NCAA Division III Spotlight

By Scott Lowe – DMVProspects.com

When I tell a young hockey player that I think he can play college hockey at the NCAA Division III level it truly is a compliment, but for some reason it’s often not taken that way.

The comment usually is met by a scrunched up nose and the rebuttal, “I want to play D1.” Or a parent chimes in with, “He’s looking to play D1.”

Well, that’s great.

Aiming high and shooting for the stars often is what keeps us getting out of bed every day and pushes us to embrace the grind and try to be the best we can at whatever we do.

It’s also extremely unlikely for almost every young hockey player from the DMV area to play at the Division I level, as I’ve tried to politely explain many times in various forums. The truth is that there’s close to a 99 percent chance that NCAA D1 won’t be an option for a local player.

Trust me, that’s not at all a slap in the face. There simply aren’t enough teams to support the supply of players who are capable of playing at the Division I level. There are only 62 D1 programs – and that’s with the addition of Long Island University and St. Thomas in the last few months.

Unfortunately, too many young players and their families are somewhat naïve, a little uneducated and a tad bit delusional when it comes to the prospects of playing hockey at the NCAA level.

There are slightly more than 80 institutions that sponsor varsity NCAA Division III men’s ice hockey and another seven that have Division II programs (they essentially abide by D3 rules and play against Division III opponents in their non-league games.) That means there are only about 150 NCAA-sponsored hockey programs across ALL divisions. Compare that with the number of junior hockey teams in the United States alone:

USHL – 16
NAHL – 26
NCDC – 13
USPHL Premier – 63
USPHL Elite – 17
EHL – 18
EHLP – 12
NA3HL – 32
WSHL – 5 U.S. Teams & 5 Canadian Teams

That adds up to more than 200 American junior teams, and pretty much every kid on every one of those teams, whether it’s realistic or not (it’s usually not), hopes to play NCAA hockey. That number does not include Canada.

The Tier 1 or Junior A Canadian Junior Hockey league, which is comprised of 10 leagues spread throughout the country, has 131 more teams (nearly 3,000 players) all by itself. Below that there are hundreds more Canadian junior teams. Then you have a group of New England prep school and Minnesota high school players who make the jump straight to college hockey, and the foreign pipeline of players looking to play American college hockey continues to grow on a yearly basis.

These thousands of players are competing to play on 150 teams, so when I tell a player that I think he’s capable of playing at the NCAA Division III level, hopefully it is easy to see why that is a huge compliment.

NCAA D3 hockey is played at an extremely high level, yet it is both surprising and disappointing that many 17- and 18-year-old hockey players I speak to have their sights set only on playing at the Division I level and usually can’t name more than a few colleges that have Division III programs.

And we’re not talking about just any Division I programs that most kids want to attend. Many times when I ask them to list schools they are interested in the answers amount to a who’s who of college hockey programs: Boston College, Boston University, Penn State, Michigan, etc.

Remember all those thousands of junior players from earlier? That’s right, they all would like to go to those schools, too. So the odds, which were minimal at best to begin with, are even worse that a player from our area will play for one of those programs. Usually the list of Division III schools kids want to attend is very limited or nonexistent.

Part of this, again, is a lack of education and understanding about the college hockey landscape. Many young players and their parents assume that hockey is like every other sport when it comes to colleges and recruiting. There is a lack of awareness as far as the limited number of hockey options at the NCAA level, the age of most incoming freshmen hockey players and the entire junior hockey process.

They look around and see basketball, football, lacrosse, baseball, soccer and other sports and assume hockey is just like them: play for the best club team you can, play for your high school, get recruited, graduate from high school and head to college.

Just for comparison’s sake, there are about 350 NCAA Division I basketball programs that are allowed to offer 13 full scholarships. Fully funded Division I college hockey programs, of which there are 62, can award 18 full scholarships for a 30-player roster. There are well over 400 NCAA Division III basketball programs.

Moving to football, there are around 130 D1 programs – or almost as many as there are hockey teams at all NCAA levels – and approximately 250 D3 programs. There are almost 300 D1 and 400 D3 baseball programs. Division I soccer has 205 teams, while Division III has more than 400.

You get the point.

College hockey is just a different animal than most sports. Lacrosse is probably the most similar, at least at the Division I level with 74 institutions sponsoring varsity programs, but there are 75 Division II and almost 250 Division III lacrosse programs. There really is nothing quite like hockey, and if you are capable of playing at the D3 level, you are a very good hockey player.

