Lindenwood to D-I

[AMC]

http://www.collegiateconsulting.com/...ision-i-hockey

Lindenwood University, located in Saint Charles, Mo., recently announced it will move their men’s hockey program to NCAA Division I in 2022-23. In May 2018, Collegiate Consulting, as part of a partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL), National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) and College Hockey Inc., completed a comprehensive hockey feasibility study for Lindenwood.

The release mentions the WCHA, which, well, there may be some bad news for LU.

[wsummers]

So, 20 conference games against UAH?

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

So Lindenwood was one of the unnamed feasibility studies?

Not knowing that, I had the probability of this happening somewhere between the probabilities of this happening at High Point University and Syracuse.

But knowing they did the feasibility study? Makes more sense.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

The release mentions the WCHA, which, well, there may be some bad news for LU.

Well someone has to be a founding member of the WCHA 3.0...

My guess is that someone who knows nothing about hockey just pulled words from the study and pasted this release together. I'm sure back in 2018, the WCHA looked like the best option for them.... and UAH and UAF and UAA. It also says they recommend a 3-4 year ramp up...

Nope, we'll just get started in 2022-23.
Let's have a D-I hockey team....
Who's going to be our head coach?
"LEEEEEEEEEROY JENNNNNNNNKINS!!!!!!!!!!"

[Lost_Husky]

I had to shake my head when the consultant specifically listed all the neighboring states that don't have D1 hockey teams. Highlight they are in the St Louis Metro area, easy travel by land or air, and a huge for college hockey untapped media market. They could have highlighted the other D1 programs that are within a reasonable (for western teams) travel time. Highlighting a 2,500 seat arena isn't going to help things either. They could have left that detail out. Granted it is bigger than some and more than likely sufficient, but this is all about marketing. They need to seem like a legitimate program not some small D1 program. I know they are proud of what they have, but they need to market, market, market!! I'm a engineer who has no natural marketing skills, and even I could write a better press release then what they put out.

[Sol Diablo]

Best of luck to them, hope they can make it. Would be great to expand further south & west.

[AMC]

Seems like the consulting company jumped the gun and Lindenwood is not ready to move forward. Amazing, an incompetent consulting company.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

All of those NHL funded "studies" have been a joke. You could take that template and create one for any school and they would all have the same summary.
The school is eager and ready to jump to D-I hockey.... All they are waiting on is tens of millions of dollars.

[J.D.]

I love all the skepticism when these stories break. Much like when everyone scoffed at LIU starting a program. LIU has managed to play 10 games already. 3-7 and no outrageous scores against. Good for them getting the program off the ground and good luck to Lindenwood. Make it happen.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

I love all the skepticism when these stories break. Much like when everyone scoffed at LIU starting a program.

"ATLANTA (Feb. 10, 2021) – Lindenwood University, located in Saint Charles, Mo., recently announced [past tense] it will move their men’s hockey program to NCAA Division I in 2022-23."

If this were true, the university might put out this major announcement somewhere... anywhere. You know like on their university website, athletics website, Twitter, Facebook, send out a press release, etc. The only references to them going D-I are all second hand, nothing from the university that I have seen. So yeah, at this point, it is met with skepticism. I'm all for more D-I teams. It just gets old seeing these posts every other week "Team XYZ is going D-I!!!". Remember Illinois "going D-I"... They're still not on the ice. Yeah, Covid blah blah... they're in the red zone now, so close, but they need to hit pause.... It didn't seem to be an issue for LIU and I would guess Illinois has way more resources at their disposal than the Sharks.

We can all celebrate the new team when they are on the ice. Until then...

[J.D.]

Can we celebrate St. Thomas? I just think it's encouraging to even hear rumblings. LIU is up and running and others are at least moving in that direction.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Can we celebrate St. Thomas?

Yep, not only to they have a plan in place, but they've already been accepted to the CCHA for next season.

[Sol Diablo]

Yep, not only to they have a plan in place, but they've already been accepted to the CCHA for next season.

I'm a bit confused, maybe someone can enlighten me? I thought minimum rink seating for. WCHA was 2500. I assumed CCHA would stay with that. But the Tommies arena is like 1000 to 1300. However they have been accepted regardless. What gives? What have I missed?

[sbkbghockey]

I'm a bit confused, maybe someone can enlighten me? I thought minimum rink seating for. WCHA was 2500. I assumed CCHA would stay with that. But the Tommies arena is like 1000 to 1300. However they have been accepted regardless. What gives? What have I missed?

I think the CCHA is making an exception to grab St. Thomas to gain an important foothold in the Twin Cities market and also the only private university NCAA DI hockey program in MN. St. Thomas has the potential to be very good, very fast (i.e ASU facilities don't matter sometimes). Apparently St. Thomas has also committed to finding a more suitable, or building, a more suitable NCAA DI standard hockey facility.

Back to Lindenwood, yes the consulting company put out a really poorly worded press release out before the official announcement but LU has been exploring NCAA Hockey since the men's and women's teams began in the early 2000s. Initially LU planned to play in the CHA for both men's and women's teams, while maintaining NAIA membership for other sports. Now LU has been a full NCAA D2 member for awhile now; and LU has a new DI standard hockey facility compared to the LU Ice Arena (basically they previously had similar issues as St. Thomas with about a 1,000-1,000 seat rink). The rumors and leaks appear to be true and I would suspect we'll hear a lot more after the season from LU. Also the NAHL has put out several commitment announcements for LU and now lists Lindenwood on their NCAA commitment list. Piecing all the news together- It appears that they're going to play a mostly ACHA schedule in 2021-22 (LU hosts the ACHA DI championship in 2022) and then begin playing a mostly NCAA DI schedule in 2022-23. Additionally, probably the biggest clue/leak since regionals are given to hockey school hosts is that Lindenwood hosts an NCAA DI men's regional in 2023-24.

[GeoffissiffoeG]

They've got multiple commits saying they're going to play NCAA D1 at Lindenwood.

Jackson Wozniak
Adisen Brueck (St. Louis native)
Max Helgeson

Wozniak and Brueck both used #SamePrideNewHunt in their tweets. The NAHL and Wichita Falls both mentioned NCAA D1.