Like many youth athletes, perhaps including you or your player, my ambitions were to play NCAA Division I sports. I did achieve this goal but finished my career at the “club” hockey level. What seemed like a dismal end was actually the most enjoyable hockey season I ever played and a glimpse into the future of what was to come, not only for non-NCAA “club” hockey, but for non-NCAA club sports in general.
When I arrived at Villanova University in 1995, the college hockey
landscape in New England and East Coast looked very
different than it does today. Specifically, there were universities that were
playing NCAA DI sports such as football and basketball, that were also fielding men’s hockey teams at the NCAA DIII
level, Villanova being one of them. Schools like University of Connecticut,
Fairfield University, Iona, Bentley, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac and Holy Cross
who all played NCAA DI for their other sports were fielding NCAA DIII men’s
hockey programs.
As I was making the decision to attend Villanova in the spring of
1995 it was announced that it was probable that the teams that were playing
NCAA DIII hockey at NCAA DI schools would have to re-organize as NCAA DI
programs along with their other athletic programs
by my senior year (1998-99), or “declassify” and play
as “club” teams. The final decision would not be made until the end of my
sophomore year (1996-97). I went to Villanova regardless, liking the school,
the size and the distance from home knowing that it was possible that my final
season could end up being in “club” fashion.
While my Villanova NCAA team was still
in its NCAA form in my first two years, we did have
a limited number of additional games against non-NCAA
“club” teams which would be considered a lower level of play. We played local
Philadelphia schools Drexel and West Chester who we would beat, but not in
overwhelming fashion. We played the U.S. Naval Academy who we could squeak by,
but had their own arena in Annapolis and more resources than our NCAA team. And
lastly, we played Penn State, a club team that already had an on-campus arena,
resources and a legitimate track record of defeating NCAA teams including us at
Villanova.
While my final year did end up at the “club” hockey level, I had
just played two years of NCAA hockey and could compare firsthand what I
experienced in both of these levels. What I saw was an overlap in talent levels
and resources that continues even more today. I observed that even in northern
“traditional hockey areas”, schools like Chicago, Columbia, Marquette, Navy, U.
Rhode Island, U. Illinois, Syracuse, UPenn and others all skated at the “club”
level and could be viewed as “destinations” to play.
What was also apparent was that there was going to be a
“spillover” effect of talent from NCAA DI and DIII hockey into “club” level
programs because
the number of men’s NCAA hockey programs was SHRINKING (61 NCAA DI Teams in
1995, 60 in 2025) while the NHL EXPANDED its presence into AZ, CA, FL, GA, NC,
TN and TX in the 1990s ( and more recently
into UT and WA). Along with NHL expansion grew an even larger youth hockey talent pool competing for those
very same number of NCAA hockey roster spots.
Today, not only is there
a market of players seeking college hockey opportunities, there are ample new
college hockey fans eager and willing to pay attention to college hockey
whether it be in the NCAA format or club format. Right now, many of the large football-playing universities in the South and
West have major fan followings for their club hockey teams that outdraw smaller
northern NCAA counterparts that are technically a “higher level”. Examples abound, but one of the most dramatic examples of the interest
than can be drawn at the largest of schools that do not field NCAA
hockey teams, but do field club programs, was in Raleigh, North Carolina on
Monday, February 20, 2023 when NC State took on UNC-Chapel Hill in an outdoor
game that drew and estimated 24,000 fans. The size and scale element is a real
factor that can change non-NCAA “club sports” into events that look and feel as
large, if not larger, than NCAA DII/III or even DI counterparts.
My personal experience in NCAA hockey, followed by one year
in “club” hockey at a very critical tipping point, has led to 25 years of close observation of college hockey and other sports toward non-NCAA college club sport
models. What I experienced in 1998-99 was not what I had hoped for in my last
year of college hockey, but I didn’t have the maturity to understand
what was available outside of the NCAA world. Once
I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it and could see exactly what was going to play out,
and what did play out - that more and more athletes
would find meaningful competitive college athletic
experiences in non-NCAA intercollegiate club sports and there is more to come.
As a parent, player, coach or administrator, are you picking up on this change
in attitudes toward non-NCAA club sports?
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