Hockey East voted on Wednesday to officially accept the University of Connecticut as the league's 12th member, according to multiple sources. The league will formally invite the Huskies and shocker, they'll accept shortly after. An announcement could come as early as this Friday.
UConn will join Notre Dame as Hockey East programs #11 and #12. Notre Dame is set to join the conference for the 2013-14 season. It's unclear when UConn will join, but sources are reporting it won't be until the 2014-15 season. The delay could buy the school more time to get Freitas Ice Forum up to Hockey East standards, and allow Atlantic Hockey to find a replacement 12th program.
As I wrote previously, the move does little for the conference other than give the conference an even number of programs. Despite what the Connecticut papers would have you believe, UConn is a long way away from being competitive in Hockey East, and Freitas needs a serious upgrade to satisfy HEA requirements (and playing at the XL Center 20+ miles from campus shouldn't be an option).
My only hope is that the conference realizes the revenue lost from fewer BC-BU, BC-Maine and BC-UNH regular season games in favor of two vs. UConn and two vs. Notre Dame and follows this divisional alignment plan to assure that schools like BC-BU continue to meet at least three times a year during the regular season.