 Frozen Four, so perhaps the NCAA might be willing to pull some strings on their behalf. I doubt it would look good for a school like Army or UConn to be the 'host' school of a Frozen Four in Tampa...

[rood]

They are slated to be the host school for the 2012 Frozen Four, so perhaps the NCAA might be willing to pull some strings on their behalf. I doubt it would look good for a school like Army or UConn to be the 'host' school of a Frozen Four in Tampa...

Or for Alaska to be the 'host' school in Anaheim or to name a 'host' school for a tournament in St Louis or Washington, DC with no local presence... Oh, wait the NCAA already did all those things. Why do they need a 'host' school anyway?

[BGFan]

I'm not too surprised at all. With the budget crunches going on, particularly in the smaller schools of the CCHA, the prospect of losing one long road trip, only to have another long road trip added was likely a facter in the decision. In better economic times, UAH would probably have been accepted.

[sbkbghockey]

I think there is some "behind the scenes" stuff going on.

Penn State anyone? I believe the CCHA may have an eye on the Ninny Lions program going Div1.

Huge financial backing, Eastern presence, easier travel in comparison.

Discuss.

Hate to break it to CCHA fans, Penn State is much more than a season or two away from starting NCAA Hockey!
1) They don't have an NCAA ready arena
2) They're one of the top club teams (alot less costs than NCAA)
3.) except from the Ohio Schools travel to Penn State is only a few 100 miles or a couple hrs less than Huntsville (not including weather conditions through Northwest PA in the Wintertime compared to more mild winters in AL.)
4. If the CCHA is going to dump an established program for an upstart hky program to save money on travel and other costs, it'd better to add a school like Grand Valley State, Central Michigan or bring back a school like Kent State or Ohio.

[MACMAN]

My personal thought is that both Fairbanks and Anchorage will be in the CCHA.

[Falcon Fanatic]

My personal thought is that both Fairbanks and Anchorage will be in the CCHA.

And possibly have TWO TRIPS TO ALASKA IN ONE YEAR??? YUCK!!! NO THANKS!!!

[Freddie]

My personal thought is that both Fairbanks and Anchorage will be in the CCHA.

Anchorage will move to the CCHA when rhinestone studded unicorns fly out of my butt.

[MACMAN]

actually it would be one long trip, playing both of them in one stand.

[Falcon Fanatic]

actually it would be one long trip, playing both of them in one stand.

Longer trip, just means it takes that much longer to recover from the long ride, the time change/jet lag, etc.... This would NOT be a good thing for any of us.

[Father Brown]

Good news. I never would have thought my freshman year in '84 that BG Hockey would be on life support and Huntsville would have a shot in H@ll of getting in the front door of the best college hockey conference in the country.

[rood]

actually it would be one long trip, playing both of them in one stand.

Longer trip, just means it takes that much longer to recover from the long ride, the time change/jet lag, etc.... This would NOT be a good thing for any of us.

Or everybody in the CCHA makes one trip to one or the other and gets the Alaska exemption every year.

[MACMAN]

I have to say that in reading the USCHO page about this I am very disappointed. Seems that the author really wants to vilify the CCHA.
UAH has another year, and while I fully understand that having a resolution to this right now, would be great for them, they need to understand that we are some serious issue as well and they need to be more conscientious of what is going on with BGSU, and in actuality looks more like potentially one or two other CCHA programs in the same boat. There are other CCHA schools that are going to be in the same boat as BGSU, we can all see we have other teams that are hurting, and trying to figure things out, seems like the last thing we need to do right now iw throw on that mess the potential for an odd number of teams. Its not at all like were telling UAH they are not good enough to be part of the CCHA, that is not the case. The case is we have problems we need to figure out first, and were working on them, then once we have a good idea of what things look like we can talk to UAH about coming up to the CCHA and welcome them in to solid stable home.
His tone and accusations really rubbed me the wrong way. We are not hockey or the w composed of a bunch of snobs we are the CCHA, we the hard nosed blue collar conference...well with some exceptions

[tiznow]

Robert Morris would make more sense that Penn State. State College isn't the easiest place to travel. Plus I loathe Penn State.

[Falcon Frenzy]

Here is a link to an interesting article on the whole matter:

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... chanot.php

[VDub26Falcon]

Robert Morris would make more sense that Penn State. State College isn't the easiest place to travel. Plus I loathe Penn State.

Well then wouldn't you want the opportunity to beat the bejeezus out of them every year???