Arizona State hockey NOT headed to NCHC after all

Huh?  

This seems suboptimal for ASU hockey and I wonder if there will be some subtle arm twisting of one of the conferences to adopt Arizona State as there is room for expansion and letting a promising program die on the vine doesn't seem like it's the best choice for the sport overall.

For now. I read about this when it came out, since it was local news to UMD.

I'm not sure what to make of this for ASU. They need a conference, I assume they thought they would land in a conference, and it would be awful and perhaps fatal if they do not join one soon. It may be that the B1G is still in play, I don't know.

But this quote: "Our focus right now is guided by what we can do to strengthen our current membership into the future" is very interesting.

You would think their current membership is strong. The WCHA won't be picking anybody off. Attendance is good and they have a tv package.

But what if there was one high-revenue member that recently had to change its nickname and could be attractive to a much more powerful conference as a hockey-only member that was agitating things? Perhaps they're being courted, or perhaps they are saying things like, "Hey, we don't want to fly to Arizona every year and if you make us we might realize that State College isn't that bad of a trip" or something like that.

It's really weird to have two major western conferences stuck at 7 and 8 members, when 12 used to be the norm. But here we are.

I'd still take ASU over North Dakota though

I'm sure ASU talked to the Big Ten as well so they've likely been turned down by the NCHC and the Big Ten at this point. Conversely, I'm sure the WCHA would take ASU in a heartbeat but it seems like ASU is doing everything they can to avoid that and I don't blame them. A fledgling team with a schedule full of Minnesota State and Bowling Green isn't going to draw interest like Minnesota or North Dakota.

Will be very interesting to see if they hold out as an independent till the NCHC or Big Ten takes them finally or if they'll cave and go WCHA (I suspect the answer is tied directly to what sort of arena they'll have in the next 5 years)

The issue for ASU hockey, I would assume, is that Arizona State doesn't have a hockey arena--they either play in a municipal arena (called "Oceanside" for some reason I can't fathom) that seats less than 900, or in the Phoenix Coyotes' arena when the NHL team is on the road.

If I had a vote, I wouldn't let them into my league until they solved their arena issue for good.  This is the same reason Alabama-Huntsville was rejected by the CCHA several years ago--they didn't have an arena, which meant that scheduling games for Friday & Saturday nights was often impossible.

Until they are primary tenant in an arena that seats about 2,500 or more, they aren't getting into either the NCHC or the Big Ten. 

I wonder if this came out at this time due to the fact that MSU-Mankato (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) also applied to the NCHC.

The WCHA right now is in some flux, due to the very strong likelyhood that at least one of the Alaska schools (and maybe both) will not have a team in the next couple years due to major financing issues there. Travel budgets are wreaking havoc on the WCHA schools right now, and I'm not sure ASU would help matters any. If both Alaska schools fold their teams (very possible) I think ASU could be accepted into the WCHA. But if one of the UA_ schools can hang on, there's no shot in hell that schools like NMU, MTU, LSSU and even Ferris are going to vote in favor of a conference that has teams in Alaska, Arizona, and Huntsville, Alabama.