Arizona State Sun Devils Moving to NCAA Division I Hockey in 2015-16
Arizona State University is apparently skating up to the big time.
According to a report at Fox Sports Arizona, the Sun Devils will be the latest school to join the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey ranks, thanks to a $32 million donation from private supporters led by Milwaukee businessman and ASU alumnus Don Mullett.
ASU will become the 60th NCAA Division I men's hockey program, and the first in the state since Northern Arizona University dropped its Division I team in 1986. Greg Adams played 15 years in the NHL after a two-year stint with the NAU Lumberjacks. ASU will also have to add a women's athletics program such as lacrosse to satisfy Title IX issues.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
“Head coach Greg Powers has built a powerhouse ice hockey program here in Tempe, and because of his work it was probably a matter not of ‘if’ but ‘when’ Sun Devil Hockey would be ready to compete at the highest level,” said ASU Vice President of University Athletics Ray Anderson at Pac-12.com. “I am grateful for the generosity shown by our hockey supporters to make this move possible, and I am hopeful that more members of the extended Sun Devils Athletics family will help us grow this program for the future.”
It is hoped that ASU moving from club to NCAA Division I hockey might spur other PAC-12 schools like Arizona and Colorado to do so as well. Each of those schools currently features an ACHA Division I program, with Arizona the primary tenant at the 9,000-plus-seat Tucson Convention Center.
Powers, who has recruited several players from the prestigious junior-level United States Hockey League to Tempe, is expected to remain on as coach when the Sun Devils transition to NCAA Division I. The USHL is the main feeder of recruits to NCAA Division I hockey.
ASU won last year's American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I national championship, its first in school history, finishing the season 38-2-0. The non-scholarship ACHA is comparable in terms of talent to NCAA Division III, and ACHA schools have actually beaten NCAA teams in the past.
Penn State, which began its NCAA Division I program in 2012-13 after years as a national club power, defeated Division I Wayne State over a decade ago when the Nittany Lions were still a club team. Wayne State dropped its varsity men's hockey program in 2008 but was recently resurrected as a club sport at the Michigan school.
As with Penn State, ASU plans to wade slowly into the NCAA waters, playing a mix of ACHA and NCAA schools beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. The plan is to then become an NCAA Division I independent the following season, and then finally join an existing league, most likely the National Collegiate Hockey Conference or the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
The NCHC formed out of the demise of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and the rise of the Big Ten hockey conference in 2013. Current NCHC teams include Colorado College, Denver, Miami (Ohio) and North Dakota, while the revamped WCHA features Alaska Anchorage, Alaska (Fairbanks), Bowling Green, Michigan Tech and Minnesota State.
It is not exactly known where the Sun Devils will play their home games once they transfer to NCAA Division I, although it could be the the 40-year-old Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, current home of Sun Devil basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling. The facility would likely have to be retrofitted to sustain an ice sheet.
Another possibility might be the US Airways Center, known formerly as America West Arena, in downtown Phoenix, home of the NBA's Suns. The Sun Devils currently skate out of the Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
