Long Island University, in the longest of long shots, pulled off becoming NCAA Division 1 men's hockey's 61st program.
Any person who had the Sharks adding to its college hockey portfolio prior to Thursday's late afternoon announcement should go play the lottery. (The school, which rebranded in 2019, just finished its first season of D1 women's hockey in where the program won the NEWHA conference tournament.) No one mentioned the school as a contender despite Long Island being home to one of the largest recruiting areas, alongside Chicago and California, without a program. Few, if any, in college hockey circles heard rumblings.
In a world where programs spend decades inching towards starting up, LIU jumped off the cliff.
And the Sharks will not be sleeping. Adding to it currently being the most fascinating story in the sport, Long Island University plans on fielding a team for 2020-21, starting from scratch to skating on ice in a five-month span.
Doing so would be a feat, even taking away the current world situation. Almost every team has its schedule already written down in ink. Arizona State, the newest team prior to Thursday, had 10 months to prepare for its inaugural season, which ended up being a hybrid of Division 1, Division 3, and ACHA teams. Penn State, the newest team prior to ASU, had a season of club hockey followed by a transitional independent year.
LIU, on the other hand, looks to weave its way through the parkway and get up to speed without a coach, players, conference, support, rink, or any teams scheduled. College students normally make impulsive decisions. Not colleges.
Given the current college hockey landscape, a Long Island school beginning a men's hockey program would be what college hockey would want in theory. A school making the leap. A school with close geographical rivals - teams don't need to take a flight to LIU, just cross a bridge or two. A school that isn't too big to overshadow smaller programs given the last two new programs have been Power 5 schools.
As the sport looks to deal with outliers from Alaska, Alabama, Arizona and elsewhere, as the CCHA rises from conference purgatory and realignment appears to be on the horizon, there should be a spot for LIU.
Getting what you want in theory, however, does not mean getting what you want in reality.
With things continuing to be figured out on the fly - neither Atlantic Hockey nor Hockey East had any idea despite being name-dropped by the LIU AD - there is some naivete from the Sharks. Atlantic Hockey appears to be holding out for Navy to begin a program as its 12th team. The CCHA teams left the WCHA to not deal with outliers. Separated by the rest of the mainland, Long Island stands alone in a sport where teamwork and collectivism are preached.
Jumping off the cliff gives LIU little time to get up to speed, time the Sharks desperately need. Even taking away recent new teams, there is a difference in setup from how Long Island University is handling the adjustment compared to the Minnesota States and Nebraska Omahas of the world.
Thanks to LIU, college hockey will find out what is the minimum amount a program needs to build towards success. The Sharks enter with questions on top of questions on top of questions. Little things such as recruiting and finding a home seem to be aspirational.
However, by LIU leaping into untested waters, many of those schools inching towards will get a new idea of what's truly important rather than continue to inch towards the cliff.
Does it take money? Does it take support from the college hockey collective? Does it take a perfectly-sized rink? (On that one, there is no mid-sized rink on the Island. It doesn't appear one is in the cards for LIU to build either.) Does it take a conference?
Credit to Long Island University for starting up a program. It's a different situation than Arizona State, whose on-ice success five years into its program sees that teams can change perception on some initial doubts. The Sun Devils hired its ACHA head coach and started on what looked like to be a fast timeline without a conference and many questions.
ASU answered most as an "outsider," but some still remain. Unexpected as the Sun Devils were - the program happened three months after an article brought up what it would take - Long Island University now takes the crown. Major questions do exist about LIU, on its own island literally and figuratively, turning ambitions into reality. Like a car crash on the LIE, it's tough to look away at an attempt to go at it alone.
When reaching the end of five months and five years, the biggest one of them all will be seeing whether Long Island's impulsive decision pushes others - the expected choices within the college hockey world - towards leaping into newly shark-infested waters.
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