NCAA Hockey Expansion Thread

[JMCx4]

Expansion-adjacency discussion option invoked ...

Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America Join to Form Atlantic Hockey America

Rebranded leagues will debut in 2024-25

NAPLES, Fla. – April 30, 2024 – The Atlantic Hockey Association and College Hockey America announced Tuesday they will begin competing jointly as one united league under the name Atlantic Hockey America in 2024-25.

From the ocean waters of the Atlantic, to the rest of America, Atlantic Hockey America unites more than two decades of history from each conference while signaling a new era for the future.

Atlantic Hockey, which has competed as a NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey conference since 2003 and College Hockey America, which debuted in women’s NCAA Division I ice hockey in 2002, have shared administrative operations since 2010 but have competed as separate entities until today. ...

The two leagues bring a combined 43 years together under the Atlantic Hockey America brand. The 11-team men’s league consists of Air Force, AIC, Army West Point, Bentley, Canisius, Holy Cross, Mercyhurst, Niagara, RIT, Robert Morris and Sacred Heart. The six-team women’s league features Lindenwood, Mercyhurst, Penn State, RIT, Robert Morris and Syracuse and will welcome Delaware as its seventh member in 2025-26. ...

Read & See more at:

Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America Join to Form Atlantic Hockey America

The Atlantic Hockey Association and College Hockey America announced Tuesday they will begin competing jointly as one united league under the name Atlantic Hockey America in 2024-25.

atlantichockeyonline.com

 

[Nodak651]

Seems Tennessee State is serious about starting NCAA hockey starting in 2025. Guessing it may be a mix between club and NCAA games. First hockey season will be this fall, as a club program. Looks like they hired the perfect coach for them.

 

[JMCx4]

Seems Tennessee State is serious about starting NCAA hockey starting in 2025. Guessing it may be a mix between club and NCAA games. First hockey season will be this fall, as a club program. Looks like they hired the perfect coach for them.

That "perfect coach for them" certainly has an impressive resume. I hope he gets the long-term TSU administration support he needs to establish & grow a successful ice hockey program.

 

[S E P H]

So for the people who missed it, St. Thomas uncommitted to CCHA and is now joining NCHC in 2026.

 

[JMCx4]

@Dakota Sioux keeps us up-to-date on NCHC doings.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That seems like a surprisingly good promotion for the Tommies, being able to fairly effortlessly migrate from being booted out of D-III to joining the freaking NCHC in just a few short years.

 

[JMCx4]

That seems like a surprisingly good promotion for the Tommies, being able to fairly effortlessly migrate from being booted out of D-III to joining the freaking NCHC in just a few short years.

Money talks. Loudly.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Here's what I think will happen in re: college hockey expansion this year:

Neither Lindenwood, Stonehill, nor LIU will finish the year anywhere near .500.

Robert Morris will not win five games in their first season back in Division I.

Alabama-Huntsville will not restart and the program will finally be declared dead.

Alaska-Anchorage will improve to near .500, but will have a difficult schedule.

At least two other Division II schools, likely Franklin Pierce and St. Anselm, will join Stonehill in Division I.

Tennessee State will do very little towards actually starting a club program.

Illinois will announce they aren't going forward with a real college hockey program.

At least one other school in Division I will announce the end of their program.

Neither Lindenwood, Stonehill, nor LIU finished the year anywhere near .500. LIU was the closest, at 16-20-1, but eight of their wins came against Stone hill, and another win (and a loss) came against St. Anselm. Ricky Rubber Stamp got kicked to the curb after finishing 6-18-1 at Lindenwood. Stonehill went 2-34-0, losing to, well, everyone the played, but managing a win against D-III Assumption and Lindenwood, which may be why Ricky Rubber Stamp got fired.

Robert Morris outperformed my prediction, going 11-25-3.

Alabama-Huntsville still has a page on the UAH athletics website, but has no staff, and despite the university saying the program will be back once they can find a conference to play in, there's no movement there either. When you roll over the 'sports' tab on the UAH athletics website, men's hockey is not listed. They have no coach and no staff listed on the website.

Alaska-Anchorage finished 15-17-1 despite a brutal travel schedule. That record included two wins at Lindenwood and two home wins against Stonehill.

No movement yet regarding Franklin Pierce and St. A's, but the three Northeast-10 Division II schools have to figure something out. St. Michael's is the other school that I could see moving to Division I for hockey.

Tennessee State hired a coach, but there is, as of yet, not one real indication that this is going to be anything beyond a club program. I'd bet Duante Abercrombie is gone within 18 months when he figures out that there isn't any real momentum towards a real college hockey program.

Illinois isn't going forward with putting together a real college hockey program.

No other schools have announced they're dropping hockey... yet. But the trend of rich schools only getting richer is going to push smaller schools out of Division I. Outside of the Big Ten teams, BC, BU, the Ivies (and maybe not all six of them), and a few others, Division I hockey isn't sustainable without a lot of help from alumni donations and endowed coaching jobs - probably at as many as 35 of the 60-some schools that are playing in Division I, including some that just started programs.

