On Tuesday, one of college hockey's premier conferences made the decision to admit Arizona State to its ranks.

That the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) arrived at this decision wasn't surprising.

Back in 2016, the conference voted "no" on an unspecified expansion plan that would likely have included admitting Arizona State, Minnesota State, and potentially one or both of the Alaska schools to the NCHC. 

The reasons to pass on expansion at that time were varied, but a new path appears to be opening. In general, collegiate conferences don't prefer to play with an odd number of teams — Hockey East and the Big Ten currently do so for men's hockey, and the CCHA will add a ninth team, Augustana, in 2025-26 — and the NCHC has held strong with eight teams for years.

But now there are rumo