The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's Division I as a women's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a men-only league, adding women's competition in the 1999–2000 season. It operated men's and women's leagues through the 2020–21 season; during this period, the men's WCHA expanded to include teams far removed from its traditional Midwestern base, with members in Alabama, Alaska, and Colorado at different times. The men's side of the league officially disbanded after seven members left to form the revived

Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curr ...

(CCHA); the WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league. WCHA member teams won a record 38 men's NCAA hockey championships, most recently in 2011 by the

Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Minnesota Duluth. They were first named Bulldogs in 1933. Their colors are maroon and gold. The school competes in the NCAA's Division II in all sports except ic ...

. A WCHA team also finished as the national runner-up a total of 28 times. WCHA teams also won the first 13 NCAA women's titles, which were first awarded in 2001.

History

The league was founded in 1951 as the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League (MCHL), then was known as the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League (WIHL) until 1958. The WIHL disbanded in 1958 after Minnesota and the three Michigan schools withdrew in protest of Colorado College, Denver and North Dakota recruiting overage Canadians. While this didn't violate NCAA rules, the four "M" schools felt it violated the spirit of intercollegiate athletics. The current Western Collegiate Hockey Association was founded for the 1959–60 season after the former WIHL schools concluded that the region needed a strong league. Despite this, Denver and Minnesota would not play each other until 1973, when the league took over scheduling from the individual members. The 2005 NCAA Frozen Four hockey tournament finals were noteworthy when all four teams came from the WCHA. WCHA teams also won the first 13 NCAA women's titles, which were first awarded in 2001. In 2006, WCHA member Wisconsin was the first school to capture both the men's and women's Division I ice hockey championships in the same season. The men's regular season conference champion was awarded the

MacNaughton Cup The MacNaughton Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the regular season conference champion of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). The trophy is named after James MacNaughton of Calumet, Michigan, who was a supporter of amateur ice h ...

, while the league's tournament champion winning the WCHA Final Five took home the

Broadmoor Trophy The Broadmoor Trophy is a trophy that has been awarded to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) playoff champion since 1985. The trophy itself dates to 1981, when it was awarded to the WCHA regular season champion for three seasons, f ...

2013 realignment

On March 22, 2011, Minnesota and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

announced that their men's teams planned to leave the league in order to form a hockey

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

in 2013–14, along with Penn State, which would start a varsity hockey program in 2012–13, and

members

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, Michigan State, and

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. In response to the creation of the Big Ten men's hockey conference,

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

Nebraska-Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

, Minnesota-Duluth, and St. Cloud State left the WCHA to join

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

and

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

of the CCHA to create the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Facing membership at 4 teams for the 2013–14 season, the WCHA conference added one of its former members,

Northern Michigan Northern Michigan, also known as Northern Lower Michigan (known colloquially to residents of more southerly parts of the state and summer residents from cities such as Detroit as " Up North"), is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. A popul ...

of the CCHA, on July 15, 2011. On August 25, 2011, the WCHA announced that it had invited the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State, and Lake Superior State to join beginning in the 2013–14 season. On August 26, 2011, Alaska-Fairbanks, Ferris State, and Lake Superior State accepted their invitations and joined Northern Michigan in the WCHA in 2013. After much deliberation, on October 4, 2011, Bowling Green decided to join the WCHA as well in 2013. On January 17, 2013, the WCHA admitted Alabama–Huntsville to the league, effective in the 2013–14 season. This realignment activity only affected the men's side of the WCHA. Even after Penn State took the ice with both men's and women's teams, the Big Ten still had only four members with varsity women's hockey (Michigan and Michigan State field only men's teams). This meant that the women's side of the WCHA remained intact for the immediate future.

After realignment

The next change in the conference membership came shortly after the 2016–17 season, when North Dakota announced that it would drop women's hockey. During the 2019 offseason, the future of the men's side of the WCHA fell into serious doubt when its seven Midwestern members—Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and Northern Michigan—notified the WCHA that they would leave the league after the 2020–21 season, potentially forming a new men's hockey conference. In February 2020, these seven schools announced they would form a new CCHA. At the time the seven Midwestern members announced their plans to leave, the two Alaska teams were facing a crisis following the veto by state governor Mike Dunleavy of over $100 million in funding for the University of Alaska system, a move that was seen as potentially ending intercollegiate athletics entirely at both the Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses. The cuts led the UA system to start the process of consolidating the three-campus system into a single accredited institution (though retaining the existing campuses), with the system president telling local media that a single accreditation would likely lead to the Anchorage and Fairbanks athletic programs being combined into a single program. While both campuses continued to sponsor men's ice hockey in the 2019–20 season, the future of at least one of the teams beyond that point was then seen as uncertain at best. Later developments saw many of the budget cuts pulled back, as well as a temporary halt to work on a single UA system accreditation; this led the UA system to announce that athletics at both campuses would continue as is through the 2020–21 school year. In November 2019, Alabama–Huntsville submitted a withdrawal letter to the WCHA, stating that it also planned to leave after the 2020–21 season. At the time, UAH was discussing potential future options with the two Alaska campuses. However, UAH subsequently dropped hockey effective immediately on May 22, 2020, due to the financial impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic on its athletic department. On May 29, 2020, UAH President Darren Dawson announced that men's hockey would return for the 2020–21 season after more than $750,000 in private contributions were made in the week prior. 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 it a "suspension"). In August 2020, Alaska Anchorage announced that it would drop hockey after the 2020–21 season. The University of Alaska Board of Regents offered the hockey team a chance at reinstatement in September if they could raise 2 seasons worth of expenses, approximately $3 million, by February 2021. The fundraising was divided into 2 parts: $1.5 million in cash, and the remainder in firm pledges. As of December 2020, the team had begun fundraising for the needed money. The men's WCHA would fold after the 2020–21 season, but the women's WCHA announced a further expansion effective in 2021–22 with the arrival of St. Thomas, a Twin Cities school that received NCAA approval to directly transition from

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

to Division I. St. Thomas had been expelled from its longtime D-III home of the

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) is a college athletic conference which competes in NCAA Division III. All 13 of the member schools are located in Minnesota and are private institutions, with only two being non-sectarian. ...

effective with the end of the 2020–21 school year due to perceptions by many members that it had grown too strong for that conference in multiple sports. The

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

offered the Tommies a D-I home, and backed the school's bid to directly transition from D-III.

