MSU's off! ... Leitner's in ... Notre Dame decides

The Minnesota State men's hockey team left town early Thursday for their season-opening series at RPI in Troy, N.Y. The Mavericks have never played the Engineers before, but it shapes up to be a competitive series (more on that on Friday). ...

One of the players on the trip is freshman Matt Leitner, who missed all of last season while getting his academics in order. He was a student at MSU but did not practice or work out with the team. Monday's exhibition game against British Columbia was Leitner's first game action in almost 18 months, he said.

Leitner said he achieved a 3.2 GPA in his first year of school, which is great for him and the Mavericks. He has a chance to be the kind of top-line center MSU has lacked in recent years.

You can read more about his thoughts and other MSU happenings (like Mavs women's standout Kathleen Rogan being named WCHA offensive player of the week) in The Free Press' weekly college hockey notebook here. ...

Meanwhile, Notre Dame made it official on Wednesday, announcing that it will join Hockey East in 2013-14. The Irish also announced that all of their home games will be broadcast nationally on Versus (now the NBC Sports Network), a move that, ironically, caused the National Collegiate Hockey Conference to back away from its desire to get Notre Dame.

(This all begs the question: If the NCHC didn't get Notre Dame and didn't get a national TV contract, what the heck did it get to make it worth breaking up the WCHA this summer?)

For now, that appears to be the final domino to fall since Penn State's announcement that it was adding hockey a little more than a year ago — at least in the West. There is speculation that we might see some shuffling in the East, as Hockey East looks for a 12th team. RPI could be a possibility or maybe a new D-I team. Stay tuned. ...

As for the WCHA, I wrote on Wednesday that it and MSU needs to start selling the future. But Kevin Gordon of the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune has already started looking into it. WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod told him that the league is no hurry to expand further (although 10 teams would be preferable to nine/check out the poll to the right) and will continue to play a 28-game league schedule.

McLeod also said the league is looking into how to fit two Alaska teams into the schedule.

Here's where the western teams will be in 2013-14 (as of right now):

WCHA
Minnesota State
Bemidji State
Michigan Tech
Northern Michigan
Lake Superior State
Ferris State
Bowling Green
Alaska-Anchorage
Alaska

BIG 10
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State

NCHC
North Dakota
Denver
Colorado College
Minnesota Duluth
St. Cloud State
Nebraska Omaha
Miami
Western Michigan

Notre Dame to Hockey East ... Air Force in Atlantic Hockey ... Alabama-Huntsville still independent

It's gameday!

Minnesota State will take the ice for the first time in 2011-12 tonight when they host British Columbia in an exhibition game.

This will be the third game in as many days for BC, which lost to Nebraska-Omaha 4-1 on Saturday and Minnesota 3-0 on Sunday. This is the final exhibition game for WCHA teams, which went 8-0-1 in preseason action over the weekend.

Of course, PucKato will be live blogging from the game, so check back later for that. Lines will be posted when available.

If you're looking for a little Monday Morning Skate, check out my story on the Mavericks kicking off the season with a lot of last season's close losses — including a pesky playoff stretch totaling 2 minutes, 25 seconds — still in their heads.

In other college hockey  happenings, it appears Notre Dame apparently has made a decision and will go to Hockey East in 2013-14. At least that's what the South Bend Tribune is speculating, and why not? The Irish haven't announced it officially, yet but the National Collegiate Hockey Conference is planning on it, announcing over the weekend that it will be an eight-team conference when it starts up.

That, of course, leaves Bowling Green, which has a deadline of Friday to decide on its invitation to the WCHA.

In women's hockey, the Minnesota State women's team opened the season with a sweep of Lindenwood. The Mavericks won 4-3 and 10-2. Sophomore Kathleen Rogan picked up where she left off last year and scored five goals in the series, including four on Saturday. Lauren Barnes, the sophomore transfer from Mercyhurst, had a goal and four assists. Her goal was Friday's game-winner.

Bowling Green's fate, St. Cloud State's decision

On Thursday, as St. Cloud State was bailing on the WCHA, Bowling Green was asking for an extension to to its deadline to decide on joining the WCHA. The school was to make a decision today. 

It had been invited to the league, along with Alaska, Lake Superior State, Ferris State and Western Michigan. Alaska, Lake Superior and Ferris accepted almost immediately (following Northern Michigan), while Western Michigan opted for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, announcing that decision Thursday a few hours before St. Cloud.

But there have been some interesting rumblings today surrounding Bowling Green. 

First, Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune writer Kevin Gordon wrote about the deadline extension and reported that there is speculation that some Atlantic Hockey programs might be interested in the WCHA, too:

The extension further fueled speculation Atlantic Hockey members Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara and Robert Morris are being considered for WCHA membership. 

Those four schools have expressed an interest in leaving their present league because it offers only 12 scholarships, six below the NCAA maximum. The CCHA and the WCHA use the NCAA maximum.

