Commissioner Josh Fenton to Leave NCHC For Summit League

The NCHC announced on Friday that league commissioner Josh Fenton would be leaving the conference at the end of the season to take a new position as commissioner of the Summit League.

Fenton has been commissioner of the NCHC for nearly the entire existence of the league, taking over for the league’s first commissioner Jim Scherr, who resigned to take another position with the US Olympic Committee before the league’s first official game.

But after that initial rocky transition, Fenton set the gold standard for leadership in college hockey, with the NCHC being a leader in fan engagement, the move to online streaming of games, and putting together the ambitious NCHC Pod event in Omaha last season in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The effort and competence of the NCHC league office not only made the NCHC successful, but pushed college hockey as a whole forward as other leagues were forced to up their game in order to keep up with the NCHC.

It’s a loss for the NCHC to lose Fenton’s vision and leadership, though not a surprise that he would be pursued for better job opportunities.