Can NCAA teams afford to expand Women's Hockey?

[Corso]

A nice article detailing the problems the University of Michigan is experiencing in trying to ice a women's team.

Michigan’s next steps and costs to adding a Division I women’s hockey team

A feasibility study exploring the potential of adding of a varsity women's team at the University of Michigan is completed.

www.mlive.com

Seems that everyone is waiting for the next Pegula and the impending House Settlement is only adding to the costs.....

Click to read more...

 

[qc14]

Disappointing but not surprising. Any NCAA hockey expansion (men's or women's) will probably have to wait for the NIL and revenue sharing stuff to finally settle. Will also probably need a decoupling of football from the rest of the D1/D3 and conference structure as well.

I will say though that a new women's program would have the benefit of balancing scholarships/spend against football for Title IX purposes. Would probably have to come at a school that doesn't already have a men's team though.

 

[Takuto Maruki]

This is why I laughed when people seriously suggested that the NCAA-CHL agreement would lead to an increase of men's hockey teams in D1, especially out west with the influx of talent. These universities are beholden to big money football and basketball interests - and there have been countless stories of reputable programs (including Illinois in Michigan's own B1G backyard!) basically ignoring any and all calls for D1 college hockey because the finances simply aren't there to justify it.

For every Arizona State or Penn State, there is the trials and tribulations of Lindenwood and TSU who prove that just because there is a will, and a way from university administration (and desire plus support from established pro teams) doesn't mean that they will outrun the cost of starting up a hockey program from scratch, men or women, especially now that universities are expected to feed the beast of CFB and CBB to a lesser extent.