OK, college hockey, now I’m really confused. The powers that be have blocked Niagara’s road into one of the four power conferences — ECAC, Hockey East, CCHA, and WCHA — even though the Purple Eagles have spent a good chunk of time in top 20 polls and consistently play teams from those conferences tough.

My deduction has long been that Niagara’s on-ice product wasn’t good enough to overcome the shortcomings of its building, which has been quaint for life in College Hockey America, but would be the absolute worst in, say, the WCHA.

Apparently, original plans for Dwyer Arena offered opportunities for expansion, but the school balked and is now stuck with a rink that has seats on just one side and behind one end.

No problem, I figured. The NCAA could turn the blame around on Niagara and simply say a better building could have gained entrance into a better conference.

But this week, that theory was blown to bits. Soon after the Purple Eagles reluctantly jumped to Atlantic Hockey — a league that offers fewer scholarships and plays in significantly smaller buildings — the WCHA admitted two new members in longtime Niagara rival Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha.

Both made perfect sense — Bemidji has committed to building a new rink, and it essentially told the WCHA if it didn’t get in, the facility wouldn’t get built and the program could die. Omaha, meanwhile, plays in the 16,000-seat Qwest Center and fits in geographically.

That left one College Hockey America team to be spoken for — Alabama-Huntsville — and the CCHA with an odd number of teams.

Perfect, right? UAH could slide into the CCHA, evening things up for scheduling purposes.

That’s when logic stopped in its tracks. The league’s members snubbed the program, very possibly starting a slow walk to the end of the school’s college hockey plank.

And why?

“Some people had concerns about a lack of commitment,” Alaska athletics director Forrest Karr told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Plans are in the works to renovate the Von Braun Center — a barn that holds almost 7,000 for hockey and draws decent crowds. Danton Cole, a former Michigan State star who played seven seasons in the NHL, is UAH’s high-profile coach. And among those often in attendance are Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, whose son Wyatt is a goalie for the Chargers.

While the NHL will do anything to keep a hockey team in a non-traditional hockey market (Phoenix) simply on the pretense that it’s “good for the game,” college hockey seems eager to rid itself of a non-traditional market that’s making a concerted effort.

We’ve said this before and it’s worth repeating — college hockey’s self-serving board has made growth impossible. The NCAA needs to step in and reorganize the sport’s governing board and insist that the game is bigger than any one school’s financial well-being.



Hornell, Speaker reach NYCBL final

Although it seems the Niagara Power finished eons ago, the league put the wraps on a scintillating championship last weekend, when Amsterdam topped Hornell 11-10 for the title.

Hornell was looking for its fifth NYCBL crown overall and fourth this decade, and among those on the roster was Starpoint’s Derek Speaker, who finished with a .239 batting average.

The Dodgers’ skipper was Erie Community College assistant Chris Ebright, who has called Grand Island home.

As for the Power, yet another indicator of the team’s lack of talent came in this week’s unveiling of the NYCBL all-star teams.

None of the 14 first-teamers were from Niagara, and only one Power player — pitcher Rex Schimpf — was named to the second team. And don’t expect anyone from Niagara to be on the league’s list of top 25 pro prospects when it’s released on Monday.



Bills bits and other NFL goodies

The Mike Vick-to-Buffalo rumors made this an odd week to take vacation. Friends from as far as the West Coast insisted Vick had signed, again proving that blogs and message boards should be taken at face value. ... Vick made little sense in the Bills offense, especially with the team putting such stock in Trent Edwards. Course, he doesn’t make any sense in Philly, either. ... Derek Schouman can’t block anybody. Neither can Derek Fine. Watching the Bills use tight ends on both sides seems to make sense for max protection, until you realize they can’t handle anyone man-up, so they’ll need help. Schouman got blown off the ball at least three times in the team’s opening series last week. And if the Bills line up with two tight ends, opponents feel safer sneaking linebackers and safeties closer to the line. End result? They have more good guys at the point of attack than we do. ... Since we’re on the subject of blocking, expect the Bills to run to the right early and often this year, even when that’s the short side of the field. Eric Wood was the team’s best offensive lineman last week in Canton, holding his blocks out of the right guard position well downfield. He and Brad Butler will give the right side a nastiness that hasn’t been here in years. On the flip side, watching Langston Walker pull left on anything wide is painful. Walker is a behemoth, but he’s hardly agile in NFL terms, meaning when he gets in open space, he’s almost useless. Also, Andy Levitre repeatedly got pushed off the ball in the opener, and he’s in jeopardy of losing the starting job he was handed out of the draft.

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.