Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Amazing, much like 3 years ago, Michigan can make the tournament even with just a win this weekend despite it's bad first half of the season due to its strong run except for the Notre Dame games late, which I had thought were going to end their chances. We'll see....

So what happens with the Alaska twins and Huntsville? Rebuild the WCHA with Arizona St and two other random teams from wherever? Or stick a fork in them?

For those unaware all of the other teams are leaving the WCHA in order to bring back the CCHA.

Long Island University is adding men's hockey.... Supposedly Illinois was finally about to do so before the pandemic.

Apparently they're not putting much funding into it so don't be surprised if it doesn't end well: https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2020/05/01_For-LIU,-Will-This-Really.php, even though it will be the closest program to NYC and only one on Long Island in D1.... As the article mentions, I think if Navy finally goes D1, they could be decent, considering Air Force is usually okay (Army was even okay last year) and they'd be the only program in the MD/DE/DC/VA/SEPA region.

That said, there's a group of D2 schools in the northeast that compete in D3 for some reason even though they're not eligible for the NCAA tournament there. Meanwhile, some of those schools women's programs are in D1 and compete in the same league as LIU there.... Point being, of course, that if those schools joined D1, they could form a new league, which the Northeast kind of needs anyway since the other leagues are basically full.

That said, there are some rumors that there could be some realignment in the northeastern leagues, especially if Hockey East were to split.

There isn't. The NCAA D2 schools that play hockey can either compete in D1 or D3 for that sport. If they choose the latter, they are ineligible for the postseason. There is a group of such schools in the NE that compete in D3 for men's hockey and D1 for women's hockey. That is what Michifan87 was referencing. 

So for men's Ice Hockey, the Northeast 10 is made of entirely of NCAA D2 schools that could move up from D3 to D1 in Ice Hockey, and become eligible for the postseason. 

https://www.northeast10.org/sports/mice/2019-20/standings

Apparently UAH has raised enough money to play next season and figure out a long-term plan.... Realistically, if the CCHA doesn't want them then nobody else will, though Arizona State has proven that independents can be successful (of course, they have the funding to be a successful program).

Their best hope (albeit unlikely) hope is for the Alaska programs to stay alive and for some other programs outside of the Northeast/Midwest to startup to create a new league (though maybe Long Island could be part of it if they don't get in one of the Northeastern leagues and/or if Air Force were to want to leave the league they're in).

Otherwise, the biggest growth opportunity for college hockey is with Illinois (and any other BigTen school that wants to start a program) and other Midwest schools starting new programs that would interest the CCHA (eg. Oakland - no update with them that I could find since their NHL study).

ASU hockey to play entire season on the road vs B1G hockey teams. Kind of a weird situation being independent and waiting for our new arena to be built but ultimately this works out well all things considered.

https://thesundevils.com/news/2020/10/6/mens-ice-hockey-asu-big-ten-agree-to-schedule-arrangement-for-2020-21.aspx