HOCKEY: New College Hockey Conference Stinks Of Elitism

It has been more than a little bit interesting to follow all of the happenings of "As the College Hockey World Turns."

With each new day, it appears something new and different happens to make us all wonder what is the direction college hockey is headed.

Of course, the latest news is that the so-called power teams that were left out of the forming of the Big Ten's hockey conference have decided to form a league of their own with the shaky name: The National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The less-than-stellar name alone tells you that the creative team has a whole lot of work ahead to be done, but that is another story. I guess the name could have been worst ... those who formed the league could have stolen National Hockey League and just added "Collegiate" in there. Come to think of it ... they sort of did it, but changed "League" to "Conference" and moved it along.

Anyway, here is an excerpt from a story in the Mankato (Minn.) Free Press that I found particularly interesting:

The league is not limited to six teams, and North Dakota athletic director Brian Faison said officials will continue to “research and vet” additional members. The CCHA’s Notre Dame remains a strong possibility, he said.

“They’re certainly a program that meets our core values of our conference and we have an interest in them, but we’ll continue to explore other options,” Faison said.

What is this new conference's core values that makes it feel so high and mighty that it leaves behind schools like Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, Alaska-Anchorage and others?

This whole thing stinks of elitism. It seems as though these schools, just for the sake of argument, could have kept the Western Collegiate Hockey Association together and attempted to poach Miami University, Western Michigan University and the University of Notre Dame. However, it looks like the classism took hold and the elitists wanted as much to rid themselves of trips to Anchorage, Alaska and Houghton, Mich. as much as they wanted to add the likes of Miami and Notre Dame.

For some of the schools of this new NCHC, you can't be the best of the best and less there is someone on the bottom to stand above.

This is another quote I found interesting:

“This type of conference, where you have the best playing each other every weekend starting in October is a daunting task,” Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said. “We want to play the best. We understand it’s going to be difficult.”

Apparently playing the best of the best didn't include some of the teams that Denver and others left behind when departing the WCHA.