NCAA Division I Women's Hockey conferences and teams
The following is a list of NCAA women's collegiate ice hockey teams, and conferences they compete in, that compete for the annual National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship. The championship has existed since the 2000–2001 season and conferences include the university teams of Divisions I and II of the NCAA.[1]
Independents
Sacred Heart is one of only two Division I independent hockey teams in the 2015–16 season, and the only women's team competing as such. The other Division I independent is the Arizona State men's team, newly upgraded from club to varsity status.
Hockey East (HEA)
Hockey East (full name: Hockey East Association) is a college athletic conference which operates primarily in New England, and features men's and women's competition.[2] While the men's side of the conference added Notre Dame, located in Indiana, in 2013, the women's side remains a New England-only organization. It has emerged as one of the top women’s ice hockey conferences in United States. Hockey East continues to send teams to the Frozen Four as well to the NCAA Tournament.
- Boston College Eagles women's ice hockey
- Boston University Terriers women's ice hockey
- Connecticut Huskies women's ice hockey
- Maine Black Bears women's ice hockey
- Merrimack Warriors women's ice hockey
- New Hampshire Wildcats women's ice hockey
- Northeastern Huskies women's ice hockey
- Providence Friars women's ice hockey
- Vermont Catamounts women's ice hockey
College Hockey America (CHA)
College Hockey America (CHA) is a women’s college ice hockey conference (it participates in the NCAA’s Division I as a hockey-only conference).[3] The conference began as a men's hockey conference in 1999, and added women's competition in 2002. After several of its member schools dropped the sport or moved to other conferences, the men's side of CHA folded after the 2009–10 season. CHA remains in operation as a women-only conference, currently with six teams — two from New York state; one from Missouri; and three from Pennsylvania:
- Lindenwood Lady Lions ice hockey (joined 2012)
- Mercyhurst Lakers women's ice hockey (original member from 2002)
- Penn State Nittany Lions women's ice hockey (joined 2012)
- RIT Tigers women's ice hockey (Joined 2012)
- Robert Morris Lady Colonials ice hockey (Joined 2005)
- Syracuse Orange women's ice hockey (Joined 2008)
The Lindenwood Lady Lions (from the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri), the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers, and Penn State Nittany Lions joined the conference for the 2012-13 season. The CHA champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Elite 8 Tournament starting in the 2014-15 season.
ECAC Hockey
Located in the northeastern United States, the ECAC Hockey has changed to meet the needs of the exploding collegiate sport as 24 teams have called ECAC Hockey home since the first regional championship was contested in 1984.[4] Clarkson became the first non-WCHA team to win the national championship when it defeated the Minnesota Gophers in the 2014 Frozen Four.
- Brown Bears women's ice hockey
- Clarkson Golden Knights women's ice hockey
- Colgate Raiders women's ice hockey
- Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey
- Dartmouth Big Green women's ice hockey
- Harvard Crimson women's ice hockey
- Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey
- Quinnipiac Bobcats women's ice hockey
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers
- St. Lawrence Skating Saints women's ice hockey
- Union Dutchwomen ice hockey
- Yale Bulldogs women's ice hockey
- It is the only NCAA Division I hockey conference whose members all field varsity men's and women's teams.
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA)
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association which operates over a wide area of the Midwestern and Western United States.[5] It participates in NCAA Division I as a hockey-only conference. The WCHA teams won every NCAA Women’s National Championship from 2001-13.
- Bemidji State Beavers women's ice hockey
- Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey
- Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey
- Minnesota State Mavericks women's ice hockey
- University of North Dakota women's ice hockey
- Ohio State Buckeyes women's ice hockey
- St. Cloud State Huskies women's ice hockey
- Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey
- Although the men's side of the WCHA was heavily affected by conference realignment in 2013, the women's side of the conference remained intact.