91-420: The U Sports Men's Ice Hockey Championship , is a Canadian university ice hockey tournament conducted by U Sports , and determines the men's national champion. The tournament involves the champions from each of Canada's four regional sports conferences. The David Johnston University Cup is awarded to the winners. The UNB Reds are the current champions for the 2023–24 season. The Alberta Golden Bears hold
182-523: A Division II national championship from 1978 to 1984 and also from 1993 to 1999. The 84 programs in Division III hockey are part of nine conferences: The Middle Atlantic Conference officially sponsors men's and women's ice hockey, but does not hold a conference tournament. Instead, in a relationship similar to that between the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey, all MAC hockey schools are members of
273-526: A class action was filed on behalf of a player who was declared ineligible after having played two exhibition games in the OHL when he was 16 years old. Men's U.S. college hockey is a feeder system to the National Hockey League . As of the 2010–11 season, 30 percent of NHL players (a total of 294) had U.S. college hockey experience prior to turning professional, an increase of 35 percent from
364-567: A 10-game tour of Canada, the students returned to their respective schools with the intent of founding collegiate ice hockey clubs. Yale , where Chace served as team captain and player-coach, was the first of the group to organize its team and in February 1896 the Bulldogs played the first two intercollegiate ice hockey games against Johns Hopkins University . While Johns Hopkins' program would cease for 90 years after 1898, Yale has served as
455-720: A bedrock of college hockey ever since, playing continually including through the Great Depression and two world wars . Yale's 125-year continuous streak was broken for the 2020-21 season , when all Ivy League winter sports were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Another game often cited as the "first game of intercollegiate ice hockey played in the United States" is a well-documented contest on January 19, 1898 at Franklin Park , Boston. Students from Brown took
546-714: A conference in 2018 and received NCAA recognition in 2019. There are 67 teams in Division III in eight conferences: As noted previously, the Middle Atlantic Conference sponsors women's ice hockey, but does not hold a conference tournament. All of its hockey members compete for the UCHC's automatic tournament berth, and the MAC champion is extrapolated from regular-season results of games between MAC members. U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS )
637-431: A defensive or offensive position depending on the need. The remaining five positions would be unchanged. By the 1921–22 season college hockey adopted the increasingly more common six–a–side format with the abandonment of the second center/rover position and the two point men being renamed as 'defensemen'. The change from point men to defensemen came as a result of an alignment change where instead of lining up one in front of
728-464: A much larger student body and a resulting influx in cash, colleges were more able to afford to support an ice hockey team. By 1947, college ice hockey was still a regional sport, being localized in the northeast and northern Midwest (with a few exceptions) but despite the low number of teams playing, the NCAA finally instituted a national tournament. At the start the tournament invited two participants from
819-653: A national champion starting with the 1962–63 season, by Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada . These two schools, located in Kingston, Ontario , had been the participants in the first organized interuniversity hockey game, played in Kingston in 1885. The cup is meant to recognize the overall contribution made to the game of hockey by outstanding university players. The CIAU changed its name to Canadian Interuniversity Sport (renaming
910-588: A new era for the tournament. Toronto agreed to serve as tournament host for ten years. This allowed the CIAU to eliminate the automatic qualifier for the host team as an incentive. The tournament field was reduced to four entrants: Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec and West. The Atlantic and West spots would go to the AUAA and Canada West champions respectively. The OUAA would receive both the Ontario and Quebec bids which would go to
1001-475: A new logo and approach to Canadian University sports. The name was chosen in part to better represent Canada as a bilingual nation with a united name as opposed to separate acronyms. The new name and look were also intended to increase the marketability of Canadian University sports. The U Sports member institutions offer athletic scholarships known as Athletic Financial Awards (AFA); subject to minimum academic requirements. The AFA's are capped and may not exceed
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#17327730834811092-410: A targeted fund especially designed to off-set a student-athlete's tuition and living costs. The University of Windsor has an Adopt-A-Lancer program, for example. U Sports has no regulations regarding how much each school can provide to teams through private support. The Université Laval's Rouge et Or football team, winner of seven of the last 12 Vanier Cups , is so successful with fund raising that
