What Penn State's Addition Means For NCAA Realignment

From Derek Zona at From The Rink:

Penn State is about to reshape the NCAA Division I landscape.  Last week, the university announced that Terry Pegula, ex-President and CEO of East Resources Inc., a natural gas exploration and drilling company, donated $88 million for the purpose of building a 6,000 seat hockey arena.  The arena will be home to men's and women's hockey and Penn State officials say the team will be ready to play for the 2012-2013 season.  The announcement was not a surprise, as Penn State's program has been one of the largest sources of college hockey gossip over the last two seasons.  The donation was leaked to the media over one month ago and the rumors of a new building have been making the same rounds.

With the announcement, the drama that's been limited to hockey fan boards and blogs will be on full display.  The addition of Penn State means that six Big 10 schools now have Division I hockey.  That is significant because by NCAA by-laws, six is the minimum number of teams allowed to form a conference.  The creation of the much-discussed Big Ten Hockey Conference seems like a foregone conclusion.

Read more at From The Rink.