Growing unrest in the most dominant organization in men’s college hockey paved the way for the creation of a brand new league.
Five members of the once-formidable Western Collegiate Hockey Association made it official Wednesday when their representatives gathered in a Colorado Springs, Colo., landmark and outlined plans for a new league scheduled to be up and running in 2013-14.
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference includes Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota from the WCHA and Central Collegiate Hockey Association power Miami (Ohio).
Their exodus was mapped out less than four months after it was announced Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin will leave the WCHA to join the new Big Ten Conference, also debuting in 2013-14.
The two developments have triggered massive change that’s still ongoing and hard feelings that will make it a challenge for many to cross the bridge that spans the next two years.
“It’s going to be tenuous,” said Sean Frazier, the UW deputy athletic director who oversees the men’s and women’s programs. “We all need calmer heads.”
While the UW men’s program will close out an affiliation with the WCHA that began in 1969, the women’s program will continue to operate indefinitely in the league because the Big Ten only has four women’s teams — including Penn State, which debuts in 2012-13 — and needs six for conference sponsorship.
Walter Dickey, the UW Athletic Board chair, lamented the fact that many failed to heed the warning that the Big Ten would eventually sponsor men’s hockey.
“When we said these things three years ago, it was (with) an eye toward trying to solidify and consider all the options because there are an awful lot of forces at work here that are not helpful to college hockey,” he said.
“This has been a lot of change,” said Jennifer Heppel, the associate commissioner for Big Ten governance who will oversee the new men’s hockey product. “Change makes people nervous.
“But we’re all professionals and we’re working for the good of our schools, our conferences and the game.”
Three months after expressions of unity were heard during the annual American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Florida, it was learned that some of the long-running acts in the WCHA were looking to leave. CC, Denver and North Dakota were original members of the league in 1959, while Duluth joined in 1965, but the advent of the Big Ten and its big-school lineup seemingly pushed them to try and find a way to keep pace.
“None of us saw this happening while we were at the meetings down in (Marco Island),” said Frazier, chair of the NCAA ice hockey committee. “There was a lot of talk. Now the talk is backed up with action.
“A lot of people thought they had some of what I would call honest dialogue that was going across that really wasn’t honest dialogue. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff.”
During a press conference at the historic Penrose House, North Dakota athletic director Brian Faison said there was no one tipping point for the schools striking out on their own.
“It’s been a very measured, involved process,” he said.
But two developments at the AHCA meeting may be straws that broke the camel’s back.
There was sentiment from multiple schools that WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod needed to step down, but a college hockey source speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the volatile nature of the discussions said that while “people inched up to that line, no one crossed it.”
When the discussion turned to schools possibly pulling out of the WCHA, one of the small-school athletic directors made a motion that called for a six-figure fine to be imposed on all defectors, a point confirmed Wednesday by Faison. The sanction idea was supported by another small-school AD but subsequently withdrawn.
McLeod, the commissioner since 1994, issued a melancholy statement Wednesday, saying “it’s a tough day for the WCHA and a sad day for me personally.”
The six schools committed to the NCHC have won 17 national titles, including seven apiece from Denver and North Dakota. Duluth claimed its first NCAA crown in April.
Notre Dame out of the CCHA is being wooed by the new league. Western Michigan, another CCHA member, is lobbying to be a member as well.
The WCHA and CCHA are wobbling, as the defections will leave the WCHA as presently constructed with five members — one short of the number required for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament — and an additional two losses would also leave the CCHA at five schools.
Denver coach George Gwozdecky said the NCHC is an “important” and “necessary” addition to the college hockey landscape.
Kalamazoo Tech is seeking to bring up the rear of another college hockey conference.
