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Apr. 10—About a year ago, I sat down with Bemidji State director of athletics Britt Lauritsen for a Q&A.
Half of the questions were pointed toward the men's and women's hockey programs.
Our state-of-the-Beavs chat happened in the days following the announcement that St. Thomas intended to leave the CCHA after the 2025-26 season.
Her response to my question stuck with me.
Q: How does BSU feel about St. Thomas leaving the CCHA?
Lauritsen: That's a decision that they make in what they feel is the best interest for their institution. I won't ever fault anybody for making a decision that they think is best for what they need to accomplish and what their goals are institutionally. I think knowing that they're leaving, now is the time that we shift our focus away from that.
If they're leaving, they're leaving. That's fine, and we wish them the best. We have to focus on doing what we can do to make sure the CCHA is strong. We have to make sure to position ourselves within the CCHA to continue to be competitive, to fight for the MacNaughton Cup, for the Mason Cup and fight for those NCAA bids.
I think that we are unique in the CCHA in that we have other institutions that are similarly situated to us, being multi-divisional. That is to our benefit, to have similarly situated institutions who understand the regional concerns that we have, the financial concerns that we have, the sport concerns that we have.
What do we want the CCHA to look like in five years? Going down to eight member institutions, we get to redefine that and declare that as a conference. I hope that we wholeheartedly step into that version of forward thinking and strategic planning of, yeah, OK, here we go. It's go time, eight members, let's rock and roll, let's do the thing, and we're a part of it.
It's about branding right now for the CCHA.
Around college hockey and its six conferences, the CCHA is viewed as a one-bid league for the 16-team NCAA Tournament. In each of the last two years, the public perception was right.
In 2023-24, Michigan Tech defeated Bemidji State 2-1 in the Mason Cup Championship to claim the lone bid up for grabs. Minnesota State earned a bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, defeating Bemidji State 4-0 in the Mason Cup Playoffs semifinal due to St. Thomas, the other semifinal victor, being ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Despite MSU finishing 16th in the Pairwise Rankings, it wouldn't have been enough for an at-large bid to the dance because of automatic qualifiers.
While the CCHA hasn't established itself as a two-bid league yet, early returns in the transfer portal show signs of a brighter future for the league as a whole.
Ah, yes, the transfer portal. If you spend any time on the social media streets, the portal is perceived as the big, bag boogyman that comes to steal from the poor and give to the rich.
Many CCHA fans dread when the portal opens in late March, fearing their favorite players will be coerced into joining a bigger school with loftier goals. Others see it as an opportunity for their favorite team to get better.
Regardless of your opinions on the transfer portal — and the name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities tied into it — it's not going anywhere, despite the chagrined pleas to rewind the rulebook.
But is it really as bad as they say it is for CCHA teams? Well, it depends on the year. This year, the answer is no.
Following the 2023-24 season, 44 CCHA skaters (not goalies) entered the transfer portal. They accounted for 155 goals and 259 assists for 414 points. All three of those numbers hover around 17.5% of the total goals, points and assists recorded by CCHA players that season.
This year, the percentages were sliced in half.
Of the 35 CCHA skaters to enter the portal so far, they accounted for 82 goals (9.8%) and 100 assists (7.8%) for 182 (8.6%) of the league's 2,111 points during the 2024-25 season.
While a two-year sample size isn't enough to identify a trend — one that indicates that CCHA teams are doing twice as well keeping their players from entering the portal — other recruiting factors could.
The era of the COVID year is in the past. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in student-athletes getting a fifth season of eligibility. Most of those players have aged out of college sports, leading to fewer portal entrants to make room for incoming freshmen.
This is also the first full offseason for programs to recruit Canadian Hockey League players.
The NCAA Division-I Council voted to amend a longstanding rule that deemed the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League as professional leagues on Nov. 7, 2024.
More than 1,000 junior hockey players are newly eligible for college hockey, making the player pool deeper than ever.
It's expected that many top-end CHL kids will choose college hockey over major juniors. That process has been slowly trickling in throughout the season, and it's expected to ramp up heavily in the coming months following the CHL postseasons.
While CCHA teams shouldn't expect to attract top-end talent like Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, the NCAA amendment has a plethora of ripple effects that come as a benefit to the league.
The recruiting pool is deeper than ever, meaning there's more risk for depth players to enter the portal. If a third-line winger on a CCHA team enters, he has more — and younger — competition to find a new home.
