Thursday Western Michigan Hockey formally announced that they have accepted an invitation to join the National Collegiate Hockey Associate which begins play in the 2013-14 season.
Western Michigan now joins Denver, Colorado College, North Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha, Minnesota-Duluth and Miami (OH).
“Today, we celebrate being members of the college hockey league that listened and saw why and loved the ‘Wow Western’ (campaign) and today they are reacting with a formal ‘yes’ to Western Michigan and we are responding, ‘yes, yes,’ to Western Michigan,” WMU director of athletics Kathy Beauregard said during Thursday’s press conference.
“Our future is here for us to grab the reins in our hockey program and gallop into our hockey future with great optimism, passion and commitment to national prominence. We accept the membership offer into the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which they are also calling The National.”
With Western’s jump to the NCHC, the end of the Central Collegiate Hockey Associate seems imminent. This past year it was announced that the Big Ten would form their own conference consisting of Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State.