Women's Hockey Gains NCAA Recognition

When the Harvard's women's hockey team defeated the University of New Hampshire at Minnesota's Mariucci Arena on March 27, 1999, it celebrated as National Champions.

Posting a miraculous 31-1 record that season, the Crimson was able to beat the defending champion Wildcats in a fantastic overtime victory to claim the first title in its 21-year history.

Harvard was the best collegiate women's ice hockey team in the land. And it had the trophy to prove it.

But the Crimson wasn't NCAA champs.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the most well-known organizing body that sponsors national championships in collegiate sports, did not yet hold a women's ice hockey championship. Beginning in the 2000-2001 season, the NCAA will sponsor a Collegiate Championship.

"Our feeling is that the sport was always welcome in the NCAA," said NCAA Assistant Director of Championships Troy Arthur, "It did not yet have the numbers to warrant NCAA sponsorship."

Sponsorship came from USA Hockey, which had received a grant from the United States Olympic Committee to start up a championship for the increasingly popular sport. USA Hockey made an agreement with the American Women's College Hockey Association (AWCHA), a coach's organization, and sponsored a national championship. Competitors for this new group came from the almost 40 collegiate teams nationwide.

"We're obviously very excited to be a part of the NCAA," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "But USA Hockey did a great job and supported the sport when no one else was there. We can't forget that."

The first championship under the AWCHA was played in 1998 and won by UNH. Harvard captured the second ever championship, bringing the Crimson's once-struggling club sport to the fore of national competition.

Harvard women's hockey had an inauspicious beginning as a club sport begun by interested undergraduates in 1977. A year later, the sport received varsity status, making it eligible to receive greater funding from Harvard.

Since that point, the team has only gotten better, winning several Beanpots, an ECAC Championship, sending various players to the Olympics, and taking the 1999 AWCHA National Championship.

However, acceptance into the NCAA indicates that women's hockey has truly taken root in the national sports scene.

"We believe that the NCAA epitomizes college athletics," Arthur said. "An NCAA National Championship is something that young athletes aspire to win."

This shift in administration does not diminish the achievements of the amazing Crimson championship team. Rather, it indicates that the field of competition is growing, and has begun to receive the attention of a broader audience.

"There's certainly a greater legitimacy to this championship," Coach Stone said. "USA Hockey was the first step, and this is truly exciting."

Acceptance into the NCAA indicates that the sport has made the transition from an "emerging sport" to a sport whose growing popularity cannot be ignored.

In deciding to sponsor a National Championship that draws from all three divisions of collegiate women's hockey, the NCAA process looked at evolution of the sport. A sub-committee of the Championship and Competition Cabinet scours the nation for sports that are popular on the youth and high school level.

These emerging sports are monitored, and proposals can be made by committee that feel a game is deserving of NCAA sponsorship. The proposal of the Committee on Women's Athletics was accepted by the Cabinet, and has resulted in the first season of NCAA women's hockey for the 2000-2001 season.

"Programs keep popping up across the nation," Arthur said. "Its status could no longer be ignored."

Indeed, the sport has grown on every level. Youth leagues, sponsored by USA Hockey hold championships, and many high schools now secure ice time for women who want to do more than double axels. On a collegiate level, numbers support the trend. In 1996, there were 21 schools with women's teams, fielding a total of 414 participants. Today, women's hockey boasts 900-plus skaters from 61 schools.

Setup

The NCAA National Collegiate Championship is not structurally the same as the wildly popular men's basketball Final Four. The women's Frozen Four is a tournament of just that: four teams. There are no bracketed preliminary rounds. Also, the tournament chooses teams from all three divisions within women's collegiate hockey. The NCAA requires that at least 40 teams exist in order for each division to have its own championship. With 28 Division I schools, one in Division II, and 32 in Division III, no Division Championship is yet possible. Until that time comes, the four will be chosen from the 61 schools.

The selection process for the Frozen Four works somewhat like the men's. Dividing the country into two halves, East and West, the committee, which uses the mathematical RPI system to rank schools, will have one champion from each region and one at-large team from anywhere in the Union.

The vertical Mason-Dixon line puts 38 teams in the East, and 23 in the West, reflecting the balance of power that usually reigns in the sport. The championship bid is not contingent upon winning one's division. The Crimson can lose the ECAC to a Cinderella team, but still be Eastern Champions based on its superior record throughout the year.

Everyone else gets to tune into the selection show as "on the bubble" teams.

Harvard must now compete with perennial powerhouses such as UNH and Brown just to get out of the East.

"We know it'll be a tough fight and we're going to have to work as hard as ever to get out of the East," Stone said. "Our girls are hard workers, and we're just happy that there is a clear and consistent selection method in place."

The NCAA plans on assessing the success of this year to determine if any changes to be made. Arthur indicated that a proposal was on the table to reduce the required number of teams need to have a championship to 28, allowing Division III to have its own National Championship.

Advantages

The sponsorship of the NCAA has beneficial effects for many reasons. The prestige of competing for an NCAA title is certainly understood by the participants.

Also, the NCAA brings with it certain funding benefits. It allocates funds for travel and a per diem stipend to cover costs of food for the athletes, as well as sponsoring the tournament and selecting the sites.

Perhaps the most important implication of NCAA legitimacy is that it gives the sport a real opportunity to expand. More athletes are drawn by the chance to compete for a NCAA Championship.

"It brings players to us," Stone said. "Premier Canadian players have more of a reason to leave national play and come to play here. It's a positive in many ways."

The Crimson hopes to become the first NCAA Champions of women's hockey in Mariucci Arena, where their success started. Perhaps they'd introduce the old NCAA basketball tradition of cutting the net.

"Yeah that would be cool," Stone said. "But let's get there first."