List of NCAA Division III men's ice hockey seasons

Nebulous Beginning[1]

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In 1973 the NCAA changed its classification system to a numerical method. Schools were reclassified in three separate divisions with Division III being the lowest. The former College Division teams were mostly slotted into Division II despite a majority coming from D-III schools. Because the NCAA did not hold a national tournament for either D-II or D-III at the time there was no need to have a formal delineation between the two lower divisions, however, ECAC 3 had already been formed out of schools from ECAC 2 in order to allow them to participate in a more balanced conference. While there was no formal classification of ECAC 3 as a D-III conference until much later, the teams in ECAC 3 and the independents who later joined the conference are sometimes regarded as NCAA Division III programs during the first decade of play.

No. Season Tournament Start Finish
1 1973–74 None November March
2 1974–75 None November March
3 1975–76 None November March
4 1976–77 None November March
5 1977–78 None November March
6 1978–79 None November March
7 1979–80 None November March
8 1980–81 None November March
9 1981–82 None November March
10 1982–83 None November March

Tournament Play Begins

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In 1983 the NCAA announced they would hold an NCAA Division III Championship for the upcoming season. While most of the teams that were eligible for tournament continued to play at the Division II level, they submitted bids for the new championship at the end of the season. Due to the level of interest the tournament was founded as an 8-team championship with no automatic bids being offered. Prior to the tournament, because no conference championships were yet held for western teams, an 8-team qualifying tournament was held instead to determine which teams would receive bids to the national tournament. The regional tournament was discontinued after 1985 when the western conferences began their league playoffs.

Because the Division III level was skewed towards eastern teams, that region received more bids than the western teams for the first three years. Afterwards, both the eastern and western regions received 4 bids each.

No. Season Tournament No. of teams
in tournament
Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
11 1983–84 1984 8 November March 18 Babson ECAC 2 (27–5–1) Rochester, New York
12 1984–85 1985 8 November March 23 RIT ECAC West (26–6–1) Schenectady, New York
13 1985–86 1986 8 November March 22 Bemidji State NCHA (34–9–2) Bemidji, Minnesota
14 1986–87 1987 8 November March 21 Vacated[b 1] Elmira, New York
15 1987–88 1988 8 October March 25 Wisconsin–River Falls NCHA (31–6–1) Elmira, New York
16 1988–89 1989 8 October March 25 Wisconsin–Stevens Point NCHA (34–5–2) Rochester, New York
17 1989–90 1990 8 October March 24 Wisconsin–Stevens Point (2) NCHA (28–4–6) Stevens Point, Wisconsin
18 1990–91 1991 8 October March 16 Wisconsin–Stevens Point (3) NCHA (27–9–0) Elmira, New York
19 1991–92 1992 8 October March 21 Plattsburgh State ECAC West (32–2–2) Plattsburgh, New York
20 1992–93 1993 8 October March 27 Wisconsin–Stevens Point (4) NCHA (25–5–2) Maplewood, Minnesota
  1. ^ Plattsburg State's participation in the 1987 tournament was later vacated due to recruiting violations. As a result there is no champion for 1987[2]

Increased Participation

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In 1994 the NESCAC, the primary conference for several eastern teams, announced that they were rescinding their policy barring member schools from participating in national tournaments. Their new policy, however, restricted members to only one postseason tournament. Because of that, some ECAC East schools had to decide whether or not they would participate in their conference tournament or sit out and hope that the selection committee would choose to offer them a bid. Williams was the first teams to take the gamble in 1994, but they did not receive a bid. The following year Middlebury sat out the ECAC East Tournament and received a bid. This began a five-year run for the Panthers as NCAA champions, the longest unbroken streak for a champion at any level of college hockey.

No. Season Tournament No. of teams
in tournament
Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
21 1993–94 1994 8 October March 19 Wisconsin–River Falls (2) NCHA (21–8–4) Superior, Wisconsin
22 1994–95 1995 8 October March 25 Middlebury ECAC East (22–2–2) Middlebury, Vermont
23 1995–96 1996 8 October March 16 Middlebury (2) ECAC East (26–2–0) River Falls, Wisconsin
24 1996–97 1997 8 October March 22 Middlebury (3) ECAC East (22–3–2) Middlebury, Vermont
25 1997–98 1998 8 October March 21 Middlebury (4) ECAC East (24–2–2) Plattsburgh, New York
26 1998–99 1999 8 October March 20 Middlebury (5) ECAC East (21–5–1) Norwich, Vermont

Tournament Expansion and Exclusion

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In 1999 the NCAA announced a plan to begin offering automatic bids for the Division III NCAA tournament. As part of this new policy, they would only offer bids to conference tournament champions of eligible Division III leagues. To qualify, none of the postseason participants could be ranked above Division III and the conference must have at least 7 members playing during the season. This caused several changes to college hockey, including the NESCAC sponsoring ice hockey as a sport for the first time and the termination of its policy restricting member teams to only one postseason tournament.