Members

The now women-only WCHA has 8 members following the 2021 arrival of St. Thomas. The men's side of the conference had 10 members in its final season of 2020–21, at which time only two schools, Bemidji State and Minnesota State, had both men's and women's teams in the conference.

Final men's members

Other former men's members

Former women's member

Membership timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:01/01/1950 till:07/01/2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 AlignBars = late Colors = id:men value:rgb(0.6,0.6,1) legend:men id:women value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) legend:women id:both value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.8) legend:both id:lightgrey value:gray(0.8) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:Wolverines color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/1981 text:

(1951–1981) bar:Spartans color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/1981 text: Michigan State (1951–1981) bar:Tigers color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/2013 text:

(1951–2013) bar:Pioneers color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/2013 text:

(1951–2013) bar:MTUHuskies color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/1981 text: Michigan Tech (1951–1981, 1984–2021) bar:MTUHuskies color:men from:07/01/1984 till:07/01/2021 bar:Gophers color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/1999 text:

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

(1951–present) bar:Gophers color:both from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2013 bar:Gophers color:women from:07/01/2013 till:end bar:Sioux color:men from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/2004 text:

(1951–2017) bar:Sioux color:both from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2013 bar:Sioux color:women from:07/01/2013 till:07/01/2017 bar:Bulldogs color:men from:07/01/1966 till:07/01/1999 text: Minnesota–Duluth (1966–present) bar:Bulldogs color:both from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2013 bar:Bulldogs color:women from:07/01/2013 till:end bar:Badgers color:men from:07/01/1969 till:07/01/1999 text:

(1969–present) bar:Badgers color:both from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2013 bar:Badgers color:women from:07/01/2013 till:end bar:Irish color:men from:07/01/1971 till:07/01/1981 text: Notre Dame (1971–1981) bar:Wildcats color:men from:07/01/1984 till:07/01/1997 text:

(1984–1997, 2013–2021) bar:Wildcats color:men from:07/01/2013 till:07/01/2021 bar:StCHuskies color:men from:07/01/1990 till:07/01/1999 text: St. Cloud State (1990–present) bar:StCHuskies color:both from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2013 bar:StCHuskies color:women from:07/01/2013 till:end bar:Seawolves color:men from:07/01/1993 till:06/30/2021 text: Alaska–Anchorage (1993–2021) bar:Beavers color:women from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2010 text: Bemidji State (1999–present) bar:Beavers color:both from:07/01/2010 till:07/01/2021 bar:Beavers color:women from:07/01/2021 till:end bar:MMavericks color:both from:07/01/1999 till:07/01/2021 text: Minnesota State (1999–present) bar:MMavericks color:women from:07/01/2021 till:end bar:Buckeyes color:women from:07/01/1999 till:end text:

(1999-present) bar:NMavericks color:men from:07/01/2010 shift:(-30) till:07/01/2013 text:

(2010–2013) bar:UAH color:men from:07/01/2013 shift:(-50) till:06/30/2021 text: Alabama–Huntsville (2013–2021) bar:Fairbanks color:men from:07/01/2013 shift:(-41) till:06/30/2021 text: Alaska–Fairbanks (2013–2021) bar:BGFalcons color:men from:07/01/2013 shift:(-25) till:07/01/2021 text:

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

(2013–2021) bar:FerrisSt color:men from:07/01/2013 shift:(-11) till:07/01/2021 text: Ferris State (2013–2021) bar:LakeState color:men from:07/01/2013 shift:(-48) till:07/01/2021 text:

Lake Superior State Lake Superior State University (colloquially Lake State, Lake Superior State, Soo Tech, and LSSU) is a public college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is enrolls approximately 2,000 students. Due to its proximity to the Canadian border, and th ...

(2013–2021) bar:StThomas color:women from:07/01/2021 shift:(-48) till:end text: St. Thomas (2021–present) bar:Names color:lightgrey width:15 from:07/01/1951 till:07/01/1958 bar:Names color:lightgrey width:15 from:07/01/1959 till:end at:01/01/1951 shift:(-4) text:MCHL at:07/01/1953 mark:(line,black) shift:(10) text:WIHL at:07/01/1959 text:WCHA ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1950 Legend = orientation:vertical left:58 top:150

Conference arenas

Awards (men's)

At the conclusion of each regular season schedule the coaches of each WCHA team vote which players they choose to be on the two to four All-Conference Teams: first team and second team with a rookie team added in

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

and a third team added in 1995–96. Additionally they vote to award up to 5 individual trophies to an eligible player at the same time. The WCHA also awards a Most Valuable Player in Tournament, which is voted on at the conclusion of the conference tournament. Only the Coach of the Year award has been bestowed in each year of the WCHA's existence, making it the oldest continually-awarded conference award in Division I

All-Conference Teams

Individual Awards

Team Awards

National Championships

WCHA schools have won 37 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey National Championships. * Prior to 1959 the teams that formed the WCHA played in the MCHL or the WIHL. WCHA schools have won 19 NCAA Women's Ice Hockey National Championships.

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division 1 hockey conferences College ice hockey conferences in the United States