This is an interesting turn of events. Wouldn't that be a huge slap in the face to UAA if actually accepted Mercyhurst after denying admission to UAH. Of course that would open up a spot for UAH in the AHA. Mercyhurst must want to bump up its scholarship threshold, the AHA doesn’t fun a full 18 scholarships like the big four conferences do. Also, the soon to be defunct CHA does fund a full 18 scholarships.

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

Apparently, the idea of an 11-team league is too great a temptation to resist.

Word came to me recently that Mercyhurst was interested in joining the CCHA. At first I thought this absurd, until I remembered the lesson learned from the offseason Big Ten talks, of Wisconsin playing with the idea of jumping ship to the CCHA.

So I did some poking around by e-mail.

According to Aaron Kemp, associate director of athletics and director of compliance at Mercyhurst College, the Lakers are “exploring membership opportunities with the CCHA” but have “not submitted a formal application to the league.”

Kemp added that Mercyhurst is “very happy with the Atlantic Hockey Association and [is] proud to be affiliated with its member institutions.”

CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos said that he doesn’t know whether or not Mercyhurst will submit an application, and that since it takes the CCHA “the better part of a year to review an application and complete [its] due diligence before admitting a new member,” the league is going ahead with an 11-team schedule for 2010-11.

That schedule will likely include some clustering of some kind, said Anastos, and the Big Ten certainly may factor into it. “Having the BT teams clustered together is certainly an option we are looking at,” said Anastos, “as it will maximize competition between Big Ten schools and allow for more content to be available to air on the Big Ten Network.”

Anastos said that such scheduling isn’t money-driven, that it’s about content and exposure for the CCHA and college hockey.

As for Alabama-Huntsville after the 2010-11 season — a drum that I apparently can’t avoid beating — Anastos said, “Never say never.” [USCHO]