Southern hockey booms, yet NCAA silence persists. Discover the surprising fan engagement, financial potential, and talent pipelines that could ignite SEC Division I hockey.
With the recent success of the Florida Panthers, the Southern part of the United States has been booming with hockey, even with jumps to the division one level of the ACHA.
Unfortunately, it is still radio silent at the NCAA level. Why is that?
Most specifically, no teams in power conferences like the SEC are willing to take a hit on the hockey market, even though we’re starting to see it slowly bloom, with the recent Oklahoma State University news, as they plan to build an NCAA D1-level arena and eventually move to that level.
Everything is there for SEC hockey, and here are the main reasons they could give division one hockey a try.
To begin with, there is proven fan engagement at the professional and even ACHA level for bigger schools. Georgia, Tennessee, and others have brought in attendance monsters compared to the rest of the pack, with some of these schools already playing in huge arenas.
Besides that, there’s money! The SEC distributed over $1 billion to its member schools in the 2024–25 fiscal year. When you look at a hockey startup with an SEC-level budget, it doesn’t look all that bad.
Lastly, there are natural pipelines in the making. States like Texas and Florida have continued to show growth in their hockey involvement, which leads to homegrown talent and an opportunity to represent where you play, from which could develop a loyalty, and that word is something we could really use in any college sport right now.
To tack on that, with Canadian junior players becoming an NCAA option, it gives roster spots to already great talents that are willing to give the NCAA a try, and that is a reason why we are seeing some schools make that jump, even as recently as Maryville University a few weeks ago, already receiving a handful of commitments.
When you look at the Big Ten, they have 18 schools for football and basketball. For hockey? 7, and one of those schools is Notre Dame, who is either independent or elsewhere in college sports.
This shows the SEC doesn’t need to get everybody in the conference involved, but could use a couple of helpful swings.
It’s just a thought, but college hockey in the South should eventually become a reality. There is not much holding these schools back