The Minnesota State men’s hockey team is in its 10th season as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. By all accounts, the decision to add the Mavericks was a good one for the conference.

Over the last nine years, the WCHA has produced six national champions, two runners-up, six more Frozen Four participants and six Hobey Baker Award winners, and Minnesota State has been competitive in that tough environment.

Including this season’s 3-3-2 mark, the Mavericks are 107-120-35 in the league so far and have had an average finish of sixth place in the standings, including three upper-division finishes. They have made it to one NCAA tournament and have been on the bubble of two others. They’ve also produced three All-Americans (more than three other league members) and three conference coach-of-the-year winners.

Currently, the Mavericks are ranked 11th in the country after coming off a series split with third-ranked Colorado College, one of the conference’s charter members.

The WCHA has had a moratorium on expansion since Minnesota State joined during the 1999-2000 season, but, this week, it is considering lifting the ban. According to the Duluth News-Tribune, the league’s executive committee is expected to decide whether to put the issue to a vote during the NCAA Convention in January.

If a majority of the WCHA’s 10 schools agree to lift the moratorium, it will open the door for Bemidji State — and possibly others — to make a pitch for admission into the conference.

Bemidji, which is a member of the dying College Hockey America conference (although its women’s team is in the WCHA), wants nothing more than to join its family at the adult table. The Beavers are one of just four teams remaining in the CHA, which is being kept on life support by the NCAA.

The issue has fueled rumors of the future of the WCHA and college hockey, and talk of conference expansion and realignment has drifted into the blogosphere.

In the News-Tribune article, WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod debunked one theory that had Central Collegiate Hockey Association member and Minnesota State rival Nebraska-Omaha set to join the league along with Bemidji.

Fear of a Big Ten hockey conference stealing Minnesota, Wisconsin and CCHA members Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State out of their respective leagues has worried college-hockey fans for years.

Funny, no one’s ever talked about the North Central/Northern Sun conferences taking away MSU, Bemidji, Omaha, North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth.

The WCHA has held somewhat of a caretaker’s role in college hockey over the years. It helped Bemidji State and other schools form College Hockey America and set up a scheduling arrangement with the Beavers when that conference started to dismantle after Air Force left for another league and Wayne State folded.

McLeod said his league owes Bemidji a “definitive answer, yes or no,” on expanding the conference to let it in.

Here’s guessing that the WCHA does what the Northern Sun did for Minnesota State, St. Cloud and Duluth in Division II athletics last year and rescues the Beavers from hockey obscurity.

With 58 teams, Division I hockey can ill afford to let any more programs melt away.