Can the NCAA Defeat Clutch-and-Grab Hockey?

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are atop the national rankings as another season of NCAA hockey heats up. The Gophers reached the summit Friday, with a 5-1 trashing of last week's number-one, Michigan.

But another fight is underway, with potentially greater stakes. It's a battle over the NCAA's campaign to eliminate interference, hooking, holding and all that other stuff hockey fans and reporters like to complain about.

It seems everyone hates clutching and grabbing, until you start enforcing the rules against it. In the eyes of many, the cure is worse than the disease.

The NCAA announced its intentions in September, in rather plain language: zero tolerance on interference; zero tolerance for anyone using hands, arms or stick to impede an opponent.

You can guess how these best intentions are playing out on the ice. Early season games have been little more than all-night drills for penalty killing and power play units.

"Just about everyone outside the commissioners’ offices and the NCAA headquarters – coaches, players, fans – seems ready to throw up their arms in disgust regarding the disjointed games that are a result of a litany of penalty calls," writes Mike Eidelbes at InsideCollegeHockey.com.

“There’s no flow,” says Notre Dame coach Dave Poulin. “The real problem is that you don’t get to play your kids. Is it taking away from other players’ development?”

So will the NCAA stick with the program? It's original announcement anticipated a backlash, and included a section entitled "Weathering the Storm."

But the NHL experience shows that obstruction campaigns always whither and die by Christmas. To re-educate its players and achieve a permanent change in its game, the NCAA will need the strength of Forsberg, the resilience of Lemieux, the belligerence of Tie Domi and the thick skin of Bob Clarke.