The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of four schools in the Northeastern United States after the turn of the 21st century, which added geographic balance to the conference.
The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is a college ice hockey association. The ACHA's purpose is to be an organization of collegiate affiliated programs, which provides structure, regulates operations, and promotes quality in collegiate ice hockey. The ACHA currently has three men's and two women's divisions and includes approximately 450 teams from across the United States and Canada. Most ACHA teams offer few athletic scholarships and typically receive far less university funding. The ACHA offers an opportunity for college hockey programs that struggle with large budgets and Title IX issues, as an alternative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) financial structure.
NCAA Division I independent schools are four-year institutions that compete in college athletics at the NCAA Division I level, but do not belong to an established athletic conference for a particular sport. These schools may however still compete as members of an athletic conference in other sports. A school may also be fully independent, and not belong to any athletic conference for any sport at all. The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor a particular sport.
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
College Hockey Mid-America (CHMA) is an American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I ice hockey conference with teams in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The league was formed in 2006 after members of the now defunct University Hockey League organized the league and moved from the ACHA's Division II to Division I.
The Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) is a collegiate hockey conference at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division I level. The league was created in 2017 and is made up of eight teams located in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
The Tri-State Collegiate Hockey League (TSCHL) is an ACHA Division II level ice hockey league. ACHA Division II level consists of players with previous Jr. A, AAA or Midget Major experience, along with high caliber high school experience. The level can range from varsity high school up to NCAA Division III skills, depending on the programs.
The Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League (ACCHL) is a non-NCAA collegiate ice hockey league in the mid-atlantic and southeast regions of the United States. The Mission of the ACC Hockey League is to provide student-athletes an option to compete in organized intercollegiate ice hockey without the high expenses of NCAA level hockey.
The Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association (MACH) was a college ice hockey league based in the Southeastern region of the United States. The conference was part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 2 and finished the 2022-2023 season with five teams from colleges and universities based in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Super East Collegiate Hockey League(SECHL) is a collegiate club hockey league that plays at Division II of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) at Division II.
The Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA) is a non-varsity (club) college ice hockey league in the Northeast region of the United States that competes with Divisions II & III of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). Most NECHA member schools have varsity teams that are affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) or the Hockey East Association and most teams receive at least partial funding from their school's athletic departments and/or student government.
The Liberty Flames and Lady Flames are the athletics teams of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. They are a member of the NCAA Division I level in 20 sports. As of July 1, 2023, LU is a member of Conference USA (C-USA) for most sports, joining that league after five years as a member of the ASUN Conference.
University Hockey League (UHL) was an American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II club level hockey-only college athletic conference with teams in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. It was founded in 1998 by University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and West Virginia University.
The Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League (ECWHL) is an American Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Division 1 club level hockey-only college athletic conference for women's hockey teams. It is one of four ACHA Women's Division 1 conferences, along with the Central Collegiate Women's Hockey Association, the Western Women's Collegiate Hockey League, and Women's Midwest College Hockey. Primarily, the league has been concentrated in New England and Upstate and Western New York, with eleven of its thirteen members over fourteen seasons based in those areas.
The NCAA Division III women's ice hockey is a college ice hockey competition governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as part of the NCAA Division III. Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women's hockey across eight conferences in the 2023–24 season.
The Lindenwood Lady Lions ice hockey team represents Lindenwood University located in St. Charles, Missouri. The Lady Lions participate in NCAA Division I competition as a member of the Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) conference. The team played with no conference affiliation as an Independent program for its first season of NCAA competition. Lindenwood joined College Hockey America (CHA), a women-only conference, beginning in the 2012–13 season. After the 2023–24 season, CHA and the men-only Atlantic Hockey Association merged to create Atlantic Hockey America. Prior to 2011 the university was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), because the organization does not sponsor women's ice hockey, the program competed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association at the ACHA Division I level.
The Colonial States College Hockey Conference (CSCHC) is a non-varsity club college ice hockey league based in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The conference is part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 2 and is made up of teams from colleges and universities based in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The National Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) is a defunct national organization of men's college- and university-level ice hockey programs in the United States. The NCHA used to be known as the Collegiate Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Hockey (NAIH). The association was primarily composed of American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division III teams from the Northeast.
Women's Midwest College Hockey (WMCH) is an American Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Division 1 club level hockey-only college athletic conference for women's hockey teams. It is one of four ACHA Women's Division 1 conferences, along with the Central Collegiate Women's Hockey Association, Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League, and Western Women's Collegiate Hockey League. The league features seven of the top ACHA programs from across the country regardless of geographic considerations, with its membership ranging from Lynchburg, Virginia in the southeast to Minot, North Dakota in the northwest.
