Instead of the typical College Hockey America anecdotes, trends and hearsay this space is devoted to, we decided to spend the next two weeks going right to the source — having a one-on-one with acting CHA Commissioner and Niagara University Athletics Director Ed McLaughlin.

This week, we talk about closing down the CHA, while next week we’ll delve into the future of the program and the move to Atlantic Hockey.

In this column, McLaughlin discusses the difficulty in finding a home for all the CHA teams — Bemidji State was accepted into the WCHA, Niagara and Robert Morris took a step down and went into a scholarship-reduced league in Atlantic Hockey, and Alabama-Huntsville was denied entrance into CCHA and will remain an independent — and talks about missed opportunities.

GAZ: Did you have any part in the Alabama-Huntsville process and if so what did you do in terms of trying to massage both sides?

ED: I talked with athletic directors in the CCHA and I talked with Huntsville. I didn’t play a part in any of the application process or anything like that but I unsuccessfully campaigned for them. I campaigned for them, though. It was our hope that we’d find a home for everybody. If the home wasn’t together, we wanted everyone to have one. It’s disappointing, but you can’t tell people how to do their business either.

GAZ: What are the obstacles you’ve seen that kept this from happening?

ED: I think there are geographical obstacles that make it hard for the CCHA teams to wrap their brains around it. You’re already going to Alaska, and they don’t see Huntsville as a hockey place, even though they have great tradition. The CCHA has minimum operating numbers in terms of dollars, and that’s certainly not anywhere near where the CHA teams have been. I think Huntsville committed to getting there, but I think it was night and day, what they’ve been spending and what we’ve been spending.

GAZ: Being part of a lame duck process with the CHA, do you feel powerless at times? Do you feel like you’re being twisted? Your biggest league rival is getting into a huge league and you have another team that is facing extinction because of the league’s collapse.

ED: It’s one of the single most bizarre things of my professional life. And we’ve had some bizarre experiences. Bemidji is a big rival for us. And while I’m happy for them and their progress, you want them to do well, but as the Niagara AD, not this year. I was happy for them last year too. It was great for our league, it was great for college hockey that it happened. But it’s a really bizarre dynamic because it’s hard to close down a league and to keep focused on things. You don’t want people to say that it doesn’t matter. The championship game back on CBS College Sports this year, that was an important thing for me because I don’t want the kids to ever think that we don’t care. It’s a sad thing, but we can’t have the kids experience not be the same.

GAZ: If Bemidji’s run happens five years ago, or if you did it, would that have changed everything?

ED: If it happened five years ago, I think so. We would have had more teams in the league then and maybe Air Force doesn’t leave. It’s a different dynamic when you do it from a position of strength. We didn’t have that run in a position of strength. We were flailing at that point.

GAZ: When you went to meetings at last year’s Frozen Four, how do the other directors treat you? And you’re the youngest guy right?

ED: Nothing but welcoming. The five other commissioners are five of the classiest people in college hockey. They’ve been welcoming and helpful and I think I bring something different to the group because I’m an athletic director. I can bring a different perspective in terms of what it’s like on campus. Some of them haven’t been on campus for a long, long time. They’re all really good guys and I’m happy to work with them.

GAZ: With the way the college hockey landscape is drawn, will there every be a real push to change things with the heavy hitters doing what they’re doing and the smaller programs doing what they’re doing? Or is there already a push underway to grow the entire sport? Because from the outside right now, it doesn’t look like there is.

ED: There are definitely concerns in the college hockey world about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. There is concern, no question about it. In hockey it’s more exacerbated because there are more Division II and III schools playing in Division I men’s hockey than in every other sport combined. It’s 23 of the 58 schools that are non-Division I.

Part two of this conversation will run next Thursday. Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.