1183-466: A timeline. Robert Morris resumed National Collegiate play in 2023–24, returning to CHA after having dropped men's and women's hockey following the 2020–21 season. Both teams are now in the merged Atlantic Hockey America. The newest National Collegiate conference is the NEWHA, formed in 2017 as a scheduling alliance between the then-current National Collegiate independents . It formally organized as
1274-786: A two-pool format to a single-elimination competition (quarter-finals, semifinals and gold-medal final plus a bronze-medal game). The eight teams competing include the four regional conference champions: AUS, Canada West, OUA West and OUA East (where the three men's hockey teams from the RSEQ compete). The remaining four teams are: the host, the Canada West runner-up, the AUS runner-up and the OUA 3rd-place finisher (bronze medalist). The 'natural' conference champions are seeded 1–3; AUS, CW and OUA Queen's Cup Champion (in ranked order). The OUA Queen's Cup Finalist
1365-475: Is always seed No. 4. The remaining teams are seeded 5–7, all based on the pre-tournament Top 10 Ranking Poll with the expectation that the host is likely 8th. A joint bid from St. Francis Xavier University and Saint Mary's University was selected to host the first two events using this format; 2015 (St. FX as the host) and 2016 (SMU as the host). U Sports evaluated those two events and continues to use this tournament format. † The championship round
1456-592: Is known as the Pairwise Rankings, which uses a number of ranking factors to create a scoring system for all NCAA Division I teams. In 2023–24, one school played its first season of Division I hockey, while another resumed D-I play after a two-season hiatus. Augustana University , a Division II school in South Dakota (and not to be confused with Augustana College , a Division III school in Illinois),
1547-515: Is launching a new varsity program as the newest member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association . Robert Morris , which had suspended its men's and women's hockey programs after the 2020–21 season due to COVID-19 impacts, reinstated both teams for 2023–24, with the men returning to their previous home of Atlantic Hockey . As of the upcoming 2024–25 season, the conferences are: The most recent change to
1638-713: Is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), Canada West (CW), and Atlantic University Sport (AUS). The equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). Some institutions are members of both bodies for different sports. The original Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU)
1729-476: Is the term used for hockey primarily played at four-year institutions ; that level of the sport is governed by U Sports . In fall of 1892, Malcolm Greene Chace , then a freshman at Brown University , and Robert Wrenn , of Harvard University , were participating in a tennis tournament in Niagara Falls, Ontario . They both had dabbled a bit in a sport called ice polo; in Ontario, they met members of
1820-429: The 1965 University Cup . While these disagreements could have dealt a debilitating blow to the tournament, all parties were eventually able to come to an agreement by 1966 . The champions of the five conferences would now be invited to participate with the conferences that reached the final the previous season automatically being placed in the semifinals. Unfortunately, this new arrangement meant that whichever team lost
1911-514: The Victoria Hockey Club , who introduced them to their similar game of ice hockey , and invited the two to visit Montreal to learn about their version of the game. The next winter, during Christmas break 1894-1895, Chace (who had by then transferred to Yale University ) and Wrenn returned to Canada with a group of college students from several universities. The cadre was one of the first American ice hockey teams and, after
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#17327730834812002-648: The Western Collegiate Hockey Association . These schools had announced in late 2019 that they would leave the WCHA after the 2020–21 season, and subsequently announced that they would operate as a new CCHA. In July 2020, the new CCHA added an eighth member in St. Thomas , a Twin Cities institution that made an unprecedented move from NCAA Division III directly to Division I. Augustana became
2093-564: The 1964 tournament but their application was denied. In protest, the conference immediately dissolved and forced the CIAU committee to reconsider over the summer. At the same time, Toronto , declined their invitation in 1964. The very next season, with the OIAA now included in the tournament field, all four teams that qualified for the QOAA tournament announced that they would not accept an invitation to
