Map - College Hockey - Independents states

NCAA Division I independent schools are teams that compete in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

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 ...

but are not members of a

conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

. There are several current schools who, at one time or another, competed as Division I independents.

Current independent programs

Men

Alaska played infrequently as an independent program prior to 1985. They returned to independent status after the

Great West Hockey Conference The Great West Hockey Conference was a short-lived NCAA Division I college ice hockey conference. The conference was formed in 1985 by the four D-I independent schools west of the Rocky Mountains: the University of Alaska Anchorage, the Univers ...

dissolved in 1988 and then joined the CCHA in 1995. The team was one of two final members of the men's division of the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

in 2021 and formally dissolved the men's side of the conference in 2021 (the WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league). Alaska-Anchorage first moved to D1 status in hockey in 1984, and played its first couple years as an independent before joining the newly founded GWHC alongside the Nanooks. After it dissolved, the Seawolves also played as an independent before joining the WCHA in 1994, around the same time Alaska joined the nearby CCHA. In 2020, the University of Alaska announced that UAA hockey would be cut after the 2020-21 season due to a reduction in state funding unless the program could raise 3 million dollars, and the program went on hiatus that year while its future was uncertain. Ultimately, the program was saved, and it returned to play in the 2022-23 season as an independent, following the dissolution of the men's side of its former conference, the WCHA. The Sun Devils moved up from club hockey in the ACHA to full varsity status. Arizona State began playing a full Division I schedule in 2016–17. The Sharks launched their men's program for the 2020–21 season. With the 2020–21 season dramatically impacted by

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, both Arizona State and LIU were in

scheduling alliance A scheduling alliance is an agreement between collegiate athletic conferences or independent college athletic teams to guarantee a set number of games to each member of a team, or to create a competitive challenge between athletic conferences. Al ...

s with Division I conferences for that season, respectively with the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and

Atlantic Hockey The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) is an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. Unlike several other c ...

. In 2021–22, Lindenwood fielded two separate men's club teams, each playing at a different level 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), which governs the sport at club level. On March 23, 2022, Lindenwood announced that it would launch a Division I men's varsity program starting in the 2022–23 season, while maintaining its ACHA program. This announcement came shortly after the school announced it was starting a transition from Division II to Division I in July 2022, joining the non-hockey

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...

. On April 5, 2022, Stonehill, then a member of the D-II

Northeast-10 Conference The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of ...

(NE-10), announced it was joining the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

(which also does not sponsor ice hockey) that July, starting its own transition to D-I. Before this announcement, Stonehill had been one of seven NE-10 members that played men's ice hockey under Division II regulations, despite the NCAA not sponsoring a championship event at that level. (All other D-II schools with varsity men's ice hockey play under D-I regulations.)

Women

No women's program has competed as an independent in the National Collegiate division of women's ice hockey, the de facto equivalent of Division I in that sport, since the 2018–19 season. The NCAA has never sponsored a Division II championship in the sport, although it does sponsor a

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

championship. Five schools competed as independents in the 2018–19 season, all participating in the nascent

New England Women's Hockey Alliance The New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) is a women's college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. As of the current 2022–23 season, the conference is made up o ...

(NEWHA), which had originally been established in 2017 as a scheduling alliance among all of the then-current National Collegiate independents. The NEWHA initially included six schools, but Holy Cross left after the inaugural 2017–18 NEWHA season to join

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

. The NEWHA officially organized as a conference in advance of the 2018–19 season, but was not officially recognized by the NCAA as a Division I league until the 2019–20 season, by which time the newly launched LIU program had joined as the sixth member. The newest National Collegiate hockey school is Stonehill, which starts varsity play in the 2022–23 season as the newest (full) member of the NEWHA. Two other schools will add the sport in 2023–24.

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Town ...

joined the NEWHA for administrative purposes alongside Stonehill in 2022, but will not start conference play until launching its varsity team a year later. Robert Morris, which had dropped the sport after the 2020–21 season due to

impacts, will resume play in 2023–24, returning to its previous conference of

College Hockey America College Hockey America (CHA) is a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference is made up of five women’s teams, with two in Pennsylvania; two in New Y ...

Current programs which were at one point independent

Men

Women

Defunct teams

Men

Women

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:NCAA Division I Independent Schools (Ice Hockey)

NCAA Division I Independents The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Independents, ice hockey * *

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 ...

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Current independent programs

Men

Women

Current programs which were at one point independent

Men

Women

Defunct teams

Men

Women

See also

References