What will happen this year?

If we're lucky, the status quo will be maintained and no more programs will disappear.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Tennessee State hired a coach, but there is, as of yet, not one real indication that this is going to be anything beyond a club program. I'd bet Duante Abercrombie is gone within 18 months when he figures out that there isn't any real momentum towards a real college hockey program.

TSU's official account buried the news, tweeting it in reply to a Bleacher Report tweet yesterday:



I hope they take a good, hard look at what some of the most recent new programs have done and try to do better. They shouldn't be trying to emulate Lindenwood, Stonehill, or LIU.

 

[S E P H]

TSU's official account buried the news, tweeting it in reply to a Bleacher Report tweet yesterday:



I hope they take a good, hard look at what some of the most recent new programs have done and try to do better. They shouldn't be trying to emulate Lindenwood, Stonehill, or LIU.

What if the person who's in charge of their Twitter/sports just isn't a hockey person? It isn't really a sport "ingrained" in the African-American community in the United States.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

What if the person who's in charge of their Twitter/sports just isn't a hockey person? It isn't really a sport "ingrained" in the African-American community in the United States.

It's nothing to do with being "a hockey person," and also has nothing to do with the race of the person sending the tweet, which you are assuming.

Edited to add: You can go on the TSU Athletics website and see that the person who likely sent the tweet is Eric Guerriero, who is definitely not an African-American.

It's everything to do with building a structured public and media relations campaign to draw attention to what you're doing. Announcing the move to Division I in a reply to another outlet's tweet about the uniform reveal is decidedly not that.

 

[mk80]

They won't be wearing those jerseys on the ice this season considering they have a grand total of 1 player, and a coach.

I highly doubt they will have an NCAA level program on the ice in 25-26, right now I haven't seen anything of substance to point towards that happening. The team social media talks about NCAA more than UNLV's does.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

They won't be wearing those jerseys on the ice this season considering they have a grand total of 1 player, and a coach.

I highly doubt they will have an NCAA level program on the ice in 25-26, right now I haven't seen anything of substance to point towards that happening. The team social media talks about NCAA more than UNLV's does.

I'd have to think that they're not planning on playing the 2024-25 season as a club team. They're going to jump right into the deep end ...if they do it at all. I'm highly doubtful, too, that it actually happens. TSU's endowment isn't all that big, so they have to find about $1M per season from somewhere. It's not coming from alumni donations, because if alumni donations were a viable source of revenue for TSU, they'd have a significant endowment. Nor will they get it from the state, which has underfunded HBCUs by $2.1 billion from 1987-2022.

I think what Tennessee State is trying to do is great, and great for hockey in the US as well as college hockey, I just don't think that it will be as easy as they think to get it done, nor will it be as easy as they think to be competitive.

The nearest comparison to TSU is LIU, which started a program out of nowhere and hasn't been competitive yet. Like it seems TSU will, they play off-campus in an NHL practice facility. They don't have much of a fan base, don't have a conference, and have miniscule attendance. I'm not really sure how long a program can survive given those issues.

 

[S E P H]

There's an article out there saying that the University of Washington is not considering hockey any time soon when they join the Big 10. UW AD mentioned there is a better chance of them making a wrestling programme before hockey since if they make a men's team, they would want a women's team as well due to Title IX. The arena situation is the biggest obstacle.

 

[tank44]

There's an article out there saying that the University of Washington is not considering hockey any time soon when they join the Big 10. UW AD mentioned there is a better chance of them making a wrestling programme before hockey since if they make a men's team, they would want a women's team as well due to Title IX. The arena situation is the biggest obstacle.

The UW Club program is pretty decent and currently practice/play our of the Kraken practice facility which is a few miles away and 2 stops away on light rail from UW Campus. But there is not any ice sheets on campus nor is there likely to be.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Yeah, I would be prettt surprised if any of the new Pacific teams opened up a varsity hockey program any time soon. That'd be quite the trek for their games in a much smaller money sport that's as expensive as it is. The ironically non-money sports make more economic sense.

If the Big Ten adds teams, it'll be either adding another affiliate one-sport member or from Illinois, Iowa, or Nebraska getting their gears lined up.

 

[S E P H]

The UW Club program is pretty decent and currently practice/play our of the Kraken practice facility which is a few miles away and 2 stops away on light rail from UW Campus. But there is not any ice sheets on campus nor is there likely to be.

I believe the UW AD also said they would want an on-campus arena in the article.

Yeah, I would be prettt surprised if any of the new Pacific teams opened up a varsity hockey program any time soon. That'd be quite the trek for their games in a much smaller money sport that's as expensive as it is. The ironically non-money sports make more economic sense.

