The

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) held a men's national ice hockey championship from 1968 to 1984 when

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 hock ...

was dropped as an NAIA sport.

Early history

The NAIA Men's Ice Hockey Championship held a single elimination competition to determined the collegiate national champion from the inaugural 1968 to 1984. The tournament began as a four-team tournament but expanded to six and eight teams during the peak time-frame during the 1970s and early 1980s. The tournament returned to the 4-team format for the final two seasons with declining hockey participation at the NAIA level. In total, the NAIA sponsored men's ice hockey as a championship sport for 17 years. The schools were consolidated in the

Northern United States The Northern United States, commonly referred to as the American North, the Northern States, or simply the North, is a geographical or historical region of the United States. History Early history Before the 19th century westward expansion, the "N ...

and the tournament field primarily consisted between schools in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, with occasional contenders from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. NAIA ice hockey also had an international presence in the early years of the championship with membership in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. In total, ice hockey at the NAIA level consisted of between 30 and 50 schools. It was discontinued in 1984 after the NCAA created a Division III national championship.

Tournament format history

;1968–1972 : 4 teams (single elimination) ;1973–1974 : 6 teams (single elimination) ;1975–1982 : 8 teams (single elimination) ;1983-1984 : 4 teams (single elimination)

Winners of the NAIA national ice hockey championship

Recent history

During the summer of 2015, a group of schools fielding the sport began working with the NAIA administrators in an effort to gain emerging sport status and work to eventually sponsoring the sport at the championship level again. The NAIA requires a minimum of 15 schools to sponsor a sport at the varsity level to begin the process from emerging to championship categories. In 2016, several NAIA institutions that sponsor men's ice hockey teams announced the formation of a coaches association and a new division for NAIA ice hockey program to begin play during the 2017–18 season. The division will initially operate under the guidance of the

American Collegiate Hockey Association The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is a college ice hockey association. The ACHA's purpose is to be an organization of collegiate affiliated non-varsity programs, which provides structure, regulates operations, and promotes qualit ...

(ACHA) during the emerging sport phase of the process to regain NAIA championship sport status. The new division will allow these NAIA schools to align their standards with the institution's other NAIA sports, including distinct differences from the other ACHA divisions in terms of player eligibility, operational procedures, and athletic financial aid. The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) made history in July 2017, by adding men's ice hockey as conference sports effective the fall of 2017. The WHAC became the first conference in the NAIA to offer the sport as a conference championship sport. Initially, the five conference members that sponsor ice hockey will participate in a conference championship. In July 2017, Concordia University Ann Arbor announced that the university will begin an ice hockey program and begin competition in the NAIA Division and WHAC Hockey Conference in the 2018–19 season. In April 2020, Roosevelt University began to sponsor men's ice hockey after inheriting

Robert Morris University Robert Morris University (RMU) is a private university in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1921 and is named after Robert Morris, known as the "financier of the mericanrevolution." It enrolls nearly 5,000 students and offers 60 b ...

's men's team and its ACHA membership because Robert Morris was integrated into Roosevelt a month before.

Current WHAC men's ice hockey teams

Other NAIA schools fielding hockey teams

References

External links

NAIA ice hockey
{{National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

Ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

NAIA Men's Ice Hockey Championship