LAS VEGAS — How to increase the number of teams in Division I hockey, despite the recent shutdown of two Atlantic Hockey America programs, was a hot subject at Friday’s “State of the Game” panel discussion at the Frozen Four.
As part of a wide-ranging press conference, College Hockey Inc. executive director Sean Hogan said he remains bullish on D-I hockey’s growth, even after last month’s announcement that Mercyhurst was dropping its men’s program and the folding of American International after the 2024-25 season. Both teams were members of Atlantic Hockey America.
“In my opinion, where I think we’re going to see growth on the men’s or women’s side are Division I schools that do not have major college football,” said Hogan. “Our sport is one of the few sports where the major blue bloods don’t always win the national championship. You can elevate your athletic department, your university, schedule some of the biggest blue bloods in college sports, they’ll be on your schedule, come to your building. That’s not something that happens in a lot of other sports.”
Trevor Large, Canisius head coach and chair of the NCAA ice hockey rules committee, said it has been difficult to watch two members of his conference fold their programs.
“The reality is that hockey is an expensive sport,” said Large. “I think we’re all tasked with trying to make sure the best opportunities are available to compete at the highest level, to have all the resources we all want.”
Large noted the disparity in budgets and resources between larger and smaller programs.
“Maybe the competition that’s on the ice is parity, but it doesn’t exist in all other areas,” he said.
NCAA men’s Division I ice hockey committee chair Tim Troville, who also serves as a senior associate director of athletics at Harvard, said he has a personal goal for the sport.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to do it, but I’d love to see us grow up to maybe 75 programs,” Troville said. “The player pool is growing. Just having additional opportunities to play college hockey is good.”
Still, preserving existing programs is essential.
“What can we do as a college hockey body to protect some of these programs, especially the independents? Do what we can to schedule them,” Hogan said. “Seems like 10, 15 years ago we found a way to bring them all into conferences. I know that’s not always going to be possible. As much as we can, bring everybody in the group.
“We need to do that to protect our sport. We added one in Maryville,” said Hogan of the latest school to add D-I hockey. “In the same week we lost one (Mercyhurst). So we’re still at 63. We want to get to 75, 85 programs. It’s doable.”
Hogan said College Hockey Inc. continues to advocate for adding both men’s and women’s programs.
“That’s one thing we’re out there doing: beating the bushes trying to create more teams,” he said.