wcha

The latest College Hockey Poll was released Monday, and the Minnesota Gophers remain the number one team in the country.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Conference has thrown out an invitation to 5 schools in the CCHA to join the conference starting in 2013-2014. The WCHA has invited Alaska-Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State and Western Michigan. The leaders of the WCHA and CCHA met in Chicago last week and the CCHA has 30 days to decide whether to make the move.

The WCHA unanimously approved addding Northern Michigan to the conference starting in 2013-2014. Northern Michigan joins St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage starting in 2013-2014.

The WCHA is likely to vote today to add Northern Michigan to the conference beginning in the 2013-2014 season. That would give the conference 6 schools starting that season. The WCHA is losing Minnesota and Wisconsin to a Big Ten hockey conference and Colorado College, Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, and Nebraska-Omaha are leaving the WCHA to join a new conference starting in 2013-2014 called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Big Ten athletic directors are proposing a men's hockey league that would start competition in 2013-14. The athletic directors said in a statement Monday that the Big Ten would work to maintain a strong schedule of non-conference competition with remaining CCHA and WCHA teams.