2184-676: The 2024–25 season, students will be able to receive athletic scholarships regardless of the grades they receive in their final year of high school or CEGEP. U Sports institutions will also be required to give a minimum of 45 per cent of their total athletic scholarship units to athletes on men's teams and a minimum of 45 per cent to athletes on women's teams. Sports sanctioned include the following: basketball , cross country , curling , field hockey (women), football (men), ice hockey , rugby union (women), soccer , swimming , track and field , volleyball , and wrestling . Championships Championships U Sports hosts national championships for
2275-420: The AUS in 1998 followed by the OUA and CW, repeating on a tri-year cycle. Due to the random nature of the host bidding process, some tournaments saw more local teams then expected when the host advanced as a conference champion. It was possible for CW or AUS hosts to have 3 teams from their conference or 4 teams in the case of an OUA host who was also a champion. To reduce the local bias, the rotation selection rule
2366-692: The Blues were the victors in the overall most lopsided final, winning 16–2 in 1967. In the seven years from 2013 through 2019 , only the Alberta Golden Bears (3 wins) or the UNB Reds (4 wins) won the championship. The currently dominant UNB Reds have won four of the last six UCups. The trophy was presented to U Sports, then known as the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU), for presentation to
2457-408: The CIAU decided to invite two teams from each of the five conference. This resulted in the largest field that tournament had ever seen (as of 2024). The secondary teams were selected based upon their performance in the respective conference tournaments. The two finalists from four of the leagues would automatically qualify four the tournament while, for the host team, if they were to win their tournament
2548-488: The CIAU from his office at RMC as the first CIAU Secretary-Treasurer. He helped create the national university ice hockey championship tournament, which was hosted by RMC for its first two years (1963 and 1964). College ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within
2639-630: The Canadian Women's Interuniversity Athletic Union (CWIAU), which had formed in 1970, merged with the CIAU; the expanded CIAU reinforced its university focus by adjusting its name to the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union. In June 2001, the membership of the CIAU voted to change the name and logo of the organization to Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). On October 20, 2016, CIS announced that it would be changing its name to U Sports, accompanied by
2730-461: The ECAC). The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference sponsored D-I men's hockey, but dropped the sport in 2003. The most recent additions to D-I men's ice hockey are the aforementioned Augustana and Robert Morris. The 2022–23 season saw Alaska Anchorage resume D-I play after a successful fundraising drive. In May 2021, Tennessee State University announced that it was conducting a feasibility study on
2821-549: The GPAC in 1985 resulted in a reduction of senior conferences down to four. Because the tournament host was still being offered an automatic bid, this left the field at 5 entrants. Instead of using one of the previous formats, the University Cup was expanded to seven teams. The qualifying schools were selected by one of three ways: The Host ( Alberta ) was seeded first and received a bye into the semifinal round. The champions of
U Sports men's ice hockey championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-607: The NCAA Eligibility Center, a process that examines a student-athlete's academic qualifications and amateur status. Players who have played in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) historically were considered to be professionals and therefore ineligible. In 2024 the NCAA changed its position and decided that CHL players were no longer ineligible as of the 2025–26 season. The decision was made after
3003-679: The NEWHA, having joined for administrative purposes a year earlier. Delaware will start National Collegiate play in the 2025–26 season. When announcing the addition of women's ice hockey, Delaware stated that it would join College Hockey America, but CHA had already announced its planned merger with the Atlantic Hockey Association. Delaware's future CHA membership accordingly transferred to Atlantic Hockey America. Also, as noted previously, Tennessee State has plans to add women's hockey, although it did not set
3094-691: The TSU athletic department. TSU plans to eventually upgrade its men's and women's teams to NCAA play. The Hobey Baker Memorial Award honors the top player in men's Division I hockey. The Mike Richter Award honors the top goaltender in Division I. The NCAA does not currently sponsor a championship in NCAA Division II , as there is only one conference that currently sponsors hockey, the Northeast-10 Conference . The NCAA conducted
3185-410: The U.S.' entry played during the 1942–43 season but were mothballed afterwards. There were notable exceptions such as Yale and Dartmouth , who continued to play through the duration of the war, but many teams returned to the ice for an abbreviated 1945–46 season. One benefit to college hockey that resulted from the war was the G.I. Bill which helped returning servicemen pay for a college education. With