Ask yourself this: If you were a coach of a collegiate hockey team and had the choice of two players who measure out similarly, with one of them having four years of eligibility while the other only has three, which would you choose? This line of thinking could lead to fewer destinations for depth skaters to transfer to as coaches could opt for an incoming CHL freshman over a rising sophomore.
The 35 CCHA skaters in the portal are mostly comprised of kids being cut from their previous rosters.
But why the need to cut players beyond finding better incoming freshmen? That's where areas of the NCAA's House settlement also play a factor.
The NCAA agreed to pay $2.8 billion in damages to former and current athletes to settle antitrust lawsuits that claim the NCAA's regulations prevented them from profiting on their name, image and likeness. The deal, commonly referred to as the House settlement after lead plaintiff Grant House, would also create a new system for schools to pay players directly, starting this summer.
On Monday, the NCAA released a statement from President Charlie Baker regarding the settlement, which has yet to be officially approved.
"Today's hearing on the landmark settlement was a significant step in modernizing college sports," the statement reads. "If approved, the settlement will allow student-athletes the opportunity to receive nearly 50% of athletic department revenue in a sustainable and fair system for years to come."
The House settlement also has roster implications. As of now, schools with men's and women's hockey teams will be capped at 26 players if they opt in.
Judge Claudia Wilken did not give a final approval over concerns with roster limits. The settlement is expected to be approved before July 1.
Many CCHA schools, including Bemidji State, have not publicly decided whether they will opt in or not. However, some schools are shaping their rosters with the proposed limits in mind.
Since the portal opened for undergraduate players on March 30, all signs indicate that the CCHA is doing better at keeping its top players at their current schools. Sure, the Logan Morrells and Adam Eiseles will still enter the transfer portal, but that activity happens nationwide, regardless of your favorite team.
However, it's still early. There could be unforeseen recruiting consequences that could lead to more CCHA difference-makers testing the waters. After all, the portal doesn't close for entrants until May 13.
For now, it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge that the CCHA's member schools made it a point to increase branding. On top of a much-improved nonconference showing, the early returns on the 2025 transfer portal are a baby step in the right direction.
Continue reading...
Half of the questions were pointed toward the men's and women's hockey programs.
Our state-of-the-Beavs chat happened in the days following the announcement that St. Thomas intended to leave the CCHA after the 2025-26 season.
Her response to my question stuck with me.
Q: How does BSU feel about St. Thomas leaving the CCHA?
Lauritsen: That's a decision that they make in what they feel is the best interest for their institution. I won't ever fault anybody for making a decision that they think is best for what they need to accomplish and what their goals are institutionally. I think knowing that they're leaving, now is the time that we shift our focus away from that.
If they're leaving, they're leaving. That's fine, and we wish them the best. We have to focus on doing what we can do to make sure the CCHA is strong. We have to make sure to position ourselves within the CCHA to continue to be competitive, to fight for the MacNaughton Cup, for the Mason Cup and fight for those NCAA bids.
I think that we are unique in the CCHA in that we have other institutions that are similarly situated to us, being multi-divisional. That is to our benefit, to have similarly situated institutions who understand the regional concerns that we have, the financial concerns that we have, the sport concerns that we have.
What do we want the CCHA to look like in five years? Going down to eight member institutions, we get to redefine that and declare that as a conference. I hope that we wholeheartedly step into that version of forward thinking and strategic planning of, yeah, OK, here we go. It's go time, eight members, let's rock and roll, let's do the thing, and we're a part of it.
It's about branding right now for the CCHA.
Around college hockey and its six conferences, the CCHA is viewed as a one-bid league for the 16-team NCAA Tournament. In each of the last two years, the public perception was right.
In 2023-24, Michigan Tech defeated Bemidji State 2-1 in the Mason Cup Championship to claim the lone bid up for grabs. Minnesota State earned a bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, defeating Bemidji State 4-0 in the Mason Cup Playoffs semifinal due to St. Thomas, the other semifinal victor, being ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Despite MSU finishing 16th in the Pairwise Rankings, it wouldn't have been enough for an at-large bid to the dance because of automatic qualifiers.
While the CCHA hasn't established itself as a two-bid league yet, early returns in the transfer portal show signs of a brighter future for the league as a whole.
