With the departure of seven teams before the start of the 2013-14 season, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association will have just five teams as it stands now and miss out on an automatic berth in the NCAA Hockey Tournament. But on Wednesday, the conference will pick up a sixth team in the Northern Michigan Wildcats, reports the Mining Journal.
As the report goes on, the conference first needs to amend its bylaws so that the seven departing teams won't have a vote in what happens after the 2012-13 season. Once that happens, the five remaining schools can vote on Wednesday to admit Northern Michigan for the 2013-14 season.
Alaska-Anchorage, one of the five schools remaining in the WCHA, wants Alaska-Fairbanks to make the jump from the CCHA to the WCHA. Notre Dame and Western Michigan also appear ready to jump ship from the CCHA. That would leave the CCHA with three teams and no real future. Minnesota State-Moorhead is ready to start a program by 2013 and possibly join the WCHA.
Check out Travis Hughes' pros and cons of these new super conferences over at our SB Nation NHL hub.