COLORADO SPRINGS — Though his travel schedule figures to be much less glamorous, Jim Scherr should be able to go to work each day without having to watch his back.
The former leader of the U.S. Olympic Committee was introduced as commissioner of the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference on Wednesday, a job sure to be filled with its share of threats and challenges, though almost certainly not so many from within his own office.
“One of the nice things about this position is that everyone’s on the same page about where they want to take the conference,” Scherr said. “From that perspective, it’s a nice feeling.”
In moves that mirrored the seismic shifts in college football, but on a smaller level, college hockey has been realigning. Last year, the Big Ten decided to start a hockey conference and poached Minnesota and Wisconsin out of the 60-year-old WCHA. That left teams such as Colorado College and Denver — small schools that support large hockey programs — scrambling as they decided whether to salvage the WCHA, find a new home in an existing conference or create something completely new.
Their choice: the new NCHC, which also includes Miami (Ohio), Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan. The conference begins play in the 2013-14 season.
The 50-year-old Scherr conceded everyone in the new conference must pay attention to the changing landscape in college sports.
“Given the fact that nobody knows where the world of collegiate sports will go three to five years from now, you always have to be cognizant of the fact that there could be potential additions or realignment,” he said. “I think we’re pretty satisfied with where we are today.”
