Interesting stuff! So we got another three unnamed schools *interested* in college hockey. Any super crazy speculation on which these are? I personally think one is a Big10 (gut feeling to Iowa), one is the University of Arizona, and the last is probably another northern school around the great lakes or Dakotas like Jamestown (maybe a random one in Florida to take advantage of the Lightnings' success). If not Big10, then probably a northwestern university to take advantage of the Kraken's success.
NCAA Hockey Expansion Thread
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SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
And I know I don't need to tell you but Linderwood is already an affiliate member of the Summit League so they could be a fifth hockey team if that relationship grows a little.
mk80
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We are but only for Swimming and Diving now, as LU is now one of the founding members of OVC Men's Soccer.
Barclay Donaldson
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I think the three anonymous universities are Flin Flon State University, University of Northern Virginia, and Almeda University. Equal amount of logic between my three and your three.
CrazyEddie20
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JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
I just hope college hockey is not developing too fast. It is getting exacerbated by these DIII teams wanting to join and not having a conference which sort of kills their programmes in the long run (ie LIU).
Jersey Fan 12
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Not sure why you feel the LIU program is "killed".
The Riley family has a long history in college hockey and the team has a nice recruiting pipeline between Europe and fourth and fifth year players looking to complete their college careers while the program gets its sea legs.
The team is already competitive with most mid-tier ECAC programs and slightly ahead of some of the Atlantic Hockey programs.
It's a shame that Iona College didn't give its program more runway as that would have been a natural NYC rivalry and been a great set of travel partners to add to the ECAC.
I have respect for LIU or any other programme valuing DI hockey and growing the sport. But going in the way they did was pretty risky and their arena situation is iffy. Even though it's better than what ASU played in, it is still a practice rink and I am not sure if they ever have plans to build an actual facility. Even Holy Cross has a legit arena.
Barclay Donaldson
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University of Dubuque starting men's, women's NCAA D-III hockey programs for 2023-24 season, anticipating transfers from Finlandia for both teams - College Hockey | USCHO.com
The University of Dubuque has announced the addition of men's and women's hockey to their NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletics program with
www.uscho.com
University of Dubuque adds NCAA D3 hockey. Sounds like they are taking a lot of kids from Finlandia.
JMCx4
#HopeForHUTCH
From other news reports that I read a/b FU closing, UD is gonna have a lot of competition for the hockey (and other sports) talent looking for a new school.University of Dubuque starting men's, women's NCAA D-III hockey programs for 2023-24 season, anticipating transfers from Finlandia for both teams - College Hockey | USCHO.com
The University of Dubuque has announced the addition of men's and women's hockey to their NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletics program with
University of Dubuque adds NCAA D3 hockey. Sounds like they are taking a lot of kids from Finlandia.
On the women's side of the sport, but it will be interesting to see if it will trickle to the male's side as well. I wonder if Atlantic Hockey getting Syracuse will eventually allow that opening for a men's team as well?
www.uscho.com
Atlantic Hockey, College Hockey America to merge operations beginning with 2024-25 college hockey season - College Hockey | USCHO.com
Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America will merge operations beginning with the 2024-25 college hockey season. Atlantic Hockey and CHA have shared a
www.uscho.com
mk80
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As it currently stands I doubt this leads to any formation of new programs or adjustments of sports offerings by the member schools.On the women's side of the sport, but it will be interesting to see if it will trickle to the male's side as well. I wonder if Atlantic Hockey getting Syracuse will eventually allow that opening for a men's team as well?
Atlantic Hockey, College Hockey America to merge operations beginning with 2024-25 college hockey season - College Hockey | USCHO.com
Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America will merge operations beginning with the 2024-25 college hockey season. Atlantic Hockey and CHA have shared a
Atlantic Hockey and the CHA have shared league staff, commissioners, etc already for years now. This merger streamlines more decision making for the two by merging the boards of directors into one, and adjusting the branding for everyone to be under one umbrella.
I don't anticipate the member schools of AHA and CHA to start adding men's and women's programs just because of the merger alone. They are still subject to Title IX, and all the other factors of any school looking to add hockey. In that line of thinking I also doubt it will have much effect on conference membership shuffling, only two Atlantic Hockey member schools have women's programs not currently playing in the CHA, Scared Heart, and Holy Cross.
HC's women's program plays in Hockey East, and if anything I'd be inclined to think Holy Cross would want to get their men's program into Hockey East than pull their women's program to the CHA.
Sacred Heart plays in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), they just opened their new state of the art Martire Family Arena this past season, while I could see them shifting their women's program to the CHA they are similar to Holy Cross in that I think SHU covets a position in Hockey East for their program as a whole.