3276-484: The UCHC, and the MAC uses regular-season results of games between MAC members to extrapolate a MAC champion. MAC members compete for the UCHC's automatic NCAA tournament berth. The NCAA has conducted a Division III national championship since 1984. The current championship format is a 12-team (formerly 11-team), single-elimination bracket. There are 108 colleges and universities that sponsor women's ice hockey in two divisions: National Collegiate and Division III. As of
3367-456: The WCIAU was split in two as a way to help the western teams cut down on operating costs. An arrangement was made with the two new conferences (Canada West and GPAC) to allow the champions of both leagues entry into the University Cup, however, rather than play individual league championships, the two would send their regular season champions to the tournament site to play a quarterfinal match during
3458-507: The armistice was signed. Colleges in the midwest began their own ice hockey programs. At the beginning these were typically restricted to upper-echelon universities like the University of Minnesota or the University of Michigan but some of the smaller schools got into the game as well. From the MIAC 's foundation in 1920, member schools have played ice hockey and were able to establish
3549-612: The collapse of CIAU Central as there was no forum to evaluate or research policy in order to adjudicate conflicts within the organization At the same time women's programs were expanding and required organization. In 1923, the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WIAU) was founded to provide athletic competition for female students in Ontario and the Ontario-Quebec Women's Intercollegiate Athletics (O-QWICA) coordinated programs for female students in Ontario and Quebec. With
3640-680: The collapse of the CIAU Central in the mid-1950s, calls for a new, national governing body for university sport accelerated. Once the Royal Military College of Canada became a degree granting institution, Major W. J. (Danny) McLeod, athletic director at the RMC directed the establishment of the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) in 1961. With financial assistance from the federal government , universities committed themselves to excellence in their sports programs, increased their schedules, and assigned coaches to year round programs to assist
3731-445: The federal government in identifying talent, national training centers, provision of facilities, sport research, and testing, all with an eye on developing international competitors. Major McLeod ran the CIAU from his office at RMC as the first CIAU Secretary-Treasurer. In the 1960s the CIAU functioned as a voluntary, autonomous, educational sport organization which represented by the various universities from coast to coast. In 1978,
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3822-467: The field for the team to use. As rinks continued to be built in areas near to the colleges, specifically the Boston Arena , New Haven Arena and Philadelphia Ice Palace , college teams had more and more ice rinks available to them and with most using artificial ice the teams were no longer dependent on weather conditions. Owing to the popularity of the game the first on-campus, purpose-built arena
3913-451: The field now set at six teams, the format was changed to a round-robin style. The participants were sorted into two three-team groups. Within each group, the teams would play one another once and the team with the best record would advance to the final. Ties were allowed in pool play, however, in case there was a tie in the standings, the team with the better goal differential would be advanced. This format remained unchanged until 1984 , when
4004-412: The final bid would go to the runner-up otherwise it would go to their conference champion. The qualifying teams were then sorted into three separate groups: East, West and Host. The conference that served as host (OUAA) would have both of their qualifiers advanced to the semifinal round while the remaining eight teams were placed into regional semifinal brackets. Due to the expanded nature of the tournament,
4095-487: The first consistent lower-tier competition in college hockey. While college ice hockey flourished in the 1920s the Great Depression did have an impact on the game in the '30s. Most schools that had established programs made the effort to keep their teams going but some less-acclaimed teams like Pennsylvania or Columbia decided that ice hockey wasn't worth the cost. Some of the smaller schools like Rensselaer had no choice but to suspend their programs as they did not have
4186-433: The four forward setup the players were arranged from a faceoff as a left and right wing (or end) on the outside and a left and right center on the inside. The two point men and goaltender were typically arrayed in a line from center ice to the goal as cover point, point and goaltender. If viewed from above, the players would form a T. If a rover was used instead there would only be one center. The rover would line up either in
