Dan Falloon
Bruce M. McLeod’s league just keeps getting more and more eyeballs upon it.
After his Western Collegiate Hockey Association held steady at 10 teams (although attendance has grown and is on pace to surpass the 1.5 million mark for the seventh-straight season), the Fort Frances native has given the stamp of approval to two new schools for the 2010-11 season.
Both programs—Bemidji State University and the University of Nebraska-Omaha—have regional connections. Fort Frances’ Bob Peters coached at BSU for 35 years while International Falls’ Dean Blais of is the coach in Nebraska.
The WCHA had not expanded since the 1999-2000 season, when Minnesota State University-Mankato was admitted. McLeod faced some opposition to the expansion, though, mainly from those who felt Bemidji was too small of a fish to admit and might shake the foundation of the sturdy league.
“Even though they were very comfortable to North Dakota, Duluth, those types of teams, pretty darned attractive, in Denver, Colo., Bemidji doesn’t mean a whole lot,” noted McLeod, who has held the role of commissioner since 1994.
“We were very, very comfortable with where we were at.
“We were very careful about the makeup of the league because we wanted teams that were going to be very competitive, and that’s what it is,” he stressed.
The discussion around expansion heated up when College Hockey America, the four-team circuit in which Bemidji played, planned to disband after this season.
“The demise of College Hockey America was a reality, and with the last year of the league, we took our responsibilities to collegiate hockey in general very, very seriously,” said McLeod.
“We needed to step up to the pulpit and take care of Bemidji because their program was in jeopardy.”
McLeod felt the Beavers have helped their own cause significantly with their on-ice play, including making a serious challenge at the NCAA championship.
“With their run to the ‘Frozen Four’ last year, and they’re doing well again this year, it seemed to raise their profile a bit,” he remarked.
Peters, who posted 702 wins in the 35 years he coached the Beavers, has worked closely with McLeod to help get Bemidji State into the league.
“He’s really done an outstanding job for the growth of the conference,” lauded Peters. “He was very instrumental in the process to get Bemidji State into the WCHA.”
McLeod said that while Bemidji State was a welcome addition to the league, the odd number of teams presented a scheduling nightmare, so he put out a call for teams looking to join.
“If you know anything about scheduling, 11 doesn’t work,” reasoned McLeod. “There’s no normal rotation or anything.
“We needed to be fair and have a good rotation,” he stressed.
Nebraska-Omaha of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association ended up being the successful applicant, in part because of its geographic location.
“If you look at a map, it makes a whole lot of sense,” McLeod reasoned. “Nebraska’s in the middle and can connect our Colorado schools with the Upper Midwest.
“It’s a very vibrant community, it’s got a beautiful building there that seats 15,000 people,” he noted.
Both schools were put through a vetting process to ensure they would ease right into competition in the WCHA.
“We were very careful and we wanted to be sure the institutions were committed to a quality program, not just to play Division I hockey, but to play a quality brand of Division I hockey,” McLeod reiterated.
“All leagues have a couple of teams that are pretty darn good, but nothing compares to the WCHA with the depth and the quality.
“In the end, what you need is a solid commitment from the institution that everybody’s on the same page, and they’re not only interested in playing Div. I hockey and opening the doors and hoping the turnstiles are clicking.
“You have to be committed to full scholarships, full coaching staffs, training staff, video staff. . . .
“Both at Bemidji and UNO, we felt very comfortable with those commitments on those campuses,” McLeod concluded.
McLeod also is convinced both schools will have a positive impact on the WCHA’s championship tournament, the Final Five, which McLeod considers the crown jewel of his league.
This year’s tournament is scheduled for March 18-20 in St. Paul, Mn.
“Usually about 85,000 people attend the tournament,” enthused McLeod. “The evening’s usually full, and we have two afternoon sessions that are usually between 16,000 and 17,000 people.
“The proximity of both of the teams to the St. Paul area will help us with our championships in St. Paul.”
The winner of the Final Five often ends up being a serious contender for the NCAA championship. The WCHA had a representative make the “Frozen Four” every year from 2000-08, and captured the championship in six of those years.
The run ended in 2009, although Bemidji State made a Cinderella run to the “Frozen Four.”
The pinnacle of the stretch came in 2005 when all four representatives—North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado College, and champion Denver—were from the WCHA.
NHL regulars Paul Stastny, Matt Carle, Drew Stafford, and Travis Zajac played in that tournament, with Stastny crowned at tournament’s end.
“That’s the only time that that [all four from the same conference] had ever happened,” noted McLeod. “That gives you a sense of how strong the league has been.
“That’s the basis of the success of our tournament, too,” he added. “People know that if they’re going to go there, no matter who is there, because of the strength of the league, it’s going to be a fantastic tournament no matter what.”
McLeod noted the WCHA recently has been able to attract players that make an impact at the professional level, pointing out that 11 American Olympians came though his league while two Canadians—Jonathan Toews and Dany Heatley—did, as well.
“I’m proud of that.,” he said. “I think that just tells you an idea of the strength of the league.”
But many of those players only stuck around in the league for a year or two before turning pro.
While other potential collegiate athletes often don’t turn pro until at least the age of 20, there are too many other suitors for the WCHA’s players to lock them down into three- or four-year terms.
“We would love to do that but it’s a catch-22 for us a little bit,” McLeod conceded. “We have a very different circumstance than any other sports in the NCAA in that we have direct competition for our players, and that’s major junior hockey in Canada.
“They try to recruit the same players we try to recruit.
“If we try to put up some kind of barrier, saying once you come to a university, you can’t leave for three years, or can’t turn pro for three years, well, the guy’s going to say, ‘Well, I can go play major junior and I can leave anytime I want.’
“We have to be careful about those things.”
McLeod advocated the twofold benefits of the league, acknowledging that players can improve by playing in the WCHA while also taking classes to fall back on if a pro career doesn’t work out.
“It’s a nice path to the NHL, if that’s what your goals are,” McLeod reasoned. “You can get there just as easily, but certainly, the U.S. collegiate system, you don’t have to put all your eggs in one basket.”
