As things stand currently, two of the seven teams in the new Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which is scheduled to begin play in the fall of 2021, will be from Minnesota. And according to a published report, so will the new league鈥檚 commissioner.
On Tuesday, Todd Milewski of the Wisconsin State Journal reported that the three finalists for the CCHA job are Minnesota State University-Mankato athletic director Kevin Buisman, retired former Minnesota Gophers coach Don Lucia and current U of M associate athletic director Tom McGinnis.
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The new CCHA is being developed after seven of the 10 teams in the current Western Collegiate Hockey Association 鈥� Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State Mankato and Northern Michigan 鈥� announced last summer that they would leave the WCHA and form a new conference.
Buisman, 54, has been in charge of Mavericks athletics since 2002 and has overseen Mike Hastings鈥� teams dominating the new WCHA since its formation in 2013. He is originally from Iowa and played college football there.
Lucia, 61, retired as the Gophers鈥� coach in 2018 after leading the program to a pair of NCAA titles. He is currently residing in Alaska and was the head coach at Alaska (Fairbanks) and Colorado College before coming to the U of M in 1999.
McGinnis, 45, has been in the U of M athletic department since 2011 and is the former chair of the NCAA Men鈥檚 Ice Hockey Committee. He has degrees from Indiana and Ohio State.
All three men declined comment on their candidacy for the job when contacted by The Rink Live.
Dr. Morris Kurtz, the former St. Cloud State athletic director who has been working on the formation and structure of the new conference on behalf of the seven member schools, told The Rink Live that the plan is to have a commissioner hired in June and have them assume the reins on July 1. It has widely been theorized that the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul could be added as the new conference鈥檚 eighth member if the Tommies are allowed to elevate their program to Division I status by the NCAA.
The formation of the new CCHA left Alabama Huntsville, Alaska and Alaska Anchorage as the lone remaining members of the WCHA, with their future uncertain at best. On May 22, Alabama Huntsville announced that it would fold its hockey program effective immediately, although as of Tuesday there was a underway attempting to raise $1 million to keep Chargers hockey afloat.
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That news came as it was also announced that at least two players from last season鈥檚 UAH team had entered the transfer portal seeking new teams for 2020-21.
Berenson hired by Big Ten
As was first reported by Milewski, Brad Traviolia, who had been the Big Ten鈥檚 hockey commissioner for five seasons, left the conference in late April. The Big Ten had no statement regarding the circumstances of his departure, but a source confirmed to The Rink Live that Traviolia is no longer with the Chicago-based conference.
In his place, the conference has named Red Berenson as special advisor to the commissioner, hockey operations. Berenson, 80, retired in 2017 after a storied career as a player and coach at Michigan, and led the Wolverines to a pair of NCAA titles in the 1990s.
鈥淲e are absolutely thrilled to welcome Red Berenson to the Big Ten staff in this role,鈥� said commissioner Kevin Warren, who came to the Big Ten in 2019 after 14 years as an executive with the Minnesota Vikings. 鈥淗is career achievements and contributions to the sport of hockey are truly outstanding and he has a great understanding of what it means to coach and compete in the Big Ten.鈥�
Penn State won its first regular season title in the seven-team Big Ten hockey conference in 2019-20. The playoff championship was not awarded, as the season was cancelled on March 12.
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