If the Big Ten adds teams, it'll be either adding another affiliate one-sport member or from Illinois, Iowa, or Nebraska getting their gears lined up.

Well, supposedly a good source said that if the University of Oregon ever joined the Big 10, one of the stipulations was to eventually build a DI hockey team within five years or so of them joining. Then there's a ton of publicity for UCLA's hockey team when they joined Big 10, but the Ducks were probably the best source we have since the same bloke called some other things that turned out to be true. If I was going to guess, the next wave of "potential" teams (that are semi-well known) will be schools like Navy, Oakland, Oregon, and UNLV if we disregard anything Northeast D1 expansion schools like all those DIII and DII schools wanting to go DI. That will be the most likely expansion.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That seems like a lot to process as a behind the scenes agreement for a program officially joining the Big Ten in a handful of weeks. I'd think that there'd be a lot more smoke around Oregon if that was a set upon stipulation.

As a caveat to note regarding my speculation, when (not if) the Big Ten raids the ACC, one of the schools I'd guess they'd aim for is BC to really enter the New England market in force. If that happens, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered BU an affiliate membership for hockey, too.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

There's an article out there saying that the University of Washington is not considering hockey any time soon when they join the Big 10. UW AD mentioned there is a better chance of them making a wrestling programme before hockey since if they make a men's team, they would want a women's team as well due to Title IX. The arena situation is the biggest obstacle.

Where is this article? If you're going to cite a source, please post it.

I believe the UW AD also said they would want an on-campus arena in the article.


Well, supposedly a good source said that if the University of Oregon ever joined the Big 10, one of the stipulations was to eventually build a DI hockey team within five years or so of them joining. Then there's a ton of publicity for UCLA's hockey team when they joined Big 10, but the Ducks were probably the best source we have since the same bloke called some other things that turned out to be true. If I was going to guess, the next wave of "potential" teams (that are semi-well known) will be schools like Navy, Oakland, Oregon, and UNLV if we disregard anything Northeast D1 expansion schools like all those DIII and DII schools wanting to go DI. That will be the most likely expansion.

A good source? You have sources? Inside the UofO athletic department and the Big Ten conference?

You live in Poland and claim to be a WHL scout. Do you really expect us to believe that you have sources in the Big Ten and at UofO?

Show us this "ton of publicity" for UCLA's hockey team, too, because they literally get no press coverage or publicity.

Allegedly, Moderators are supposed to confirm claims of having inside sources and knowledge, but they never seem to follow their own rules when it comes to claims made by pie-in-the-sky fart-sniffing fanboi expansionists.

 

[S E P H]

Where is this article? If you're going to cite a source, please post it.

https://soundofhockey.com/2024/02/20/with-the-university-of-washington-moving-to-the-big-10-will-it-add-d-i-hockey/

Google is two clicks away fam.

A good source? You have sources? Inside the UofO athletic department and the Big Ten conference?

I posted this video like 10 pages back, I can't hold your hand and wiener every time you go pee my brethren.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

I posted this video like 10 pages back, I can't hold your hand and wiener every time you go pee my brethren.

Says the guy with zero knowledge of college hockey who claims to be a scout. For the WHL. In Poland.

Ten pages back is over a year ago. Post your sources.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

https://soundofhockey.com/2024/02/20/with-the-university-of-washington-moving-to-the-big-10-will-it-add-d-i-hockey/

All you pie-in-the-sky fart-sniffing expansionist fanbois take note: This story lays it all out in a span of three sentences.

"Snee also estimated that operating a men’s hockey program costs $4-5 million annually, so in total, he approximated that a new men’s program for UW would require a pot of about $160 million.

That rough $160 million estimate is a big chunk of change that UW certainly won’t field without a few massive unforeseen gifts from deep-pocketed donors. Such gifts have been catalysts for new programs popping up in several different areas of the country, and that is what would need to happen at Washington."

So no, it ain't happening, barring Washington finding their own Pegula.

 

[JMCx4]

... "Snee also estimated that operating a men’s hockey program costs $4-5 million annually, so in total, he approximated that a new men’s program for UW would require a pot of about $160 million.

That rough $160 million estimate is a big chunk of change that UW certainly won’t field without a few massive unforeseen gifts from deep-pocketed donors. Such gifts have been catalysts for new programs popping up in several different areas of the country, and that is what would need to happen at Washington."

So no, it ain't happening, barring Washington finding their own Pegula.

Or a Mrs. Pegula.

 

[Hollywood3]

Says the guy with zero knowledge of college hockey who claims to be a scout. For the WHL. In Poland.

Ten pages back is over a year ago. Post your sources.

Poland?

Those crazy NCAA conferences are really expanding outside their traditional footprint.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Poland?

Those crazy NCAA conferences are really expanding outside their traditional footprint.

Fart-sniffing expansionist fanbois with no understanding of the business of hockey or college sports are everywhere, unfortunately.

And they all think expansion is going to happen, regardless of financial reality or fact.