Three pieces of news happened in the past week. All involve college hockey programs in the southern United States.
One was about Tennessee State reportedly conducting a feasibility study to determine how viable it is to start a Division 1 men's hockey program. TSU, based in Nashville, would be the first team from the country's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Another, from College Hockey News, features Lindenwood's quest to be the next Division 1 men's hockey team. The Lions, who already have a Division 1 women's hockey team, would play out of the St. Louis Blues' practice facility. According to the article, LU hopes to "secure a few lead gifts" in time to announce publicly its intentions this summer.
The third comes from Alabama Huntsville, the only D1 men's hockey team currently in the southern United States. For the third time in a decade and second in as many years, the Chargers will be suspending operations.
This news arrives as Alabama Huntsville is unable to find a conference to call home. The CCHA, where seven of the 10 WCHA schools are departing to form next season, denied the Chargers. Another potential fit, Atlantic Hockey, is doing the business version of ghosting someone.
It's very college hockey to see pure excitement of two possible potential programs contrast with an existing program needing to shut down due to no one wanting them.
As much as the words "grow the game" get thrown around time after time, it comes with a NIMBY-sized asterisk. It is a platitude. Everyone wants to see more teams and more players get opportunities...at least it until it affects them.
No program understands this better than Alabama Huntsville.
In the past 12 months, the Chargers have been the subject of a successful GoFundMe to keep the program alive. Fans, alums, and the college hockey world as a whole came together to raise enough money to keep the program going. It's not the lack of support and financial help that doomed Alabama Huntsville. Given the choice, the University decided to shut down and wait for a conference home rather than go as an independent.
(Coincidentally, another bit of news from last week was GoFundMe highlighting the Chargers' success.)
Sadly, this isn't new. Go back further and time repeats itself. In two separate iterations, for two similar yet separate reasons, over a decade apart, the CCHA denying UAH's application is the catalyst to the program shutting down.
Right now schools find it easier to undertake feasibility studies and find ways to start men's hockey programs that even 3-4 years ago were missing. Look at the names who are starting and looking into joining during this time. This is not just a run of Power 5 schools as feared.
The sport comes out of a pandemic healthy with several new teams (and several more rumored) and yet remains as tough for those new and far-away teams to find a spot as it was 15-20 years ago when Atlantic Hockey, CCHA, and WCHA in various ways all danced around the issue of the former CHA teams. Even Bemidji State took some prodding.
Atlantic Hockey had a scheduling agreement with LIU this season, but the Sharks remain independent of the 11 team conference. The same goes with Arizona State and the Big Ten. After taking off last season, Alaska is hanging about as an independent while UAA is in the same situation as UAH. There are a few other programs on the horizon as no one looks to expand a decade after realignment gave conferences room to do exactly that after being stuffed to the 12-team brim with nowhere to add.
When all is said and done, nearly 10% of the sport - and all the geographic outliers - is on the outside.
Unfortunately for Alabama Huntsville, and any future southern teams, growing the game finds itself in a paradox. The most like-minded conferences for them are those who want to be regionally based. However, there aren't enough nearby teams to create regionally based conferences.
The paradox gives advantages to bigger schools that can withlast being independent and those in the regional footprint, which makes it makes it more necessary for these schools to be regionally based and further drives the cycle.
In this case, the CCHA denied UAH because it is eight teams of similar size joining together for geographic reasons that don't fit outliers. AHA is in a similar spot (and there are nearby like-minded teams).
College hockey needs more western/southern teams. It needs more teams, in general, to cut down on extreme geography. Outside of several joining at once, or enough teams lasting as independents where it makes sense to split into further conferences, it will be tough to achieve despite the interest last week showed from Tennessee State and Lindenwood.
If the two take advantage of the growing number of high-end players and join, where would they play? Even Lindenwood acknowledged it likely would start as an independent in the CHN article.
In a more perfect world, there would be enough teams to space the gap and make it easier for geographic outliers, to fully turn a regional sport national. College hockey vastly outgrew the big school/small school regional alliance of the 2000s. Still, teams and conferences do not know what to do when it comes to further growth just as much now. It remains a sport of 60+ fiefdoms.
Reaction to the three pieces of news - excitement for TSU and Lindenwood possibly joining mixed with the reality of UAH's situation possibly ending...again - perfectly sums it up.
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Atlantic Hockey has no room to talk when Air Force is part of their "geographic footprint".
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