Lots of credit goes to College Hockey News for really being on top of college's hockey tumultuous realignment this summer. They broke a pretty huge story on the CCHA meeting with Atlantic Hockey about potentially taking four teams from Atlantic Hockey to help keep the CCHA a viable conference.
Some of the important info from the article:
-Robert Morris, Niagara, Mercyhurst, and Canisius are the four Atlantic Hockey schools being talked about in the move. It's rumored that the four schools could be an "all or nothing" type of deal, which makes things stickier when trying to move four programs instead of just one or two.
-The conference TV deal and conference tournament could be sticking points. TV deal: They won't have one. Problem solved. As for the conference tournament, with the balance of power shifting so far east, I wouldn't be surprised if the tournament ended up in Pittsburgh.
-Those schools also aren't interested in the CCHA if Alaska is in the conference.It becomes a little more imperative for the WCHA to find a way to make two Alaska teams in one conference work.
You do have to feel a little bad for Atlantic Hockey through all of this. They had to squeeze themselves a few years ago to fit Robert Morris and Niagara into their league, and now could lose 25% of their league to the CCHA. But as far as losses go, they'll still be in reasonable shape with 8 teams, while the alternative almost certainly kills off some CCHA schools.