List of NCAA Division II men's ice hockey seasons

Schism

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In 1964, after three years of existence, the 29-team conference ECAC Hockey was split in two. This was done partly due to its ponderous size but also because many of the programs in the conference were competing with differing levels of investment. The conference was divided between teams that, in essence, had indoor, artificial-ice arenas and those that didn't. A special provision was made for a few programs but by and large the 14 teams that were placed in ECAC 2 either couldn't or wouldn't fund their programs to a level where they could compete with the upper-echelon programs. The split resulted in the first official delineation of divisions in college ice hockey.

At the start there was no NCAA-sponsored tournament. Between the two extant conferences (ECAC 2 and MIAC) only ECAC 2 played a conference tournament, making the ECAC champion a de facto College Division champion (the MIAC would not hold a conference tournament until 1986).[1]

No. Season Finish De Facto Champion
(number)
Champion
Record
1 1964–65 - None -
2 1965–66 March 12 Colby[a 1] 13–12–1
3 1966–67 March 11 Merrimack 13–9–0
4 1967–68 March 9 Merrimack (2) 18–8–0
5 1968–69 March 8 American International 15–8–0
6 1969–70 March 14 Vermont 16–8–0
7 1970–71 March 13 Bowdoin 19–4–1
  1. ^ Boston State, an independent program, finished their season with a 20–0 record. They are sometimes credited as the College Division champion for 1966.

Second Schism

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Less than a decade after splitting from ECAC Hockey, ECAC 2 had swollen to more than 30 teams and a further, lower division was made (ECAC 3). ECAC 3 began its conference tournament immediately, however, as they were lower-tier than their parent conference, the ECAC 2 champion was still the de facto College Division champion.

In 1973 the NCAA reclassified its sporting divisions numerically. The first official Division II season was 1973–74 yet no second-tier national championship was held until 1978.

No. Season Finish De Facto Champion
(number)
Champion
Record
8 1971–72 March 11 Massachusetts 19–7–0
9 1972–73 March 10 Vermont (2) 24–7–0
10 1973–74 March 9 Vermont (3) 28–5–0
11 1974–75 March 8 Bowdoin (2) 14–9–0
12 1975–76 March 6 Bowdoin (3) 18–9–0
13 1976–77 March 16 Merrimack (3) 23–11–1

Tournament Play Begins

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The NCAA began holding a lower-tier national tournament in 1978. While most of the teams that played as Division II ice hockey programs actually belonged to schools who were classified as Division III, due to the relatively small number of programs the NCAA did not require the teams to be D-II.

The NAIA had been holding an ice hockey tournament since 1968 which was used mostly by western schools. With the advent of the NCAA tournament many western programs began to gravitate back to the NCAA and eventually caused the discontinuation of the NAIA Championship.

In 1983 the NCAA created a championship for the Division III level and began requiring that teams participate only in the championships at their level. Due to the low numbers of teams at the Division II level, the D-II tournament survived for only one more season before being discontinued.

No. Season Tournament Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
14 1977–78 1978 March 18 Merrimack ECAC 2 (21–9–2) Springfield, Massachusetts
15 1978–79 1979 March 17 Lowell ECAC 2 (27–6–0) North Andover, Massachusetts
16 1979–80 1980 March 15 Mankato State Independent (30–9–1) Elmira, New York
17 1980–81 1981 March 14 Lowell (2) ECAC 2 (27–5–0) North Andover, Massachusetts
18 1981–82 1982 March 20 Lowell (3) ECAC 2 (31–4–0) North Billerica, Massachusetts
19 1982–83 1983 March 19 RIT ECAC 2 (23–9–0) North Billerica, Massachusetts
20 1983–84 1984 March 18 Bemidji State NCHA (31–0–0) Bemidji, Minnesota

Tournament Returns

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The NCAA agreed to restart the NCAA tournament due to increased interest from Division II programs. With no D-II conferences, the selection committee was left with only the overall records of teams to use when deciding the participants. Bemidji State participated in the first 6 championships, winning 4, but by 1998 most of the teams at the Division II level had left to join the top division, leaving the second tier with just a handful of programs and the tournament was, once again, discontinued.

No. Season Tournament Start Finish NCAA Champion
(number)
Champion
Conference
Champion
Record
Championship Site
21 1992–93 1993 March 20 Bemidji State (2) NCHA (24–7–0) Bemidji, Minnesota
22 1993–94 1994 March 12 Bemidji State (3) NCHA (22–10–3) Huntsville, Alabama
23 1994–95 1995 March 18 Bemidji State (4) NCHA (25–7–2) Erie, Pennsylvania
24 1995–96 1996 March 9 Alabama–Huntsville Independent (26–0–3) Huntsville, Alabama
25 1996–97 1997 March 15 Bemidji State (5) NCHA (25–7–2) Bemidji, Minnesota
26 1997–98 1998 March 14 Alabama–Huntsville (2) Independent (24–3–3) Huntsville, Alabama
27 1998–99 1999 March 13 Saint Michael's ECAC Northeast (16–10–2) Colchester, Vermont

Northeast 10

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After the NCAA Division II tournament was discontinued in 1999, the few remaining D-II programs were barred from participating in conference tournaments in order for those conferences to retain automatic qualifiers. As a result, the eastern teams began holding a separate cross-conference tournament. This arrangement continued until the teams formally created the ice hockey division of the Northeast 10 in 2009. Because there were no Division II teams outside the conference there was no need for the NCAA to resurrect the National Championship leaving the tournament champion as the de facto Division II champion.

No. Season Start Finish De Facto Champion
(number)
Champion
Record
28 2009–10 November 3 March 6 Saint Anselm (15–11–1)
29 2010–11 October 29 March 5 Saint Anselm (2) (13–11–2)
30 2011–12 October 22 March 3 Saint Anselm (3) (14–8–5)
31 2012–13 October 26 March 2 Saint Anselm (4) (16–8–3)
32 2013–14 November 1 March 1 Southern New Hampshire (17–8–1)
33 2014–15 October 31 February 28 Saint Anselm (5) (11–13–3)
34 2015–16 October 23 February 27 Stonehill (13–9–4)
35 2016–17 October 28 February 25 Saint Anselm (6) (12–12–2)
36 2017–18 October 27 March 3 Saint Anselm (7) (17–9–1)
37 2018–19 October 26 March 2 Southern New Hampshire (2) (16–13–2)
38 2019–20 November 1 March 7 Stonehill (2) (13–11–5)
39 2020–21 February 5 March 14 None[e 1] N/A
40 2021–22 October 17 March 3 Assumption (16–12–2)
41 2022–23 October 15 March 4 Saint Anselm (8) (18–8–2)
  1. ^ Only Franklin Pierce played during the season due to COVID-19 concerns.

Conference Timeline

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Northeast-10 ConferenceNorthern Collegiate Hockey AssociationNew York Collegiate Hockey AssociationECAC 3Worcester Collegiate Hockey LeagueMinnesota Intercollegiate Athletic ConferenceECAC 2NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "MIAC Men's Hockey Recordbook". MIAC. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
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