Many people in our area don’t even know that Stevenson University, located 15 miles north of Baltimore in Owings Mills, Md., has an NCAA Division III hockey program that actually spent part of last season ranked among the national top 15. And within reasonable driving distance there are D3 teams at Lebanon Valley College, located near Hershey, Pa., and at Neumann, located just outside of Philadelphia.

Consider taking a drive to see one of these teams play firsthand to get a sense of how good the hockey is, and don’t be afraid to reach out to their coaches and see if you can visit campus and talk to them. Stevenson head coach Dominick Dawes won a national championship coaching at Neumann before coming to Stevenson, and he has always been generous with his time when it comes to talking to local players and providing advice.

So, in addition to educating players and families about the tangled web that is junior hockey, it’s part of my mission to help them understand that playing hockey at the NCAA Division III level is an incredible opportunity both athletically and academically. Part of that process includes politely letting them know – without completely squashing the dream – that Division I hockey is very much a long shot and that it would be a good idea to start investigating which Division III schools have hockey programs and figuring out which ones might be of interest.

Of course, if the player is dead set on the big-time, Power Five college athletic experience, there are many large state schools and outstanding private schools that have NCAA Division I athletic programs and offer high-quality ACHA club hockey programs. That is a great option for anyone who wants that big-time college experience but isn’t going to be a D1 player.

The reality is that almost every kid from our area who ends up playing NCAA hockey is going to play at the D3 level, so if they are investigating and researching Division I schools and programs, they should be doing the same for possible D3 opportunities. One thing I always recommend to all players and families looking at potential hockey programs – whether at the junior or college level – is to do their homework and always have a Plan B, C, D and E.

Backup plans are imperative when it comes to hockey, because until the puck is dropped and you’re on the ice or in the lineup, there are no guarantees.

Four of the nine NCAA Division III men’s hockey conferences are based in New England, as is the lone Division II conference (the Northeast 10, although only seven of the schools have hockey.) Another conference, the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) is based entirely in New York, while Stevenson’s conference, the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC), has teams scattered from New York south into Pennsylvania and Maryland.

While D3 hockey is prevalent in the Northeast, the three other conferences that are based in the Midwest include the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). These leagues include teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.

Of the approximately 85 Division III programs, 33 are located in New England in addition to the seven Division II teams. Another 21 programs are located in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and the remaining 30 or so are scattered throughout the Midwest.

The dense concentration of colleges with Division III hockey programs in the Northeast, especially in New England, presents a great opportunity for players from our area who have frequent opportunities to play for their club teams in that part of the country or to compete in some of the various New England spring and summer showcases.

There’s truly something for everyone at the D3 level. The New England Small Conference Athletic Conference (NESCAC) features some of the top academic institutions in the nation – as well as some of the top hockey programs. Trinity was ranked among the national hockey top five for most of the 2019-20 season, and all of the schools have outstanding academic reputations.

Williams and Amherst are the No. 1 and 2 liberal arts colleges in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report, while Bowdoin and Middlebury also rank among the top 10. Hamilton and Wesleyan also are among the top 20.

Staying in New England, the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) is one of the top conferences on the ice in the country and also features strong academic schools such as Babson, Skidmore, Hobart and Suffolk. Norwich was the top-ranked team in all of D3 when last season was halted in the postseason because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the NEHC had six of its teams ranked among the nation’s top 15 at one time or another.

For those interested in attending state universities, which can be larger than some of the smaller private schools, the Massachusetts State Athletic Conference (MASCAC) and SUNYAC offer that option exclusively, while the New England-based Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) is comprised of smaller private schools and had several programs that were nationally ranked at one point last season and consistently contend for national recognition, including the University of New England, Endicott and Salve Regina.

Suffolk will be moving from the NEHC to the CCC for the 2020-21 season, and the SUNYAC features national powerhouses Geneseo State and Oswego State. Rounding out the Northeast Division III conferences is the UCHC, which in addition to Stevenson, saw Utica and Wilkes earn national rankings during last season.

The Midwest Division III conferences include mostly smaller private and public institutions as well as traditional national powerhouse programs such as Adrian, St. Norbert, Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Wisconsin-Eau Claire. There also are four D3 programs – Canton, Albertus Magnus, Bryn Athyn and Anna Maria – that are based in the Northeast and have no conference affiliation.

While there are no athletic scholarships at the Division III level, academic aid is plentiful for student-athletes who excel in the classroom. In general, when it comes to college athletics, there is a lot more scholarship money available for students who are strong academically than there is for those who excel athletically.

It is estimated that 75 percent of all D3 student-athletes receive some type of academic or need-based financial aid. Each individual institution determines how its aid is allocated.