College Hockey:
WCHA set to add Northern Michigan as sixth member for 2013-14

USCHO Staff Report • July 15, 2011

The WCHA is on the verge of adding Northern Michigan to its lineup for the 2013-14 season.

Formal approval of the Wildcats’ application for membership will happen next week, the league announced in a statement Friday afternoon.

Administrators from the five schools that will remain from the current-day WCHA after formation of the Big Ten and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference strips seven teams away in 2013 met Friday in St. Paul, Minn.

The move brings Northern Michigan to the WCHA for a second time. The Wildcats started in the CCHA in 1977 before joining the WCHA along with Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech in 1984. They returned to the CCHA in 1997. (See conference changes timeline.)

Five of the 11 teams in the present-day CCHA have committed to another conference for the 2013-14 season. Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State will join the Big Ten. Miami will move to the NCHC.

Notre Dame and Western Michigan also have been linked with moves away from the CCHA.

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http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2A54OZKLA6BQKQ5LE65VKS5H7Y big D
besides Dallas Drake who else has gone to N Mich.
- Mtfd02
  How about Mark Olver, Nathan Oystrick, J.P. Vigier and several others who have gone on to play for NHL or overseas pro markets
  - Suture
    Nice repsonse Mtfd02…..there are a few others that you missed but these guys are the most notable.. It amazes me the jealousy that is rampant on here…..lol….
    - Guest
      Erik Gustafsson
  - yooper
    And how about Laidlaw, Szabo, and Werenka, and Santorelli
    - Rambo Wildcat
      How about Ward, Steve Bozek, Weeks in net, Dieter Kochan in net, Jim Hiller,
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2A54OZKLA6BQKQ5LE65VKS5H7Y big D
who cares they have 1 title, besides Dallas Drake who else has gone there
- Rambo Wildcat
  Big D sounds pretty dumb with that statement. How many D-1 National titles have Bemidji, Mankato, St. Cloud, Anchorage won?
- Rhigbie
  Don’t forget about the lowly Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our schools have more national championships than the entire state of Minnesota.
Joe C
Another shoe drops. I hope the CCHA can survive, but I suspect that the rest of the teams, plus Alabama-Huntsville, will try to find a way into WCHA/AHA/ECAC.
The big question mark, right now, is Notre Dame. Hockey East or NCHC. Maybe they will change it to NDHC so these boards can be filled each year with ND/UND arguments.
Jwrubel
LSSU better not let them leave with the Cappo Cup!!!
BIG10_LOL
The NCHC won’t have to add more than Notre Dame to become more prominent. Just wait until the Big 10 has to accept Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, … Talk about the Mankatos, SCSUs and Beavers of the Big 10!
- Lynn Bergman
  SCSU and Bemidji are light years better than the inferior Big Ten hockey programs will ever be; that is why the move by Minnesota and Wisconsin to their “Super League” was to ignorant. the future inferiority of the Big Ten will be soooo evident in the NCAA post season play as the years roll on by.
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Guest
Why can’t Lake State and Ferris join up with Northern in the WCHA? It would pretty much be the small schools of Michigan and Minnesota teaming up and looking after each other after the big schools screwed us all over.
- Lynn Bergman
  For the record, it was the Gophers and Badgers that began this fiasco with their illusions of grandeur. They will pay the price by having their playoffs in Detroit or Chicago. The NCHC schools did not want this but had to preserve the toughest schedules in college hockey. A UND alumni, I am looking forward to going to Colorado’s front range for the playoffs, a better atmosphere by far than the Peoples Republic of Minnesota.
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