St. Thomas joining CCHA

When the seven teams leaving the WCHA after this season (if there is a season) announced they would be called the CCHA, resuscitating the Central Collegiate Hockey Association brand, I thought the group erred, missing out on a chance to do something bold, fresh and exciting.

However, I added, what the league does under its new banner will prove whether or not it is indeed bold, fresh and exciting.

Show, don't tell ... to quote one of my old writing instructors.

The CCHA appeared to make quite the bold move when it hired Don Lucia as commissioner. And it didn't take long for Lucia to do something bold himself when he and the conference brought in St. Thomas as an eighth team.

On Wednesday, the new CCHA made the announcement that the Tommies will join the league right away, beginning play in the CCHA's inaugural season, 2021-22.

The St. Paul school, which earlier this month got the OK to make the jump directly from Division III to DI in all sports (after getting booted out of the MIAC last summer), will give the new CCHA eight teams. And the geography couldn't be better, giving the league a Twin Cities presence and a third Minnesota school (the state will have six DI programs next season) to balance things out.

Here's how the league will look:

Minnesota State
Bemidji State
St. Thomas
Michigan Tech
Northern Michigan
Lake Superior State
Ferris State
Bowling Green

The NCAA approved St. Thomas' move to DI a couple of weeks ago, and the school announced it was going to the Summit League for all sports but football and hockey. Football was joining the non-scholarship Pioneer League, and women's hockey got an immediate invite to the WCHA to join Minnesota State, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, Wisconsin and Ohio State as that conference's eighth team.

At the time St. Thomas said it was exploring its men's hockey options. Clearly the university and the CCHA were moving quickly to do something bold, fresh and exciting together.

There are a lot of things to work out, such as where St. Thomas will play in the long-term. It's current arena, which it shares with St. Thomas Academy, is too small for DI, although it is a fine DIII facility.

Lucia also talked in the press conference about a league schedule and whether the CCHA would play 24, 26 or 28 league games; that has yet to be decided. A 28-game slate means the teams can play each other four times, home and home. But it leaves just six nonconference games available.

As a person who covered Minnesota State for 20 years and is a graduate of St. Thomas (Class of '94!) and just loves the sport of college hockey, I'm excited about what's to come. I think St. Thomas will do everything it can to be as competitive as it can be and as quickly as possible.