Northern hockey asked to rejoin WCHA
ST. PAUL, MN -- Well that didn't take long. A day after NMU President Les Wong asked the Board of Trustees for approval to pursue admission to join the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in 2013-2014, the league all but officially approved the membership. The five remaining members of WCHA did meet as scheduled in St. Paul, Minnesota and together they released the following press release:
(Courtesy of the WCHA) "The CEO’s (chief executive officers) of the five member teams that will make-up the men’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) as of the 2013-14 season are supportive of Northern Michigan University’s entrance into the conference.
WCHA men’s membership in 2013-14 will include University of Alaska Anchorage, Bemidji State University, Michigan Technological University, Minnesota State University, Mankato, and St. Cloud State University. Formal approval of Northern Michigan’s application for membership in the WCHA will occur next week."
On Wednesday, five teams from the WCHA (North Dakota, Denver, Nebraska-Omaha, Colorado College and Minnesota-Duluth) formed the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference along with Miami (Ohio) from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
The conference stood at five teams (Saint Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Alaska Anchorage, Bemidji State, and Michigan Tech) following that exodus and needed to add a sixth team to keep its automatic NCAA Tournament berth. It appears they have found school number six.
Commissioner Bruce McLeod has mentioned recently the conference would like to add one to three teams for the 2013-2014 season. Many had speculated that Northern Michigan's natural rivalry with Michigan Tech would make NMU a good fit. Alaska-Fairbanks has also been brought up because of it's geographic rivalry with Alaska Anchorage.
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