I was in college hockey paradise.
The scene was my Columbus, Ohio hometown, and I was with the Arizona Wildcats hockey team. They were competing in the American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championships tournament in the NHL Blue Jackets’ beautiful practice facility. Attached is the 18,500-seat Nationwide Arena. My other alma mater, Ohio State, was there prepping for its semifinal NCAA Big Ten Conference Hockey Tournament game versus their ultimate rivals from Ann Arbor.
I love the smell of vulcanized rubber at an Ohio rink in the morning. It smells like tournament hockey.
The Buckeyes would win their big game, and Arizona would win the first game in its tournament, too. That is where the team’s two hockey worlds separate. Yep, they play the same game, in the same nation, but at distinctly different levels of prestige.
The fact is, though, that the lower-level ACHA is not so far behind their haughtier NCAA big brothers.
The ACHA is the non-varsity governing body for American college hockey. Some mistakenly refer to it as “club hockey,” but many ACHA teams, such as Arizona, operate as if they were NCAA Division 3-level organizations.
The ACHA even models its rules, operations, and guidelines on NCAA D-3 hockey standards. Schools do not provide scholarships to players. The layers of NCAA-compliance and seemingly endless regulations also are not present. Some college athletic departments even operate their ACHA teams, further proof that the “club hockey” tag is inaccurate. (The University of Arizona Campus Recreation department oversees Wildcat hockey. The administrative staff there does not operate the team directly.)
Whatever the organizational structure, the actual hockey at the most competitive ACHA schools looks a heck of a lot like NCAA play to me. The talent level is high, coaching better than you think, and the kids who put on their Arizona Wildcats jerseys play with the same sense of purpose and pride as my beloved Buckeyes.
The recently completed 2018 ACHA National Tournament hammered that point home for me. The top 20 teams from among the more than 55 Division I ACHA teams gathered in Columbus – and the competitive level from the very first minute was fierce. Arizona, sporting 15 underclassmen, is probably a year or two away from breaking into the top 10, but they were a worthy entry, sneaking into this year’s tourney in the No. 17 spot.
Arizona started a freshman goaltender who played like a senior. The Wildcats took care of a Missouri State team in the first round that had given them fits in the regular season, and played No. 1 Minot State within one goal for more than half of their second round game.
Arizona did not upset the top-seeded Beavers, but they sure played like a hockey team that was learning what it takes to get to the top. The Wildcats belonged.
The hockey at the ACHA Division I level is so good that some universities use it to test the waters for a jump up to full-scholarship NCAA Division I hockey. Penn State dominated the ACHA with seven National Championships before making the jump up to the Big Ten in 2012, and Arizona State famously won the 2014 ACHA National Championship before announcing a move to Division I.
Illinois is the next ACHA team likely to make the big jump.
The university released the finding of a feasibility report at the beginning of the tournament, stating that “the strong consensus of everyone involved in college hockey is that NCAA men’s hockey will flourish at the University of Illinois.”
UNLV is another ACHA newcomer hinting loudly that its ultimate goal, sooner rather than later, is an NCAA program.
Those universities still need to raise many millions of dollars to make the jump, but the will is there for more and more ACHA teams to go varsity.
But not at the University of Arizona. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been asked the same question, for decades now, by dedicated fans: “When will U of A hockey go NCAA D-I?”
The answer is simple: Never.
The Wildcats are currently in a financial struggle to survive hideous business arrangements at the Tucson Arena — some self-inflicted and some resulting from the substantial financial and logistical advantages given to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners.
It is clear that Arizona’s best bet to move up to the NCAA level is if a dedicated alum like me ponies up $30 million or more as an athletics department donation — as was the case at Arizona State. And I mean “best bet” literally — I’ll probably need to keep buying lottery tickets to try and raise the funds.
That NCAA longshot should not detract from the Arizona hockey program now competing at the ACHA level. If you are determined to derisively call it “club hockey,” then remember that the NHL calls the Columbus Blue Jackets a hockey club, too.
There just plain ain’t no shame in an Arizona Wildcat ACHA hockey game.