Ah, yes, the transfer portal. If you spend any time on the social media streets, the portal is perceived as the big, bag boogyman that comes to steal from the poor and give to the rich.
Many CCHA fans dread when the portal opens in late March, fearing their favorite players will be coerced into joining a bigger school with loftier goals. Others see it as an opportunity for their favorite team to get better.
Regardless of your opinions on the transfer portal — and the name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities tied into it — it's not going anywhere, despite the chagrined pleas to rewind the rulebook.
But is it really as bad as they say it is for CCHA teams? Well, it depends on the year. This year, the answer is no.
Following the 2023-24 season, 44 CCHA skaters (not goalies) entered the transfer portal. They accounted for 155 goals and 259 assists for 414 points. All three of those numbers hover around 17.5% of the total goals, points and assists recorded by CCHA players that season.
This year, the percentages were sliced in half.
Of the 35 CCHA skaters to enter the portal so far, they accounted for 82 goals (9.8%) and 100 assists (7.8%) for 182 (8.6%) of the league's 2,111 points during the 2024-25 season.
While a two-year sample size isn't enough to identify a trend — one that indicates that CCHA teams are doing twice as well keeping their players from entering the portal — other recruiting factors could.
The era of the COVID year is in the past. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in student-athletes getting a fifth season of eligibility. Most of those players have aged out of college sports, leading to fewer portal entrants to make room for incoming freshmen.
This is also the first full offseason for programs to recruit Canadian Hockey League players.
The NCAA Division-I Council voted to amend a longstanding rule that deemed the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League as professional leagues on Nov. 7, 2024.
More than 1,000 junior hockey players are newly eligible for college hockey, making the player pool deeper than ever.
It's expected that many top-end CHL kids will choose college hockey over major juniors. That process has been slowly trickling in throughout the season, and it's expected to ramp up heavily in the coming months following the CHL postseasons.
While CCHA teams shouldn't expect to attract top-end talent like Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, the NCAA amendment has a plethora of ripple effects that come as a benefit to the league.
The recruiting pool is deeper than ever, meaning there's more risk for depth players to enter the portal. If a third-line winger on a CCHA team enters, he has more — and younger — competition to find a new home.
Ask yourself this: If you were a coach of a collegiate hockey team and had the choice of two players who measure out similarly, with one of them having four years of eligibility while the other only has three, which would you choose? This line of thinking could lead to fewer destinations for depth skaters to transfer to as coaches could opt for an incoming CHL freshman over a rising sophomore.
The 35 CCHA skaters in the portal are mostly comprised of kids being cut from their previous rosters.
But why the need to cut players beyond finding better incoming freshmen? That's where areas of the NCAA's House settlement also play a factor.
The NCAA agreed to pay $2.8 billion in damages to former and current athletes to settle antitrust lawsuits that claim the NCAA's regulations prevented them from profiting on their name, image and likeness. The deal, commonly referred to as the House settlement after lead plaintiff Grant House, would also create a new system for schools to pay players directly, starting this summer.
On Monday, the NCAA released a statement from President Charlie Baker regarding the settlement, which has yet to be officially approved.
"Today's hearing on the landmark settlement was a significant step in modernizing college sports," the statement reads. "If approved, the settlement will allow student-athletes the opportunity to receive nearly 50% of athletic department revenue in a sustainable and fair system for years to come."
The House settlement also has roster implications. As of now, schools with men's and women's hockey teams will be capped at 26 players if they opt in.
Judge Claudia Wilken did not give a final approval over concerns with roster limits. The settlement is expected to be approved before July 1.
Many CCHA schools, including Bemidji State, have not publicly decided whether they will opt in or not. However, some schools are shaping their rosters with the proposed limits in mind.
Since the portal opened for undergraduate players on March 30, all signs indicate that the CCHA is doing better at keeping its top players at their current schools. Sure, the Logan Morrells and Adam Eiseles will still enter the transfer portal, but that activity happens nationwide, regardless of your favorite team.
However, it's still early. There could be unforeseen recruiting consequences that could lead to more CCHA difference-makers testing the waters. After all, the portal doesn't close for entrants until May 13.
For now, it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge that the CCHA's member schools made it a point to increase branding. On top of a much-improved nonconference showing, the early returns on the 2025 transfer portal are a baby step in the right direction.
Continue reading...