4277-496: The four leagues were then sorted two through five based upon their overall records and placed in the quarterfinals accordingly. The final two wild-card spots would then go to the runners-up from the AUAA and OUAA and arranged so that there would not be intra-conference matches in the quarterfinal round. The QUAA was the only conference not to receive a second bye due to the fact that the league had been pared down to just five schools at
4368-659: The full Division I members are in the Football Bowl Subdivision . Seven of the FBS schools compete in the Big Ten Conference ; six are full conference members and the seventh is a single-sport member. The NCAA Division I Championship is a 16-team, single-elimination tournament, divided into four, 4-team regional tournaments. The winner of each regional advances to the Frozen Four to compete for
4459-462: The game with a winner decided but even after multiple overtimes ties did result. From the start college hockey teams were rarely in a place of surety. In the 10 years since Johns Hopkins University 's exit in 1898 at least a dozen teams were forced to cancel seasons or suspend their program entirely, including some of the more financially sound institutions like Cornell University and Brown University . The two main factors in this were interest from
4550-699: The governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In Canada, the term " college hockey " refers to community college and small college ice hockey that currently consists of a varsity conference – the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC) – and a club league – the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL). " University hockey "
4641-593: The ice on Beebe Lake until after World War II . The vast majority of teams ceased operating in 1917 after the United States entered World War I . This made sense as many of the students who would otherwise have been playing had instead joined the military. Because the war ended in November 1918 many of the teams returned to the ice for the 1918–19 season and, while the game continued to grow around New England , an interesting development happened shortly after
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#17327730834814732-455: The lineup of Division I men's hockey conferences was the creation of Atlantic Hockey America shortly after the 2023–24 season. It was formed by the merger of the men-only Atlantic Hockey Association and the women-only College Hockey America . The CCHA, the revival of a league that had operated from 1971 to 2013 before folding in the aftermath of major conference realignment , initially consisted of seven schools that had previously competed in
4823-608: The main wooden portion. The two handles that used to be attached to the bowl, and frequently broke off, were removed. An additional black wooden ring was added to the bottom of the trophy in order to incorporate more school shields, as an engraved metal shield, with diagonal stripes in the winning school's colours, is added to the trophy every year. On March 13, 2018, U Sports renamed the cup the David Johnston University Cup in honour of David Johnston , former Governor General of Canada . The 2020 championship
4914-419: The men-only Atlantic Hockey Association. The National Collegiate championship is an 8-team, single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion. The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is awarded annually by USA Hockey to the top player in women's Division I hockey. The most recent school to start National Collegiate play is Assumption , which begins varsity play in 2023–24 as the newest member of
5005-638: The move a "suspension"). The other remaining WCHA men's member was Alaska , representing the Fairbanks campus of the University of Alaska; it chose to continue play as a D-I independent. The Ivy League recognizes ice hockey champions for both sexes, but it does not sponsor the sport; it instead uses the results of regular-season ECAC Hockey matches involving two Ivy League schools to extrapolate an Ivy champion (all six Ivy League schools that sponsor varsity hockey do so for both men and women, and compete in
5096-548: The national championship. The winningest coaches are Tom Watt and former UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall, whom, at the helm of the Toronto Varsity Blues and Reds respectively, won nine University Cup championships between 1966 and 1977 and 2007 and 2024. Clare Drake sits second, coaching the Alberta Golden Bears to six University Cup championships between 1964 and 1986. When the tournament
5187-456: The national championship. For many years, 5 teams earned automatic bids through winning conference tournament championships, while 11 earned at-large berths through a selection committee. With the addition of the Big Ten hockey conference for the 2013–14 season, the tournament now features 6 automatic qualifiers, and 10 at-large bids. The ranking system that is used to determine the at-large teams
5278-453: The next several years until a large conference realignment took place in 1971. The early 1970s saw three leagues in the middle of the country dissolve with all associated teams resorted into two provincial conferences for Ontario and Quebec . As a result, the tournament entrants were reduced back to four teams and allowed the University Cup to eliminate both the quarterfinal round and the consolation bracket in 1972 . However, one year later,
