Comley discusses future for CCHA Tournament

The CCHA playoff system is in the process of being altered for next season.

Because Nebraska-Omaha will be dropping out of the league and joining the WCHA, the CCHA will be left with 11 teams.

And that isn’t fun for scheduling. This week, the CCHA is holding a conference call with league coaches to try and figure out a new playoff system.

The regular-season schedule will have to stray away from the cluster format which currently is used.

And the playoffs also will have to be reconfigured.

Currently, all 12 teams make the playoffs, with the top four teams in the standings receiving first-round byes. To get to four teams, the first-round winners travel to the barns of the teams that finished in the top-four. The first two rounds of the CCHA Tournament are best-of-three series.

Then, the four remaining teams square off at Joe Louis Arena in single elimination games to decide the champion.

But with 11 teams, this system no longer works.

MSU head coach Rick Comley is in favor of an eight-team playoff system, with the bottom three teams in the league not making the playoffs.

But think about the lower-tier programs in the CCHA. They likely won’t be in favor of this system because they will at least want a chance to make a playoff run.

Comley cited last year’s MSU team — which finished in a tie for 10th place in the league — as a prime example of why there should only be eight teams in the playoffs.

“There was no reward from last year’s team, our team, having to go to Northern (Michigan) and be in the playoffs,” Comley said. “There just wasn’t. To me, there should be a consequence for a regular season, good or bad. The cleanest playoff system is eight teams.”

There are several other scenarios which the CCHA could explore in its playoff reformat, such as play in games.

But 11 just isn’t a fun number to work with.

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