2020-21 WCHA Men's Season

This is the 2020-21 Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's season. This is the league's 69th season and likely final season.
==Membership Changes==
*In June of 2019 it was announced that seven members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association would be leaving the conference for the 2021-22 season. In February 2020 it was announced that the conference would be a revival of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association name.https://www.uscho.com/2020/02/18/seven-ncaa-hockey-schools-leaving-wcha-rebranding-themselves-as-new-ccha-conference/
*An ongoing budget crisis in Alaska has lead to the possibility of the two Alaska schools having their athletic programs combined if not cancelled outright, the two schools played as two programs for at least the 2019-20 season, The Alaska anchorage Seawolves would move to a much smaller arena on campus for the 2019-20 season. Plans are in the works to expand the facilities capacity to as much as 3,000. The two Alaska schools were also doing away with the travel subsidy given to visiting teams beginning with the 2019-20 season. No update has been given on the status of the programs for 2020-21 and 2021-22 with the disbanding of the conference and the COVID-19 pandemic.
*On May 22, 2020 the University of Alabama, Huntsville announced that they were discontinuing the men's ice hockey program effective immediately citing financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chargers became the first men's Division I program to be ended since Wayne State University ended their program in 2008.https://www.uscho.com/2020/05/22/breaking-alabama-huntsville-dropping-mens-ice-hockey-effective-immediately-citing-budget/ The program would be saved less than a week later when supporters were able to raise over $750,000. A committee would be formed in an effort to provide for the long term survival of the program.
On November 13th, the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves announced that they would opt out of the 2020-21 season due to concerns over the pandemic. This marks the end of the program as it was already scheduled to be cancelled after the 2020-21 playing season.https://www.uscho.com/2020/11/13/alaska-anchorage-already-cutting-hockey-program-in-2021-opts-out-of-2020-21-season-due-to-covid-concerns/
On December 12th Alaska Nanooks announced that the team was opting out of the 2020-21 playing season due to the pandemic.https://www.uscho.com/2020/12/11/alaska-opts-out-of-2020-21-hockey-season-citing-health-concerns/
==Membership==
Institution 	Location 	Nickname 	Arena
University of Alabama, Huntsville 	Huntsville, Alabama 	Chargers 	Von Braun Center
University of Alaska Anchorage 	Anchorage, Alaska 	Seawolves	Seawolf Sports Complex
University of Alaska Fairbanks 	Fairbanks, Alaska 	Nanooks 	Carlson Center
Bemidji State University 	Bemidji, Minnesota 	Beavers 	Sanford Center
Bowling Green State University 	Bowling Green, Ohio 	Falcons 	BGSU Ice Arena
Ferris State University 	Big Rapids, Michigan 	Bulldogs 	Ewigleben Arena
Lake Superior State University 	Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan	Lakers 	Taffy Abel Arena
Michigan Technological University 	Houghton, Michigan 	Huskies 	MacInnes Student Ice Arena
Minnesota State University, Mankato	Mankato, Minnesota 	Mavericks	Verizon Wireless Center
Northern Michigan University 	Marquette, Michigan 	Wildcats 	Berry Events Center
==Standings==
==Conference Tournament==
The 2021 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament will be the 62nd tournament in conference history. It is scheduled to be played between March 12 and March 20, 2021 on campus locations. The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.
==Format==
The first round of the postseason tournament will feature a best-of-three games format, while the semifinals and final will be a single-game held at the campus site of the highest remaining seed. The top eight conference teams will participate in the tournament. Teams will be seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standings, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The higher seeded teams each earn home ice and will host one of the lower seeded teams.
==Bracket==
Note: * denotes overtime periods