Inside College Hockey is reporting that Penn State is getting ready to announce that it will be adding men's and women's hockey to its selection of varsity sports. What does this mean for college hockey. Well, it means that there would be six teams (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penne State) from the Big Ten with men's hockey -- enough to qualify as a conference for an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
There has long been talk about a Big Ten hockey conference, especially since the advent of the Big Ten's television network, but, until a sixth team could be added to the fold, that was pretty much all it was -- talk. Now, it's looking more and more like a possibility that the Western Collegiate Hockey Association could be losing two of its signature programs in the coming years.
That would put the WCHA back to 10 teams (Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha are making it a 12-team league this year), and the CCHA would become an eight-team conference. The WCHA would remain strong, it seems, with powers like North Dakota and Denver and other perennial NCAA tournament teams like Colorado College, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth, as well as Minnesota State, Bemidji, Omaha, Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage.
1 comment:
The idea of a Big Ten hockey conference is absurd and ridiculous!! The idea of it is totally money driven and hurts some of the best rivalries in college hockey. Barry Alvarez is the stooge that is leading this charge and he doesn't even care that much about the sport.
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