Due to five eastern conferences and two western conferences qualifying, the NCAA also abandoned its policy of having an equal number of eastern and western teams participate in the tournament. One at-large bid would be offered to the non-league champion with the best record but, after two years, the tournament was expanded to 9 teams with a second at-large bid included so that each region could provide an additional team. A further at-large bid was added in 2006 which could go to either region. The tournament was expanded to 11 teams in 2009 with an additional at-large bid which was converted into an automatic qualifier once the MCHA met NCAA regulations in 2010.

No. Season Tournament No. of teams
in tournament
Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
27 1999–00 2000 8 October 22 March 18 Norwich ECAC East (29–2–1) Superior, Wisconsin
28 2000–01 2001 8 October 20 March 17 Plattsburgh State (2) SUNYAC (29–5–0) Rochester, New York
29 2001–02 2002 9 October 19 March 16 Wisconsin–Superior NCHA (24–5–5) Middlebury, Vermont
30 2002–03 2003 9 October 18 March 22 Norwich (2) ECAC East (27–3–0) Norwich, Vermont
31 2003–04 2004 9 October 18 March 20 Middlebury (6) NESCAC (27–3–0) Norwich, Vermont
32 2004–05 2005 9 October 15 March 19 Middlebury (7) NESCAC (23–4–3) Middlebury, Vermont
33 2005–06 2006 10 October 15 March 19 Middlebury (8) NESCAC (26–2–2) Elmira, New York
34 2006–07 2007 10 October 15 March 19 Oswego State SUNYAC (23–3–3) Superior, Wisconsin
35 2007–08 2008 10 October 19 March 23 St. Norbert NCHA (27–1–4) Lake Placid, New York
36 2008–09 2009 11 October 17 March 21 Neumann ECAC West (21–9–2) Lake Placid, New York

Conference realignment and dissolution

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In 2009 the MASCAC began sponsoring ice hockey for the first time. The 5 member schools, along with 2 associate members, formed the league's new ice hockey division but despite meeting the NCAA's requirements for an automatic bid, the conference didn't receive one until 2012. The following year, 2013, the WIAC began sponsoring ice hockey for the first time. As a result all 5 member schools that fielded teams left the NCHA. The NCHA responded by absorbing all members of the MCHA in order to retain its automatic qualifier. Due to the WIAC not having enough members the conference champion did not receive an automatic qualifier, bringing the number of at-large bids back to 4 since the MCHA no longer existed.

In 2017 the NCAA increased the number of tournament participants to 12 and offered the additional bid to one conference tournament champion whose league did not meet the minimum NCAA membership requirement. This bid was later given to the UCHC champion.

No. Season Tournament No. of teams
in tournament
Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
37 2009–10 2010 11[e 1] October 23 March 20 Norwich (3) ECAC East (26–1–4) Lake Placid, New York
38 2010–11 2011 11 October 22 March 26 St. Norbert (2) NCHA (25–4–1) Minneapolis, Minnesota
39 2011–12 2012 11 October 21 March 17 St. Norbert (3) NCHA (21–5–5) Tampa, Florida
40 2012–13 2013 11 October 18 March 16 Wisconsin–Eau Claire NCHA (24–5–2) Lake Placid, New York
41 2013–14 2014 11 October 26 March 22 St. Norbert (4) NCHA (28–3–1) Lewiston, Maine
42 2014–15 2015 11 October 31 March 28 Trinity NESCAC (25–3–1) Minneapolis, Minnesota
43 2015–16 2016 11 October 30 March 26 Wisconsin–Stevens Point (5) WIAC (24–5–2) Lake Placid, New York
44 2016–17 2017 12 October 28 March 25 Norwich (4) NEHC (27–1–3) Utica, New York
45 2017–18 2018 12 October 21 March 24 St. Norbert (5) NCHC (27–4–1) Lake Placid, New York
46 2018–19 2019 12 October 13 March 23 Wisconsin–Stevens Point (6) WIAC (29–0–2) Stevens Point, Wisconsin
47 2019–20 2020 12 November 1 March 8 Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[3] Buffalo, New York
48 2020–21 October 30 April 5 Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[4]
49 2021–22 2022 12 October 16 March 26 Adrian NCHA (31–1–0) Lake Placid, New York
50 2022–23 2023 12 October 19 March 25 Hobart NEHC (29–2–0) Beverly, Massachusetts
  1. ^ The MCHA received an automatic bid for the first time

Conference timeline

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Division III Men's Ice Hockey Record Book" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  2. ^ "Plattsburgh Gets Probation". New York Times. March 30, 1990. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  3. ^ Solari, Chris. "NCAA cancels March Madness, Frozen Four, all other championships; Big Ten halts all sports". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  4. ^ Solari, Chris. "NCAA cancels March Madness, Frozen Four, all other championships; Big Ten halts all sports". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
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