The CCHA is in the process of revising the league's playoff system, which will shorten the regular season by one week and extend the postseason from two to three rounds.
The new playoff system will give the top four teams in the regular season first-round byes, and the remaining eight teams would play a best-of-three series with their corresponding seeds.
The winners of the eight-team first round will then advance to face the top four teams in the division that were awarded the first-round byes. The winners of that round will meet at Joe Louis Arena for the semifinals and playoff championship game.
"The council has approved a move to reduce the number of teams in the championship at Joe Louis Arena from six to four," CCHA Director of Communications Fred Pletsch said.
The change, which was approved by CCHA athletic directors, was made during last week's coaches' meetings, but Pletsch said technicalities and scheduling issues still are being worked out.
MSU head coach Rick Comley could not be reached for comment.
Western Michigan head coach Jim Culhane said that only time will tell how pleasing the structure is to its coaches and how effective of a procedure it is.
"The structure is new," Culhane said. "It's something the league feels it can market and sell at Joe Louis."
The playoff change will eliminate the two quarterfinal games at Joe Louis Arena, which generally drew poor attendance and instead gives the top four regular-season teams a chance to host one last series.
If the new policy took effect last season, MSU, which finished in sixth in the division, would have hosted Western Michigan in the first round of play, then would have had to go on the road for a series against either Michigan, Ohio State, Northern Michigan or Nebraska-Omaha, depending on seeding, for the rights to advance to Joe Louis Arena.
Instant-replay review of goals was another change voted upon by the CCHA in meetings last week.
Under the proposal, schools will be given a two-year period to install replay video systems for the future.
