Central Collegiate Hockey Association facts for kids
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a group of colleges and universities that play NCAA Division I hockey. Most of these schools are in the Midwestern United States. There have been two versions of the CCHA. The first CCHA started in 1971 and ended after the 2012–13 hockey season. In 2020, seven schools announced they would start a new CCHA. This new league began playing in the 2021–22 season. Another school joined the new CCHA in July 2020.
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The First CCHA League
The first CCHA began in 1971. It started with four schools: Bowling Green, Ohio, Ohio State, and Saint Louis. A year later, Lake Superior State joined. However, Ohio and Ohio State left in 1973.
The CCHA grew stronger in 1975 when Ohio State returned. Western Michigan also joined for the first time. Saint Louis stopped playing hockey in 1979. But Ferris State joined right away. By 1980, the CCHA was seen as a major hockey league. Northern Michigan, which joined in 1977, even reached the NCAA tournament championship game. Later that year, Miami also joined.
In 1981, four big schools from another league, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), joined the CCHA. These were Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, and Notre Dame. Notre Dame stopped its men's hockey team in 1983. Michigan Tech left in 1984 to go back to the WCHA. But Michigan and Michigan State stayed in the CCHA until it ended. UIC joined in 1982. The CCHA gained more respect when Bowling Green became the CCHA's first NCAA champion in 1984.
The league stayed mostly the same through the 1990s. In 1992, Kent State joined, and Notre Dame brought back its hockey team and rejoined. Kent State stopped its hockey team two years later. UIC did the same in 1996. However, the CCHA added three more members in that decade. Alaska joined in 1995. Northern Michigan returned the same year. Nebraska–Omaha joined in 1999. After that, the league only lost one member before it ended. Nebraska–Omaha left for the WCHA in 2010.
Why the First CCHA Ended
The first CCHA ended because of a big donation. A rich person named Terry Pegula gave a lot of money to Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). This money helped Penn State start men's and women's hockey teams. It also paid for a new arena for them. Once Penn State's teams started playing in 2012–13, the Big Ten Conference had enough schools to start its own men's ice hockey league.
Three of the CCHA's most important teams were in the Big Ten: Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State. In 2011, the Big Ten announced it would start a men's hockey league in 2013–14. These three CCHA teams said they would leave the CCHA at that time.
Soon after this, a group of six schools formed a new league called the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). This group included five schools from the WCHA and Miami (Ohio) from the CCHA. The NCHC started playing in 2013–14. Within a few months, all the other CCHA schools also announced they would leave. Western Michigan joined the NCHC. Notre Dame joined Hockey East. The rest of the teams joined the WCHA.
The original CCHA only had men's ice hockey. The champion of the CCHA was automatically invited to the NCAA Division I men's hockey tournament.
Final Members of the First CCHA
In its last season (2012–13), the CCHA had these members:
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (Alaska)
- Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green)
- Ferris State University
- Lake Superior State University
- Miami University (often called Miami (Ohio))
- University of Michigan
- Michigan State University
- Northern Michigan University
- University of Notre Dame
- Ohio State University
- Western Michigan University
The New CCHA League
In June 2019, seven of the 10 men's hockey teams in the WCHA announced they would leave that league. All these schools were in the Midwest. They said they wanted to form a new league that was closer together geographically. On February 18, 2020, these seven schools announced they would start playing in a new CCHA in the 2021–22 season.
On July 30, 2020, St. Thomas was announced as the eighth member of the new CCHA. St. Thomas is a school in Minnesota. It will move from NCAA Division III to Division I in July 2021. It will join the Summit League for most sports, but the Summit League does not have hockey.
Teams in the New CCHA
The schools that will play in the new CCHA are:
- Bemidji State University (Bemidji, Minnesota)
- Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio)
- Ferris State University (Big Rapids, Michigan)
- Lake Superior State University (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan)
- Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Michigan)
- Minnesota State University, Mankato (Mankato, Minnesota)
- Northern Michigan University (Marquette, Michigan)
- University of St. Thomas (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