Adding those four schools would help balance the revamped WCHA geographically. If BG and the four Atlantic Hockey schools joined the WCHA, the league would have 13 schools - six in the south/east; and seven in the north/west.

And it's not out of the question that Air Force, also a member of Atlantic Hockey, might consider a move to the WCHA.

On Friday, however, Duluth radio man Bruce Ciskie reported that Bowling Green has meet with those schools — Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara and Robert Morris — and another about joining forces. The other school is Buffalo, which does not have Division I hockey currently. That would be an interesting development, and one that might make more sense for Bowling Green.

UPDATE: More on those happenings from Kevin Gordon.

Meanwhile, here is my story from today's Free Press with some more reaction to St. Cloud's defection. Check out the timeline alongside it that shows the changes that have taken place in the last year since Penn State announced that it would be adding hockey.

For more on St. Cloud State's decision, read Mick Hatten's story from the St. Cloud Times. A couple of interesting comments by North Dakota athletic director Brian Faison, who attended Thursday's press conference:

“It was a very involved process from our standpoint in terms of what we were asking from the schools for information — from institutional profile, academic profile. Lots of questions about program, staffing size, budgets, success, ticket sales, types of ticket sales all factored in. It was a very deliberate process ... We tried to keep it as quiet and confidential as possible.”

Another breakaway — St. Cloud State?

Well, it appears Western Michigan finally made up its mind, and it's decided to go to the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference instead of the WCHA. That is not a big surprise.

But "The National" is not getting its most coveted school, it appears — Notre Dame — so it looks like it's dipping back into the WCHA for more and inviting St. Cloud State to join the breakaway league. Reports out of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Grand Forks, N.D., say that St. Cloud is expected to accept the offer.

Since North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha announced they were leaving the WCHA to form the new league with Miami over the summer, St. Cloud State has been a part of the conversations to help keep the WCHA together. That included getting CCHA leftovers Northern Michigan, Alaska, Lake Superior State and Ferris State to join the league. Western Michigan was also invited, as was Bowling Green (there's probably a good chance Bowling Green will be in now).

After the NCHC's initial press conference, St. Cloud State president was vocal about his school not being part of the new league, saying: "The NCHC doesn't look like such a sweet deal for all of these teams." And: "We expected to be in conversations about (the NCHC). But as we looked at it ... we intended to say no."

This is a big blow to the remaining WCHA. St. Cloud State would have been a good rival for Minnesota State and Bemidji State and would have been a good balance, especially travel-wise, for a conference that would have had three Minnesota schools, two Alaska schools and four Michigan schools.

When all is said and done, the WCHA will be left with four current members in two years — MSU, Michigan Tech, Alaska-Anchorage and Bemidji State.

This also begs the question: If the NCHC is taking away six of the WCHA's remaining 10 teams (after the formation of the Big Ten) and if the WCHA commissioner had permission to expand and invite Miami and Notre Dame (presumably while several schools already were conspiring to form a new league), what exactly is the point of the new league? To change leadership? To bump off the little guys — MSU, Tech, Bemidji and Anchorage? To be "National"?

So, if all goes down as predicted, here's what the western conferences will look like (remember this all started almost exactly one year ago when Penn State announced it was adding hockey!).

WCHA

Minnesota State

Bemidji State

Michigan Tech

Northern Michigan

Lake Superior State

Ferris State

Alaska-Anchorage

Alaska (Fairbanks)

Bowling Green

NCHC

Denver

North Dakota

Colorado College

Minnesota Duluth

St. Cloud State

Nebraska-Omaha

Miami

Western Michigan

BIG TEN

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Michigan

Michigan State

Ohio State

Penn State

WCHA invites remaining CCHA teams to merge

The WCHA on Thursday announced that it has invited the "leftover" CCHA teams to join it for the 2013-14 season. Read the press release here. Schools invited include Alaska, Lake Superior State, Ferris State, Western Michigan and Bowling Green. Those schools have 30 days to decide.

Northern Michigan has already agreed to join the WCHA that year — after the Big Ten and National Collegiate Hockey Conference teams form. If all five teams agree to go to the WCHA, the conference will have 11 teams.

Minnesota State president Richard Davenport was quoted extensively in the press release, saying:

"On behalf of those presidents who remain committed to the WCHA in 2013-14 and beyond, I am excited to announce that we have unanimously voted to invite these five CCHA members to join our conference. These schools bring a proud history and tradition with them from the CCHA that will only serve to enhance the already strong reputation of the WCHA.
"We are committed to creating stability for the conference and believe by inviting these institutions we will create one of the strongest conferences in the nation. This is one of the main reasons presidents voted today to invite CCHA member institutions to join our conference. Also, as presidents, we are committed to providing the best college hockey opportunities in the country for our student-athletes."

Some reports have suggested that Alaska, Lake Superior and Ferris State will accept invitations. Western Michigan has hinted that it would like to do what Notre Dame does (Notre Dame was not part of the invite; it appears headed to the NCHC or Hockey East).