Arizona State Hockey team will no longer be a club team; moving to Division I
This morning, Arizona State hockey fans everywhere got the greatest news they could have possibly gotten.
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Over the course of the next three seasons, the ASU Sun Devils hockey program will be making a transition — from club hockey to NCAA Division I status.
The program, which went 38-2-0 last season and won the 2014 ACHA Championship, will use these three transition seasons to ease into a full Division I schedule. It will start with a split ACHA- DI season, then move on to a complete DI schedule sans-conference alignment for one additional season before being placed in a DI conference for the start of the 2017-2018 season.
The move, which was made possible by a $32 million donation to the school’s hockey program by the father of a former player, speaks volumes about what hockey in the desert will mean going forward.
That’s right — it’s not just ASU fans that are rejoicing. Arizona Coyotes fans across the NHL are thrilled to hear the news; the growth of hockey in the state can only mean good things for the Pacific Division franchise, who are in the midst of yet another ownership turnover (this September, it was announced that Andrew Barroway would be buying into a majority stake in the franchise, just one calendar year after ICE Arizona purchased the team from the NHL itself).
There is no news yet on which women’s team will be either added or elevated to NCAA status at the school in order to remain compliant with Title IX regulations, but more details are undoubtedly to come.
‘Nuff said. Welcome to the DI fam, Sun Devils.
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