Remembering Kent State NCAA Hockey

USCHO.com has published the piece I wrote on the demise of the NCAA Division I men's hockey program at Kent (State) 22 years ago. Though the NCAA and CCHA are long gone from the Kent Ice Arena, hockey is still thriving on the Ohio campus in the form of a successful club program.

Saw Kent play several times in Fairbanks, Alaska when I was working at UAF in 1991-92. The Golden Flashes ceased play before I got to Michigan State in the fall of 1994. Hard to believe they've been gone so long.

It's Hockey Season (Finally)

Well, haven't been here in a while, and the 2010-11 college hockey season is now well underway. So much has happened since August, not the least of which was Penn State announcing a couple of months ago that it will move up to the NCAA Division I level for both men's and women's ice hockey in the next few years.

I don't know if I'm at all that crazy about a six-team Big Ten men's hockey conference, or any six-team league, for that matter; but if Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and now Penn State decided to form their own gang (with TV undoubtedly driving that possibility), it could open up opportunities in already-established conferences for other schools. That would be Alabama-Huntsville, primarily, but maybe some other schools such as North Dakota State would be tempted to make the jump to Division I if there were spots open in the CCHA and WCHA. Going it as an independent these days is tough, even though I do remember the good old days in the late '80s and early '90s when the indy ranks included UAH, Air Force, Army, Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks, Kent State and even Notre Dame ...

Boston College has stumbled a bit after starting out of the gate strong last month, while Boston University and Maine both look resurgent after somewhat-down campaigns last season, as does Notre Dame in leading the CCHA. Yale is off to a solid start at 5-1-0, last week’s loss at Air Force notwithstanding, while Princeton is leading the ECAC in conference play (yes, I know it's only been four games). Nebraska-Omaha has been one of college hockey’s biggest surprises so far in starting off its WCHA tenure with eight wins in its first 10 outings, surpassed only by Minnesota-Duluth at 9-1-2 overall and tops in the polls this week. Michigan, Miami and Alaska (Fairbanks) all look strong so far this fall, after all made the NCAA Tournament last spring.

Locally, Princeton - league-leading Princeton - hosts its true home opener on Friday night against Harvard, followed by a visit from Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon. Hard to believe it's been eight months since the Tigers’ ECAC first-round playoff loss to the Crimson, but that's the beauty of a new season - you get to try all over again.

Wayne State to Drop Men’s Ice Hockey Program

Originally written 09/27/2007

Citing budgetary constraints, Wayne State University in Detroit has opted to eliminate its NCAA Division I men's ice hockey program after the 2007-08 season, the Warriors' ninth campaign. The women's hockey program, though, will be retained.

Players wishing to stay at WSU will supposedly have their scholarships honored, but will no longer have a varsity team to skate for. They can also transfer at the end of the season to another school without having to sit out the normal one-year waiting period mandated by the NCAA.

That makes at least a half-dozen men's D-I puck programs eliminated in the last 13 years - Kent, Illinois-Chicago, Fairfield, Iona, Findlay, WSU - and likely also spells the demise of the College Hockey America conference, which also lost Air Force a few years ago and is down to just four teams. That's not enough schools for the group to qualify its playoff champion for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which WSU made for the first - and only - time in 2003.

Wayne State was recently denied membership in the venerable Central Collegiate Hockey Association, home of five major in-state schools, including perennial national powerhouses like Michigan State (defending national champ - Go Spartans) and Michigan, plus other neighbors like Ferris State, Northern Michigan and Western Michigan - and 4,000 miles away (yes), Alaska Fairbanks. How central.

WSU was probably also done in by its lack of an on-campus arena, with the Warriors calling five different rinks home in their eight-year existence. And they call Detroit "Hockeytown" - well, maybe for the NHL's Red Wings, but not the NCAA Warriors.

On a personal note, I was there when Wayne State made its debut back in 1999 and when it recorded its first-ever home win against Findlay at the old Michigan Coliseum Fairgrounds. Seven months from now, when the new D-I national champion is crowned in Denver in April, WSU will join also-defunct Findlay on the sidelines, and all that will be left of the Warriors are memories.

What a rotten day for college hockey.