DE PERE, WI (WSAU) The national champion Saint Norbert College men’s hockey team will move to the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association starting in the fall of next year. Saint Scholastica of Duluth will join the M-C-H-A. Both those schools were left hanging in the balance, after the W-I-A-C said earlier this year that five of its men’s hockey teams would withdraw from the N-C-H-A, and play only in their own conference.

Until now, U-W Eau Claire, Stevens Point, River Falls, Stout, and Superior had played in two leagues – their own plus the N-C-H-A. The W-I-A-C said it pulled out of the Northern conference due to budget reasons.

Saint Norbert is the two-time N-C-A-A Division-Three champion in men’s hockey. The Press-Gazette said the Green Knights could have moved to Division-One, but they would have been put at a competitive disadvantage because of the scholarships that other schools offer.

The five W-I-A-C schools are also pulling their women’s programs – but the N-C-H-A still has the minimum seven members needed to get an automatic N-C-A-A bid in the spring.