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
Oh look, Illinois… another school just going on out there and putting together a varsity program rather than waiting for a perfect storm of circumstances to somehow line up first before trying to do so. What a concept.
Yes, I’m salty. Good for Tennessee State, though.
Yes, I’m salty. Good for Tennessee State, though.
I have doubts about how successful this program will be or the conference they will play in, but good for college hockey and good for the sport.
Men's team will start at the club level with a goal of fielding Division I men’s and women’s teams “in the near future.”
www.wkrn.com
TSU ready to make history as the 1st HBCU to add ice hockey
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee State University (TSU) for so long has been best known in athletics as the place where Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph and the Tigerbelles made track history a…
www.wkrn.com
CrazyEddie20
Registered User
Men's team will start at the club level with a goal of fielding Division I men’s and women’s teams “in the near future.”
TSU ready to make history as the 1st HBCU to add ice hockey
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee State University (TSU) for so long has been best known in athletics as the place where Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph and the Tigerbelles made track history a…
Yeah, so this is not an NCAA program. Not surprised. The school has a miniscule endowment and donor base, so NCAA Division I may remain a dream for Tennessee state.
mk80
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That was a very overhyped announcement for a non NCAA program. My doubts about NCAA hockey happening at TSU still remain after what we got.
GindyDraws
#HutchOut
So, ACHA Division III is a good estimate of where they will be at for the foreseeable future?Men's team will start at the club level with a goal of fielding Division I men’s and women’s teams “in the near future.”
TSU ready to make history as the 1st HBCU to add ice hockey
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee State University (TSU) for so long has been best known in athletics as the place where Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph and the Tigerbelles made track history a…
mk80
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Either that unless they go to College Hockey South which split off from ACHA and claims to be Division 1 now as a part of AAU
CrazyEddie20
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"Division 1" - Hahahaha.
Some of those teams do draw kids from the pay-to-play junior leagues, and even a few bottom-of-the-barrel kids from some pretty good junior leagues. But for them to claim to be "Division 1" is largely an exercise in semantics designed to fool kids and their parents into thinking it's just as good as NCAA Division I. It's not even close. It's pay-to-play, and any of these teams would get run out of the rink by an NCAA team at any level.
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With Arizona State joining NCHC, this might potentially create a pathway for the University of Arizona to have a conference if they ever decided to join (dispensing one of the major hurdles in starting a programme: a conference and multimillion dollars). However, instead of the rumours of any new programmes starting, I think there are better and more interesting rumours out there of another major conference realignment.
What are we thinking could happen?
- NCHC rebranding into Summit Sports? Seems like a long-term future sort of move.
- Augustana University to CCHA. This was confirmed.
- Robert Morris University to Atlantic Hockey. This was confirmed.
- University of Miami (OH) joins CCHA.
- Lindenwood University joins CCHA.
- Minnesota State University joins NCHC.
- Quinnipiac University joins Hockey East.
- Merrimack College joins ECAC.
- Long Island University joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Stonehill College joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Birmingham University joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Utica University joins Atlantic Hockey.
Based on those moves,
- Atlantic Hockey: Gains 5 teams for 15 teams (maybe two conferences)
- Big10: Gains 0
- CCHA: Gains 2 teams for 10 teams
- ECAC: Gains 0
- Hockey East: Gains 0
- NCHC: Gains 1 team for 9 teams
I suspect that one of those teams joining Atlantic Hockey maybe finds their way to ECAC like Long Island or Stonehill.
What are we thinking could happen?
- NCHC rebranding into Summit Sports? Seems like a long-term future sort of move.
- Augustana University to CCHA. This was confirmed.
- Robert Morris University to Atlantic Hockey. This was confirmed.
- University of Miami (OH) joins CCHA.
- Lindenwood University joins CCHA.
- Minnesota State University joins NCHC.
- Quinnipiac University joins Hockey East.
- Merrimack College joins ECAC.
- Long Island University joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Stonehill College joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Birmingham University joins Atlantic Hockey.
- Utica University joins Atlantic Hockey.
Based on those moves,
- Atlantic Hockey: Gains 5 teams for 15 teams (maybe two conferences)
- Big10: Gains 0
- CCHA: Gains 2 teams for 10 teams
- ECAC: Gains 0
- Hockey East: Gains 0
- NCHC: Gains 1 team for 9 teams
I suspect that one of those teams joining Atlantic Hockey maybe finds their way to ECAC like Long Island or Stonehill.
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