5369-427: The ninth member in 2023. As for the WCHA, it folded its men's division. Not only did the aforementioned group of seven schools leave to form the revived CCHA, but an eighth men's member, Alaska Anchorage , had announced it would drop hockey (plus two other sports) after the 2020–21 school year. Still another men's member, Alabama–Huntsville (UAH), had also filed papers to leave after the 2020–21 season, then dropped
5460-499: The original 1963 competition, nothing else since then), but to never host the championships. The other province missing from this list, Newfoundland and Labrador, had not yet hosted yet when it withdrew from varsity men's hockey after the 1981–82 season. In addition to the University Cup, the Major W.J. "Danny" McLeod Award is presented following the conclusion of the tournament to the individual deemed Most Valuable Player. Major McLeod
5551-571: The other, the two defensive players would play beside one another. The ice surfaces that the players played on were not of a uniform size. Rinks like the St. Nicholas Rink or Duquesne Gardens were few and far between and quite often teams would only be able to play on frozen ponds. Slightly more consistent were the length of games, however, there was no set game time. Most were played as two 20-minute halves but some games had 15- or 25-minute halves and others were one 40-minute period. Occasionally games were not able to be played entirely at one time so
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#17327730834815642-689: The possible addition of varsity men's and women's hockey teams. Should TSU add either team, it would become the first historically black university to field a varsity hockey team. The study was partially backed by the NHL and the Nashville Predators , located in TSU's home city . TSU announced in June 2023 that it would start a men's hockey program at club level in 2024–25, with women's hockey to be added at an indeterminate future time. While hockey will initially play at club level, it will be overseen by
5733-448: The previous 10 years. That percentage has been maintained the past three seasons, with a record 301 NHL players coming from college hockey in 2011–12. One hundred thirty-eight colleges and universities sponsor men's ice hockey in the NCAA's three divisions. NCAA Division I will have 64 ice hockey teams in the 2024–25 season. Of these schools, 20 are Division II or III athletic programs that "play up" to Division I in hockey, and 16 of
5824-445: The quarterfinal round would only play a single game. Previously, thanks to the consolation match, all teams were guaranteed at least two matches. In order to address this minor wrinkle, a consolation bracket was introduced in 1967 . For several years afterwards, teams that lost in either the quarterfinal or semifinal rounds would play one another to determine the final three places in the tournament. This format remained largely intact for
5915-411: The record of 16 championship wins, as well as the record of 24 championship final appearances. The Toronto Varsity Blues hold the record of 5 consecutive championship trophy wins, from 1969 through 1973, but have not returned to the tournament since 1993, when they suffered the second most lopsided loss in a UCup final, 12–1. Alternatively, during their power years, winning 9 UCups in the 1960s and 1970s,
6006-466: The regional rounds were held at the home venue of one of the qualifying teams. One team from each region (East and West) would advance to the semifinal round, however, seeding was not determined ahead of time. Instead, the bracket was arranged so that the East and West champion would play one of the two host conference teams in a semifinal first round. The winners of the first round game would then advance to
6097-566: The resources that a Harvard or Yale did. After the first half of the 1930s, however, the depression lessened and schools were able to found or restart their programs. The game continued to expand west with the addition of Gonzaga , USC , UCLA and others, however, none of the Pacific-coast teams would make it to the 1950s. As was the case during World War I , the majority of universities suspended their ice hockey teams during World War II . Most of teams that were active just prior to
6188-461: The round-robin was dropped in favor of a quarterfinal round. For two tournaments in the mid-80s, the conference that served as host would have both of its qualifying teams advance to the semifinals (much as they had in 1976). However, instead of a regional bracket, the remaining league champions were placed into East and West quarterfinals. The quarterfinal rounds were best-of-three while the semifinals were two-game total goal series. The collapse of
6279-408: The same time that the other three conference were holding their respective playoffs. This de facto conference championship was only held between the two western leagues. Additionally, instead of bringing the consolation bracket back, both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were converted into best of three series, guaranteeing that all participating teams would play at least two games. This format
