AIC dropping down to D-2

[Corso]

AIC will drop hockey back to Division II at the end of this season (#491)

American International’s leaders informed members of its hockey team today that the program will return to Division II at the end of the 2024-25 season, ending a 27-year run as a Division I program.

www.collegehockeyinsider.com

So much for the belief that expanding the player pool with CHL players would keep the small schools in the game.

Costs are exploding and many schools are under serious financial strain.

Click to read more...

 

[MiamiHockeyII]

Jeff Marek stated this week his belief that NCAA Div I will expand and become the main development path to the NHL. I believe that opinion is asinine, and that contraction will occur before expansion. Here's why:

1) Costs.
a) Tuition, Room and Board at AIC is ~ $60k USD. A hockey roster of 25 brings the academic costs alone to $1.5M. A public university (e.g., Michigan Tech) may be moderately lower for in-State athletes, and a private university (e.g., Clarkson) moderately higher. Unless you have an established endowment to cover those costs, like Michigan, that's prohibitive. $1.5M annually requires an endowment gift of ~$40M
b) Arena. Conservatively, it's $100M to build a new one. Mullet (ASU) cost $134M, the new OHL arena in Brantford is $140M.
c) Coaching / Travel. Easily $1M unless you can bus everywhere. Endowment of ~$25M

To fund a new program, from scratch, you're looking at an up front cost of nearly $200M, with ZERO chance of profit to the individual donors. It's entirely an ego project.

2) NHL Draft.
With the CHL Eligibility rules, every top NA prospect is going to the CHL, and zero top Draft Picks will come from the NCAA. All the top players will miss the NCAA entirely, and it will become a slow-burn development league with an education upside. The cachet of watching Eichel and Celebrini will be gone.
Moreover, NHL teams will avoid drafting players they think are going to the NCAA because they will no longer have those players' rights for 4 years.

3) Revenues.
NCAA teams have a capped game schedule. Their revenues are restricted as a result. Entrepreneurs who want to invest in hockey will start a CHL franchise with 70+ games, bigger crowds, and no tuition overhead.

4) Title IX. Per-player, ice hockey is more expensive than any sport other than Football. Universities that want to cut will eliminate DI hockey and fund female sports instead to meet their Title IX requirements.

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

Not a shocker. I am about 20 minutes from AIC and can say this: the school itself is on life support, employees are jumping ship, and everyone seems to think it has two years left before the ship sinks.

They already have lost a number of coaches, including the head coach of their moderately successful football program. If things were really okay, you wouldn't have a mass exodus.

The hockey program was obviously their largest non-football expenditure, with a budget apparently set for $1.7M.

With the school churning through ADs and interim presidents at the rate of one per year, they're not going to have a school much longer. They are a five minute drive from two other small private schools which are struggling in Springfield College and Western New England.

Almost In College costs north of $50k per year. Academics are below average. Campus is in the middle of an area which makes Baghdad look nice. I'm surprised the school has lasted as long as it has, let alone the men's program.

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

https://aicyellowjackets.com/general/2024-25/releases/20241113l0susa

Moving the hockey team down from NCAA DI to fit the rest of the athletic department's DII membership in the NE-10 was part of a wide range of cuts attempting to stabilize the university's finances

 

[JMCx4]

FAR more important than a small college's sports programs stability or the institution's future solvency ... Does this hockey team demotion make my collection of AIC hockey merch more or less valuable?

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

FAR more important than a small college's sports programs stability or the institution's future solvency ... Does this hockey team demotion make my collection of AIC hockey merch more or less valuable?

School merchandise has been used as an environmentally friendly alternative to bibs, bathmats, and koozies since about 1890

 

[S E P H]

So much for the belief that expanding the player pool with CHL players would keep the small schools in the game.

CHL-introduction will most definitely help these lower-tier schools, but it will take time.

https://aicyellowjackets.com/general/2024-25/releases/20241113l0susa

Moving the hockey team down from NCAA DI to fit the rest of the athletic department's DII membership in the NE-10 was part of a wide range of cuts attempting to stabilize the university's finances

Seems that it was not the hockey team's fault, but great mismanagement of people at the top in the suits.

 

[MiamiHockeyII]

CHL-introduction will most definitely help these lower-tier schools, but it will take time.


Seems that it was not the hockey team's fault, but great mismanagement of people at the top in the suits.

I don't think anyone remotely suspected the hockey team did anything to get moved from DI.

But, if anyone thinks that AIC is alone, think again. University enrolment is down, and this is hurting the smaller, lower-ranked private colleges. Many have closed or been absorbed, and this trend will continue. Some have massive endowments and loyal alumni that will spare them (e.g., Middlebury College), but small private universities with small endowments are getting crushed and the first thing to go will be athletic scholarships.

AIC has an endowment of ~$30Million, which sounds like a lot until you compare to Middlebury's $1.5Billion endowment. A small university like AIC is a money-losing proposition.

I expect Lindenwood will reconsider its DI hockey program shortly.

 

[BKarchitect]

Bummer. From an on-ice standpoint, 3 NCAA tourney appearances in the last 5 years or so is a pretty darn good return and they’ve had, living up to their name, some pretty interesting international players come through their doors.

Obviously this isn’t about wins and losses - staying competitive at the highest level as a tiny and not exactly richly endowed private school can’t be cheap - but they seemed a solid program in recent times.

 

[Cynicaps]

Bummer. From an on-ice standpoint, 3 NCAA tourney appearances in the last 5 years or so is a pretty darn good return and they’ve had, living up to their name, some pretty interesting international players come through their doors.

This is giving off the same vibe as UHartford announcing they were going from D1 to D3 right in the wake of when they finally made March Madness for the only time.