Paul Kelly, leader of College Hockey Inc. sat down for an interview with Matt Gunning on SB Nation’s Rink Side Radio yesterday and discussed a number of topics of interest to college hockey fans.

You can listen to the interview in podcast form here.

I’ll finish up my preview of the Oversize Consonant by ranking the best forward groups in the league this year.

1. Minnesota-Duluth

2. St. Cloud

3. North Dakota

4. Minnesota

5. Denver

6. Nebraska-Omaha

7. Bemidji State

8. Wisconsin

9. Colorado College

10. Alaska-Anchorage

11.Michigan Tech

12. Minnesota State

Explanations are after the jump.

The WCHA Media Poll Ballots are due on Wednesday, and since there’s no new information to be gained by waiting–other than that, shockingly, every team has had great chemistry in captain’s practices and it could be their best year ever–I may as well post this now.

Here’s what the ballot I turned in looked like:

1. North Dakota

2. St. Cloud

3. Minnesota-Duluth

4. Denver

5. Wisconsin

6. Minnesota

7. Colorado College

8. Bemidji State

9. Nebraska-Omaha

10. Minnesota State

11. Michigan Tech

12. Alaska-Anchorage

Player of the Year: Justin Fontaine, Minnesota-Duluth

Rookie of the Year: Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College

Though not going on the official poll, I’ll also pick a pre-season first and second all-conference team, and an all-rookie team after the jump.

(Apologies for the lateness on this big news. But PSU didn’t pick the best day for this, since it coincides with the NAHL Showcase. Also, as a reminder, for more on the Showcase, PSU, etc, you can follow me on Twitter at @ChrisDilks.)

So all the stories we’ve heard over the past couple of weeks are true. Penn State received an $88 million donation and will use that money to build an arena and start men’s and women’s hockey programs, beginning with the 2012-2013 season.

There’s a whole list of issues to run down with this announcement.

-The 2012-2013 start sounds about right. Last night, there was a report that PSU would try to get things up and running for next fall, which seemed insane. This gives PSU a chance to recruit a couple classes of players and really come in as a legitimate contender. They likely would have been a mess if they tried to start next year. You can’t recruit an entire roster in less than 12 months. Michigan is already trying that, to grim results.

-The Big Ten Hockey Conference seems like an inevitably at this point.

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Inside College Hockey was the first to report yesterday that Penn State will formally announce their intention to start a hockey program, possibly as early as this Friday.

I already covered this issue over the summer, so it’s probably not worth rehashing until we get some new information of what the future holds.

Other people are writing about it though. USCHO columnist Dave Starman thinks Penn State would be good, if they wanted to join the CCHA, but bad if it meant the creation of a Big Ten conference. Also, his proposed WCHA-CCHA alliance seems pretty wacky. The solution to whatever financial troubles those smaller schools will face won’t be solved by increasing travel expenses exponentially. College Hockey News thinks a Big Ten Conference is inevitable, though not necessarily a disaster.

The reaction from the Penn State side of things has been general excitement, and why wouldn’t it be? Before even being announced, their hockey program has already succeeded where their treasured football program has failed in defeating a school from Alabama.

Gallery

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer and the Milwaukee Brewers roughed up St. Louis rookie Jaime Garcia in an 8-1 win Wednesday night that kept the slumping Cardinals from gaining ground in the postseason chase.
  
Albert Pujols hit his 36th homer in the first for the Cardinals, but that was the only run Chris Capuano (3-3) allowed over seven innings.
  
Garcia (13-7) had been looking for his fourth straight win. Instead, he gave up a career-high seven runs as his ERA rose to 2.69.

  
The Cardinals began the day six games behind Cincinnati in the NL Central. The Reds played later at Colorado.
  
St. Louis has fallen flat chasing the Reds, losing 11 of the last 15 with 25 games to go. those fo

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