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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
After eight years as an independent, Arizona State’s hockey program announced Wednesday that it is has joined the National College Hockey Conference and will start play in the 2024-25 season.
Being the newest member of the NCHC is the latest step for an Arizona State program that in less than a decade went from being a club team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association to reaching the Division I men’s tournament in the 2018-19 season.
Arizona State joins what has arguably been the most dominant men’s college hockey conference in the nation, as five of the past seven national champions have come from the NCHC. The conference includes national powerhouses such as the University of Denver, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the University of North Dakota and St. Cloud State.
“The NCHC is ecstatic to welcome Arizona State University as a member beginning in the 2024-25 season,” conference commissioner Heather Weems said in a statement. “… As the NCAA Division I landscape continues to change, ASU advances the NCHC’s competitive and fiscal stability while providing a destination trip for NCHC member institutions’ alumni and fans. We are also excited to introduce ASU fans and the western U.S. market to the strong traditions of our member institutions and to create new rivalries within the NCHC.”
The 2022-23 men’s D-I tournament was the first time an NCHC team did not make the Frozen Four since the conference started in 2013.
The move means the NCHC has nine men’s member schools; ASU does not have a Division I women’s program.
Last season, Arizona State was one of six independent men’s college hockey programs.
Operating as an independent program without a conference affiliation meant Arizona State typically had to travel throughout the nation for games. It also had its own share of challenges when it came to earning a bid for the national tournament.
Arizona State, which finished 18-21 during the 2022-23 season, traveled for games against NCHC teams such as Denver and North Dakota last season, it also traveled for games against the University of Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State in Minnesota, Clarkson University in New York and the University of New Hampshire.