College Hockey:
NCHC announces Colorado Springs head office

USCHO Staff Report • Aug. 23, 2011

The new National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced today that it will locate its head office in Colorado Springs.

The league, which starts play in the 2013-2014 season, will operate in the Copper Building, adjacent to the world-famous Broadmoor Hotel.

“We’re very happy that the National Collegiate Hockey Conference has chosen to join USA Hockey and the entire amateur sports community by headquartering in Colorado Springs,” said executive director of USA Hockey Dave Ogrean in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Conference office and the six outstanding founding school progams that continue to develop the game at the college level.”

The NCHC has a number of other organizational initiatives that are underway, including the national search for its first commissioner, a process for identifying and evaluating prospective additional members and looking at possible venues for the conference’s championship tournament.

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

Thefightingman
Boy, that is like the proverbial tree falling in the woods.
Nathan
This is the best conference in the country. All 6 played in the national tournament. Big 10 had 1. Also, the national champion.
- Spidermonkey86
  Ok lets look at this league for a second
  Colorado College- A program way past it’s prime. CC has realistically been irrelevant for years.
  Denver is still a top tier program, but has been slipping
  Miami & UNO – Are newer to success and has yet to be seen if they can keep it up
  Minnesota–Duluth- Caught lightning in a bottle last year. Again still alot to prove
  UND- Like Denver is the other anchor; but like Denver has been slipping the last few years
  - Garbagegoal
    last i checked north dakota wasnt slipping and cc is going to the frozen 4 this year
    - Spidermonkey86
      ND got their ass kicked by Yale…chocked up against a much less talented UNH the year before and made a run this year…But again I said slipping not dead….Basic comprehension is important….I’ll put money down that CC doesn’t even qualify for the tourny this year….
      - B.D.
        Ummmmm……..
        Please explain the comment regarding Yale vis-a-vis North Dakota.
      - Scsuhockey3
        und did play yale…. it was the talk of the X when scsu and wisconsin played to see who would go to the frozen 4
      - Scsuhockey3
        this just in gopher fans dont recall playing holy cross either…. come on….REALLY?….REALLY????
      - B.D.
        2010-11 schedule
        10/03 — UND 5, Man 2 (0-0-0)10/08 — UND 5, UAA 5 (0-0-1)10/09 — UND 3, UAF 1 (1-0-1)10/15 — UND 5, BSU 2 (2-0-1)10/16 — UND 5, BSU 2 (3-0-1)10/22 — Maine 7, UND 3 (3-1-1)10/23 — Maine 4, UND 2 (3-2-1)10/29 — UND 4, DU 3 (4-2-1)10/30 — DU 3, UND 0 (4-3-1)11/05 — UND 4, UMD 2 (5-3-1)11/06 — UMD 3, UND 2 (5-4-1)11/12 — UND 1, UW 0 (6-4-1)11/13 — UND 4, UW 2 (7-4-1)11/19 — UND 6, UNO 5 (8-4-1)11/20 — UNO 1, UND 0 (8-5-1)11/26 — UND 6, NDame 3 (9-5-1)11/27 — UND 2, NDame 2 (9-5-2)12/03 — UND 3, SCSU 1 (10-5-2)12/04 — UND 6, SCSU 2 (11-5-2)12/10 — UND 4, MSU 3 (12-5-2)12/12 — UND 4, MSU 2 (13-5-2)12/18 — UND 2, USA 1 (13-5-2)12/30 — UND 5, UMD 0 (14-5-2)1/07 — UND 8, RMU 0 (15-5-2)1/08 — UND 2, RMU 1 (16-5-2)1/14 — Minn 3, UND 2 (16-6-2)1/15 — UND 4, Minn 1 (17-6-2)1/21 — UNO 8, UND 4 (17-7-2)1/22 — UND 4, UNO 2 (18-7-2)1/28 — CC 4, UND 2 (18-8-2)1/29 — UND 6, CC 0 (19-8-2)2/11 — UND 6, UAA 1 (20-8-2)2/12 — UND 3, UAA 1 (21-8-2)2/18 — UND 3, SCSU 3 (21-8-3)2/19 — UND 3, SCSU 2 (22-8-3)2/26 — UND 5, BSU 2 (23-8-3)2/27 — UND 5, BSU 1 (24-8-3)3/04 — UND 6, MTU 1 (25-8-3)3/05 — UND 11, MTU 2 (26-8-3)3/11 — UND 8, MTU 0 (27-8-3)3/12 — UND 3, MTU 1 (28-8-3)3/18 — UND 4, CC 3 (29-8-3)3/19 — UND 3, DU 2 (30-8-3)3/26 — UND 6, RPI 0 (31-8-3)3/27 — UND 6, DU 1 (32-8-3)4/07 — Mich 2, UND 0 (32-9-3)
        Ummmmmmm…… Yale?
      - B.D.
        As you will note in the post above, at no time last season did UND play Yale. Perhaps you are thinking of a previous season?
      - Garbagegoal
        north dakota got beat by michican and never even played yale… colorado college has jaden schwartz… enough said
      - Teeder Wynne
        North Dakota has appeared in five of the last seven frozen fours. Before that, UND played in only three frozen fours from 1988 to 2004. Slipping?!?!?! You are the one with a comprehension problem.
  - B.D.
    I see no evidence that the program in North Dakota is “Slipping.” Nor do I see evidence that the perenially strong program at Denver is in any danger of faltering.
    Colorado College, while small, still fields quality teams.
    How do you qualify “Slipping?”
Thefightingman
No, the best conference in all of hockey is the current WCHA. Check back in 2 years when the Minnesota kids that make up a majority of the teams realize they won’t get to play in front of their family and friends as often as they used to, and then see if some of these NCHC teams may have made a mistake. Hope you like Canadians who will jump to the pros early and often.
- B.D.
  And they will get to play at home when Minnesota jumps to the Big Ten?
  In my estimation the NCHC is set to become THE league to watch in college hockey and will probably have the highest percentage of teams in the finals for the next ten years. There is not a bad program in the group and being low rated in that conference will still have more meaning than being the best of a lesser conference.
