The Augustana Vikings men's ice hockey is an announced

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team that is set to begin play in the fall of 2023.

History

In the summer of 2021, in accordance with plans for

Augustana University Augustana University is a private Lutheran university in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The university identifies 1860 as the year of its founding, the same as its Rock Island, Illinois Swedish-heritage sister school, Augustana College. It derives ...

to raise its athletic programs from

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

to Division I, the university announced that there was interest in adding a men's ice hockey program. After receiving donations from several sources, spearheaded by

T. Denny Sanford Thomas Denny Sanford (born December 23, 1935, in Saint Paul) is a South Dakota businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of First Premier Bank and the chairman and chief executive officer of its holding company, United National. Career ...

, the school was able to move forward with plans for the program. On October 5, the school broke ground on the Midco Arena, a $40 million, 3,000-seat venue that the team will use as its home rink. The program will be the first varsity ice hockey team at any level to call

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

home. On April 18, 2022, the program announced the hiring of

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

' assistant coach Garrett Raboin as the team's inaugural head coach. On May 17, 2022, it was announced that the Vikings will become a member of the

Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curr ...

, playing a transitional schedule its first two years before playing a full CCHA schedule come the 2025-26 season.

References

Ice hockey teams in South Dakota {{US-icehockey-team-stub