6370-441: The second round of the semifinals and play the losing team of the opposite first round match. It was only the winners of the semifinal second round that would advance to the championship game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this convoluted format survived for only one tournament. While many of the advents of the 1976 tournament were discarded, one was retained; the tournament host would continue to receive an automatic berth until 1987. With
6461-437: The sport entirely due to fallout from COVID-19, but soon reinstated the sport following a successful fundraising drive led by UAH hockey alumni. This reprieve proved temporary, as the school and its hockey supporters agreed that the continuation of the sport beyond 2020–21 would be contingent on finding a new conference home; when no conference move materialized, the hockey program was dropped again (although UAH officially called
6552-521: The student body and the lack of available or good ice. While the interest conundrum required a more nuanced solution, the ice troubles had a more tangible answer. Teams near to public skating rinks would be able to hold their games at venues where ice conditions could be ensured but at the start, with so few available, some programs came up with novel solutions. One such idea came from Harvard University who, after completing construction of their football stadium in 1904, decided to erect two open-air rinks on
6643-506: The team trains in Florida during the spring. Canadian Hockey League teams offer financial support for their graduates – who attend school within two years of playing major junior – who choose to play for a U Sports school after graduating from major junior hockey based on a model where the league will give scholarships commensurate with the seasons they played in the CHL. Beginning with
6734-436: The teams would arrange to meet at a later date to finish the match. Overtime after a tie did not always occur, as ice times at public skating rinks were constrained, but even when teams were able to play extra frames the rules were somewhat flexible; because there were no lights illuminating the ponds, games could only be played while the sun was shining and in the winter months dusk came quickly. The teams would attempt to finish
6825-492: The time. For the 1987 tournament, the format reverted to a round-robin arrangement. Still with four conference champions, the tournament offered one wild-card spot to the runner-up of the OUAA tournament. This was done primarily due to the fact that the OUAA was by far the largest conference. However, this format lasted just one season before the OUAA absorbed QUAA, leaving just three active senior collegiate leagues. 1988 began
6916-437: The tournament leaving five spots for regional representatives. The three conference champions and OUA Queen's Cup Runner-up would automatically be included with the fifth spot as a rotating 'wild-card' team. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies won the bid to host the first three (3) tournaments: 1998, 1999 and 2000. The wild-card selection was initially chosen based on a static rotation through each conference starting with
7007-571: The train to Boston, where they commandeered a patch of a frozen pond in Franklin Park, asked pleasure skaters to give them room, and played students from Harvard. The details and outcome of the game were recorded in the following day's Boston Herald : Brown 6, Harvard 0. Within ten years all eight schools that would eventually comprise the Ivy League had played their first game as well as several other nearby teams. A lack of available ice
7098-681: The trophy the CIS University Cup ) in 2001, and again in October 2016 to U Sports (renaming the trophy the U Sports University Cup ). The original University Cup is located at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and does not travel publicly. A replica was created with a less ornate cup in 2006. Between 2006 and 2015, the trophy has been modified after several repairs - the metal bowl is now of simpler design, and mounts more flush to
7189-788: The two regions: east and west. The east region was loosely defined as any college east of the Pennsylvania - Ohio border with all other teams being lumped into the west region. The tournament was held at the Broadmoor World Arena for the first ten years. Partially due to a lack of competition, Michigan was invited to participate in each of the first ten tournaments and won six National Championships in that time. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has conducted national championships for men's ice hockey since 1948, and women's ice hockey since 2001. U.S. college hockey players must be deemed eligible for NCAA competition by
7280-537: The two tournament finalists. This format remained in place for the entire time that Toronto served as host. In later years, the championship game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens . Starting in 1998, the CIS changed the format of the University Cup tournament to a six-team/two-pool tournament that would be hosted by a CIS member institution/team rather than in Toronto at Varsity Arena. The host would automatically be included in
7371-483: The upcoming 2024–25 season, 44 teams compete in the National Collegiate division (commonly referred to as Division I). All of them play in one of five conferences: The WCHA remains in operation as a women's league despite the demise of the conference's men's side. As noted in the Division I men's section, Atlantic Hockey America was formed by the 2024 merger of the women-only College Hockey America and
7462-502: The value of the tuition and compulsory fees for the student-athlete. Universities also may provide additional non-athletic awards including academic scholarships and needs-based grants for athletes in addition to this cap, provided the additional awards do not include athletic criteria. In 2008-09 one in two U Sports athletes was receiving an athletic scholarship. Increasingly, U Sports schools are offering booster-support programs, where alumni, parents and/or corporations can donate money to
7553-433: Was a best-of-three series These tables rank appearances in the final championship game. The only province missing from this list, Newfoundland and Labrador , has only one U Sports member, Memorial University of Newfoundland . Memorial dropped their varsity men's hockey team after the 1981–82 season. British Columbia is the only province to have a team play in the championship final ( UBC Thunderbirds were runners-up in
7644-476: Was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic after two quarter-final games had already been played. On October 15, 2020, the 2021 inception was also cancelled. With the completion of the 2023–24 championship, 27 different teams have played in the national championship final (however Sir George Williams University merged with Loyola College in 1974 to create Concordia University , so it could be described as 26 different teams). In all, 17 different teams have won
7735-452: Was changed prior to the 2009 season - the wild-card would now only come from a non-host conference while maintaining the rotation. In 2009 the OUA was the host conference (Lakehead University) and should have also been the original wild-card conference, instead the AUS provided the wild-card. This rule remained in effect until the format changed in 2015 to 8 teams. Starting in 2015, the tournament expanded from six to eight teams and moved from
7826-568: Was constructed by Princeton University in 1923. Most schools were content with buying ice time from local rink operators while others simply didn't want to fund the building of their own version of the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink . As the weather warmed in the 1930s and 40s many of these teams would be forced to decide whether they were willing to financially support their ice hockey programs or not. Army , for instance, had Smith Rink built in 1930 while Cornell struggled with
7917-417: Was founded in 1906 and existed until 1955, composed only of universities from Ontario and Quebec . The semi-national organization, CIAU Central, provided common rules and regulations. A growth spurt between 1944–55 saw the CIAU Central grow into a large group of nineteen (19) member universities each of which had diverse enrollment, philosophy, and practices both academically and athletically. The result saw
8008-408: Was inaugurated in 1963, the only teams invited were conference champions. At the time, not every conference held a postseason tournament, nor was every conference champion invited. The only participating teams were the champions of the four leagues thought of to be playing senior college hockey. Not all teams were satisfied with this arrangement. The OIAA applies for its champion to receive an entry into
8099-710: Was the overall athletic director at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), was the coach of RMC's ice hockey team, and simultaneously coached two Kingston teams in the Ontario Hockey Association – the Kingston Frontenacs ( Junior B ) and the Kingston Aces ( Senior A ). McLeod was instrumental in establishing the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) in 1961, operating
8190-515: Was the primary concern for most schools as to whether they should start a program or continue supporting an existing team but that did not detract from the enthusiasm of the students. For at least the first 25 years of intercollegiate play the teams used a 7-on-7 format, a typical setup for turn of the century ice hockey. On a faceoff players were typically arranged as either four forwards , two point men and one goaltender or three forwards , one rover , two point men and one goaltender . In
8281-445: Was used only for three seasons with a slight modification in 1975; that season saw the championship round being a best-of-three for the In 1976 , the University Cup format was radically altered. First, the team that agreed to serve as host (Toronto) was given an automatic qualifier for the first time. Because this could result in one conference having six teams participate for the first time,
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