  This is undoubtedly why the programs involved are so eager to make that move.
  - Thefightingman
    Check back in a couple of years. If you look back a 8 seasons ago, UMD was near the bottom, SCSU was in the middle, and MSU was second place. A year before that, UND and UMD were both near the bottom. Two seasons ago, SCSU was a head of both UMD and UND. BSU is only a few years removed from a Frozen Four appearance. College hockey is quite cyclical, which is why many of the WCHA teams are scratching their heads thinking, “Why base it on this year?” Bemidji has a new arena, and St. Cloud will soon renovate theirs. Mankato has made a number of improvements to theirs in recent years. Both St. Cloud and Mankato have a closeness to the Twin Cities area as well as other MN hockey beds (SCSU – Northern MN, Mankato, Rochester and Faribault’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s).
    I think that a lot of the Minnesota kids have really been excited more to play in front of their family and friends on the road than on television in general. If they are good players, they’re going to be seen at a D-I level, scouted, and drafted no matter what. I think when the Big 10 started and now this NCHC thing got going, this was not taken into consideration as much as it should have been. It will hurt all the Upper Midwest teams in recruiting as that advantage is now gone. I would think the real winners in this thing will be the Colorado schools as this has never helped their recruiting, and now they do not have to compete against this idea. UMD and UND will have to really go into Canada for recruiting in order to keep up, and they do that to a certain extent already, so it may not work. So to say the NCHC will be the best, it is really hard to say, but the WCHA as it is right now is certainly the best.
    - B.D.
      While you qualify the success of Duluth, It could just as easily be said that the success of the Minnesota teams on such rare occasions (BSU in finals etc) was a one off. While I love BSU (And my family has a second home near there for the summers) I cannot imagine that they will regularly be contenders. Nor SCSU or Mankato.
      The best will always be attracted to the top programs and PERHAPS Minnesota has even hurt their recruiting potential by joining the Big Ten as that will not be the premier league.
      North Dakota has always recruited in North Dakota, Northern Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, but now has added furtile new fields elsewhere such as California and Nova Scotia.
JamesDee
Who is going to be the new Commish? Scott Owens could be retired by time the league starts.
Pingback: NCHC to be Headquartered in Colorado Springs - Northland’s NewsCenter
Pingback: National Collegiate Hockey Conference finds home - Duluth News Tribune
Pingback: NCHC announces Colorado Springs head office :: USCHO.com :: U.S. … « Feeds « Local News Feeds
Pingback: NCHC announces Colorado Springs head office :: USCHO.com … « Feeds « Local News Feeds
Mtmsparky
As alumni from one of the WCHA schools that was “left behind,” I was initially pissed at the way this was handled by the pretentious programs like North Dakota. After some time to think however, I realize that this is a great opportunity for the likes of St Cloud, Bemidji State, UAA etc… to hit that national stage more often. Let’s face it, only one of the NCHC teams will be “guaranteed” a tournament bid each year. One of the remaining WCHA teams will as well, and if I remember correctly, Bemidji State figured out what to do with that bid in 2009. Before the split, the likelihood of UAA, SCSU, MSU, etc… winning the WCHA was slim to none. As long as the WCHA remains competitive, they will be better off than before. Let the NCHC beat each other up all year, hopefully the “weaker programs” can capitalize on that in the tournament once and a while. Go WCHA!!
- Nathan
  Yes there will be 1 auto-bid.
  Difference is more at-large in the NCHC and most likely higher seed in the tournament after competing in the better conference.
Guest
I want to know why everyone is jumping on UND about making the college hockey landscape change!?!? Last time I looked its the Big 10 teams that start this whole change, specifically Wisconsin! Their AD has wanted Big 10 hockey since he left their football program. You can criticize UND all you want but the Big 10 teams started this national movement to conference realignment!
- Scsuhockey3
  yeah your correct that the big 10 teams like minnesota,wisconsin…ect. have started the big move. but the move made sense becase of network money coming in. you want to know why people are jumping on und and the rest of the former wcha members? REALLY? well und is not affiliated with any big money conferences like a big 10. notre dame can go independent and have a deal in place with versus that is affiliated with nbc (irish football network). it just doesnt make sense for und,cc,denver,umd…ect. to break up a great conference for very little compensation.
  - B.D.
    UND already has its games televised on Direct TV. Looking to the future this is about the quality of the competition. The NCHC will be THE league to watch, not even the Big Ten will be able to compare.
Pingback: NCHC announces Colorado Springs head office | ViseSports

Possibly related: