I have good reason for this one: now we have 5 conferences, my plan creates 4, so each winner and a uniform no. of other teams go to the tourney.
CCHA
Michigan St
Mia-OH
Michigan
NE-Omaha
N MI
W MI
Ohio St
Bemidji St
Ferris St
BGSU
Lake Superior St
Notre Dame
North Dakota
St Cloud St
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Mankatoa
MI Tech
MN-Duluth
Wayne St
You DO realize, of course, that there are 5 Conferences for a reason, right? You know, so you don’t have 20 teams in a conference? And you misspelled Rensselaer.
Yes, most of the conferences are much bigger and the WCHA is made ridiculously small. Denver or CC would win it every single year, maybe one of the Alaska teams if they got good. You seem to be going for strict geographical regions which makes no ssnse in an unevenly distributed sport like hockey. The current MAAC and CHA are a de facto lower tier of D-I with fewer scholarships given and those teams would getted pounded on and probably disappear in your scheme. Having their own conferences gives them time to develop more competitive programs, among other things. Try posting this on the USCHO.com message boards and see their reaction, it’s bound to be more thorough than you’ll get here, although probably not anymore positive.
Also, where’s Alabama-Huntsville? I don’t see them listed.
Oh, and leaving aside the fact that this is not the way the college hockey tournament field is determined, you do realize that with the new 16-slot tournament that goes into effect this year, “uniform distribution” at the tourney would mean 4 teams/conference, so all but one of your WCHA teams would get to go ever single year.
I could go on about this plan forever, there’s so much that even a casual fan like myself can find to disagree with in it, but if you’re a college hockey fan, and you don’t post there already, I would again invite you to come to the boards @ www.uscho.com. You could get quite a discussion about realignment going there, including the much more realistic possibility of the Big Ten becoming a hockey conference and the changes that would result.