As the summer days are winding down, we are quickly approaching the 2025-26 school year, meaning hockey season is just around the corner!  Although we’ve still got a ways to go until we really dive deep into the upcoming season, some exciting news was released the past few days that can help tide us hockey fans over.

Back in July, the Division III men’s and women’s ice hockey committees held their annual joint meeting, and the agenda from that meeting was recently released via the NCAA.  Usually, these joint meetings address a pressing issue that ice hockey specifically faces at the D-III level.  This year’s meeting tackled one of the biggest questions surrounding the sport: Championship hosts.

To sum up, the committees voted (by a count of 5 to 2) to shift both the men’s and women’s championships to solely pre-determined sites for the foreseeable future.  Now, what does this mean?  Let’s break it all down.

Predetermined vs. Non-Predetermined

Let’s start with defining a couple of terms:

• “Predetermined” championships are just a fancy way of saying that the NCAA chose where the Frozen Four would be held ahead of time.
• “Non-predetermined” championships are decided very, very late in the process, chosen about a week beforehand (after the NCAA quarterfinal matchups).

Predetermined sites allow for an obvious much longer runway to prepare for the massive event, allowing time for signage to be ordered, hotels to be booked, and so on.

Non-predetermined sites are held at one of the remaining Frozen Four teams’ home rinks (usually).  It often goes to the highest remaining seed, but the school’s home rink has to meet hosting standards, which we will get into later.

History

Traditionally, D-III hockey has experimented with multiple ways of deciding where their championship round was to be played, and to varying degrees of success.

Men’s Side

Predetermined:

• 1984-1992: Non-predetermined
• 1993: Predetermined
• 1994-2005: Non-predetermined
• 2006-2018: Predetermined
• 2019-2028: Alternate between Predetermined and non-predetermined
• 2029-?: Predetermined

As you can see, the men’s tournament has gone in phases throughout the sport’s history at the D-III level.  In non-predetermined years, the hosting duties would traditionally would go to the highest seed in the Frozen Four, but early on, other participating Frozen Four schools would get a chance to “spread the love”, so to speak.  In 1993, the St. Thomas hosted the Frozen Four in Maplewood, MN, as the first predetermined championship was held.

After returning to home sites, the committee didn’t try with the predetermined model again until 2006, when First Arena in Elmira, NY won the bid to host, coming first in a three-year pilot plan of predetermined sites.

After good attendance numbers, the committee announced a full-time move to predetermined sites, where Lake Placid became the customary home of the championship, with other venues sprinkled in, such as Minneapolis and Lewiston, Maine, with the occasional campus site (Utica & UW-Superior) getting to host as well.

In 2018, we finally arrived at the familiar “every other year” format, switching between predetermined sites, and non-predetermined sites.  But during this era, the controversy really started to ramp up.  For as much hassle is involved in naming a host just a week before the championship, who hosts, can be even more complicated.

With raw data awarding seeds to these schools, higher seeded teams want the chance to host championships, for obvious reasons.  But the NCAA has standards that they require their hosts to have, and are willing to bend the rules at time to meet those standards.  Not every time the #1 seed has the rink available to host.

The other dilemma, is that the NCAA has a rule that the championship can’t be held in the same region more than three consecutive times, meaning the western schools usually don’t get as many chances to host as the eastern ones.

• 1993 (Maplewood, MN)
• 2006 (Elmira, NY)
• 2007 (UW-Superior)
• 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2022 (Lake Placid, NY)
• 2011, 2015 (Minneapolis, MN)
• 2014 (Lewiston, ME)
• 2017, 2026 (Utica)
• 2020** (Buffalo, NY)
• 2024 (Trinity*)
• 2028 (Madison, WI)

Bold locations were played at D-III schools’ home rinks

* Trinity qualified for the Frozen Four that specific season, giving it a “home site” feel

**2020 Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Non-predetermined:

• 1984, 1989, 2001 (RIT),
• 1985 (Union)
• 1986 (Bemidji State)
• 1987, 1992, 1998 (Plattsburgh)
• 1988, 1991 (Elmira)
• 1990, 2019 (UW-Stevens Point)
• 1994, 2000 (UW-Superior)
• 1995, 1997, 2002, 2005 (Middlebury)
• 1996 (UW-River Falls)
• 1999, 2003, 2004 (Norwich)
• 2023 (Endicott)
• 2025 (Utica)
• 2027 (TBD)

Women’s Side

• 2002-2012: Non-predetermined
• 2013: Predetermined
• 2014-2024: Non-predetermined
• 2025-2028: Alternate between Predetermined and non-predetermined
• 2029-?: Predetermined

The women’s committee has done a lot less experimentation with these predetermined sites than the men’s side.  Since the championship’s inception, home sites always were selected for one of the Frozen Four schools, with preference going to the highest seeds, when possible.  Like the men, there are hosting standards and rules that must be met on where the tournament must be held.

In 2013, a major decision was made, and UW-Superior was selected to host the first-ever “neutral site” pre-determined championship in D-III women’s hockey, winning the bid over Norwich.  Sadly, despite a quality venue, the tournament was very poorly attended.  Three eastern teams didn’t help the matter, nor did Superior, Wisconsin’s location.

It appeared the NCAA viewed that decision as a mistake, and went back to “old reliable” and home sites championships.  Then, just a few years back, the NCAA announced a pilot program, testing out pre-determined championships for second go-around.  They were to go on the “every other year” schedule, mimicking the men’s tournament (They did alternate which years were which, though).  At the time, they announced the two hosts for pre-determined sites would be split between the two regions.

UW-River Falls won the West bid to host in 2025, and Plattsburgh won the East bid to host in 2027.  The NCAA had a first-hand look at how the host would perform, as UWRF coincidentally earned hosting responsibilities the year prior, as the #1 seed.  UWRF did a fantastic job, and followed it up with hosting an even better 2025, which I attended.  It helped the Falcons made it back to the Frozen Four as well, winning both titles.  Plattsburgh will have a high bar to clear, but I don’t doubt they can get there.

Predetermined:

• 2013 (UW-Superior)
• 2025 (UW-River Falls)
• 2027 (Plattsburgh)

Non-predetermined:

• 2002, 2003, 2005 (Elmira)
• 2004, 2009, 2022 (Middlebury)
• 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Plattsburgh)
• 2010 (Gustavus)
• 2011, 2012 (RIT)
• 2017 (Adrian)
• 2018 (Norwich)
• 2019 (St. Thomas)
• 2023 (Amherst)
• 2024 (UW-River Falls)
• 2026, 2028 (TBD)

Final Thoughts

Personally, I am a little skeptical of this news.  By no means, am I writing it off completely, but I find it very fun to know that teams are playing for home ice down the stretch of the season.  I think going with the “every other year” format is perfectly fine.  But, I understand the frustration when your school has a program-best season, and doesn’t get the opportunity to host a championship, when perhaps your rival got that chance the year prior.

Obviously, site selection will be huge for both the men and women.  I hope schools bid to host, just to give us a chance for that host school to potentially reach the national semifinals.  The environment when a host school is playing is unmatched to some of these “neutral” sites. I don’t personally agree, but I understand the NCAA’s rationale.  They need the time to create the best experience, but hopefully the crowds follow wherever these tournaments are held.

Regardless of what happens, the NCAA values the stability of securing these venues months ahead of time, and time will tell how successful these predetermined sites will be.  I’ll have another article out shortly, discussing the D-III hockey schools best fit to host the championships ahead.