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The following is a list of National Collegiate Athletic Association-sanctioned women's Division I ice hockey seasons:
NCAA men's ice hockey championship refers to either of the two tournaments in men's ice hockey – one in Division I and one in Division III – contested by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) since 1971. The NCAA Division II Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, contested from 1978 to 1984 and from 1993 to 1999, was discontinued due to a lack of Division II conferences sponsoring ice hockey.
The annual NCAA women's ice hockey tournament—officially known as the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship—is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the top women's team in the NCAA.
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate and nicer facilities and a few more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.
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.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates as a women's ice hockey conference in the NCAA's National Collegiate division, the de facto equivalent of Division I in that sport. Founded in 1951 as a men's ice hockey conference, it added a women's division in 1999, and continued to operate men's and women's divisions through the 2020–21 hockey season. After that season, the WCHA disbanded its men's division after seven of its 10 men's members left the conference to reestablish the Central Collegiate Hockey Association; the WCHA remained in operation as a women-only league. Each team plays 28 league games, each team playing four games against every other, two home games and two road games.
The American Women's College Hockey Alliance debuted in 1997-98. It was a program funded through the United States Olympic Committee/NCAA Conference Grant Program. The AWCHA organized and developed activities with collegiate women's varsity ice hockey teams, and helped to promote women's ice hockey at all NCAA levels. The first AWCHA Division I National Ice Hockey Championship was held in March 1998. The New Hampshire Wildcats defeated the Brown Bears by a 4-1 score, to become the first recognized national champion in women's college ice hockey. There were two more AWCHA National Championships and then the NCAA became involved. In August 2000, the NCAA announced it would hold its first Division I Women's Ice Hockey National Championship. The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs captured the first NCAA Division I Women's Ice Hockey Championship, defeating the St. Lawrence Skating Saints by a 4-2 tally on March 25, 2001.
The RIT Tigers are composed of 22 teams representing Rochester Institute of Technology in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, crew, cross country, cheerleading, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, and track and field. Men's sports include baseball and wrestling. Women's sports include softball, and volleyball. The Tigers compete in the NCAA Division III and are members of the Liberty League for all sports except ice hockey, which competes in NCAA Division I. The men's ice hockey team is a member of Atlantic Hockey, while the women's ice hockey team is a member of College Hockey America.
The 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 8, 2009 and concluded with the 2010 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament's championship game on April 10, 2010 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. Denver and Miami entered the season as the nations' two top ranked teams. This was the 63rd season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 116th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team.
The American International Yellow Jackets is composed of 22 teams representing American International College in intercollegiate athletics, including men’s and women's basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, and volleyball. Men's sports include baseball, football, ice hockey, and wrestling. Women's sports include field hockey, rugby, softball, and tennis. The Yellow Jackets compete in NCAA Division II and are members of the Northeast-10 Conference for all sports except ice hockey, which competes in NCAA Division I; men's volleyball, which competes as a de facto Division I member in the East Coast Conference; men's wrestling, which is an NCAA Division II Independent; and women's triathlon, which competes as a de facto Division I independent. The men's ice hockey team is a member of Atlantic Hockey Division I.
The Mercyhurst Lakers, representing Mercyhurst University which is located in Erie, Pennsylvania, are composed of 24 teams in intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, tennis, and water polo. Men's sports include baseball, football, and wrestling. Women's sports include bowling, field hockey, softball, stunt, and volleyball. The Lakers compete in the NCAA Division II and are members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) for all sports except ice hockey, which competes in NCAA Division I; bowling, a sport in which the NCAA holds a single all-divisions national championship, which competes in the East Coast Conference; men's lacrosse and stunt, both of which compete in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference; and water polo, a sport in which the NCAA holds single all-divisions national championships for men and women. The men's and women's ice hockey teams are members of Atlantic Hockey America, formed shortly after the 2023–24 season by the merger of the men's former home of the Atlantic Hockey Association and the women's former home of College Hockey America. The men's and women's water polo teams play in the Western Water Polo Association. On April 4, 2024, it was announced that Mercyhurst would be transitioning to NCAA Division I and join the Northeast Conference starting in the 2024-25 academic school year.
NCAA Division I independent schools are teams that compete in NCAA ice hockey but are not members of a conference. There are several current schools who, at one time or another, competed as Division I independents.
The Union Garnet Chargers ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's college ice hockey program that represents Union College. The Garnet Chargers are a member of ECAC Hockey. They play at the Frank L. Messa Rink at Achilles Center in Schenectady, New York. The Garnet Chargers won the 2014 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament by defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers 7–4.
The 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 2, 2010 and concluded with the 2011 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament's championship game on April 9, 2011 at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This was the 64th season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 117th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team.
The 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 1, 2011 and concluded with the 2012 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament's championship game on April 7, 2012 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. This was the 65th season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held and is the 118th year overall where an NCAA school fielded a team.
The following is a list of NCAA women's collegiate ice hockey teams, and conferences they compete in, that compete for berths in the annual NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Tournament. The championship has existed since the 2000–2001 season and conferences include the university teams of Divisions I and II of the NCAA.
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 New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) is a women's college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. As of the most recent 2023–24 NCAA hockey season, the conference is made up of eight teams, with two each in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and one each in New York and Vermont.
The 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season began on October 1, 2022, and concluded with the NCAA championship on April 8, 2023. This was the 75th season in which an NCAA ice hockey championship was held, and was US college hockey's 129th year overall.
