It's long overdue that a Michigan university offers Division I women's college hockey in the state of Michigan. The PWHL's Saturday night game in Detroit is just another indicator of how much interest exists in the state.
It's long overdue that a Michigan university offers Division I women's college hockey in the state of Michigan. The PWHL's Saturday night game in Detroit is just another indicator of how much interest exists in the state.
Saturday night, PWHL Boston and Ottawa will play a game at Little Caesars Arena. It’s safe to say there’ll hardly be an empty seat as the highest level of women’s hockey comes to a state that always produces talent. The game will also be a homecoming for three Michigan natives on the Boston roster to play in front of friends and family.
Look at it this way: a first-year pro league is bringing the highest level of women's hockey to Michigan before any of its universities currently offer Division I women's hockey.
Michigan’s lack of a Division I women’s hockey program is unacceptable, and it has been for decades. Clearly, the interest for such a program exists here, and it’s long overdue that Michigan schools provide opportunities for women to pursue their hockey dreams in the state they call home.
“It’s something that we’ve always wanted, and it’s been talked about from Michigan State to the University of Michigan,” Boston defenseman Shiann Darkangelo said Tuesday. “Obviously Wayne State had a program as well, but I think it would be huge to be able to have a professional team there. It might kind of push people, I feel like, to get the involvement, the University of Michigan to have a Division-I team. I know they have like a club team and things and there are people working in that direction, but it would be super exciting to see that.”
Once, Detroit’s own Wayne State University offered Division I women’s hockey from 1999 to 2011, but it cut its program due to funding issues. For the past 13 years, no one else has added a program at the D-I level. Right now, the state's only NCAA level women's program is Division III Adrian College, who is playing in the D-III Frozen Four on Friday night. Eight universities in the state offer ACHA Division I club teams, including the state’s flagship universities of Michigan and Michigan State. Meanwhile, seven schools offer NCAA Division I men's hockey.
The fact that none of these universities has added a Division I women's team is baffling considering the level of interest in the state. USA Hockey reported 5,359 female members in the state of Michigan last year, the fourth most of any state behind Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York. If a university adds D-I women's hockey, it won't have an issue finding players.
I know it’s expensive to add a varsity program. I know that the potential for revenue sharing and conference realignment makes adding college programs difficult these days. And yes, I am aware that there are Title IX considerations at play (numbers which universities manipulate, mind you).
But at its core, college athletics exists to provide their communities with opportunity. The money game of modern college athletics has distracted us from the mission of these programs to offer local kids opportunities to chase their dreams. It’s the responsibility of universities to provide their students and their state with an ability to reach the next level. For a sport as big as women’s hockey is in Michigan, it’s time to live up to that expectation.
The inaction by Michigan universities to provide these opportunities has historically meant that women have to leave home to play higher levels of hockey. For PWHL Boston defenseman Megan Keller, that meant playing for Boston College. Boston forward Taylor Girard went to Lindenwood and Quinnipiac, while Darkangelo played for Quinnipiac and Syracuse.
Those three players are just a small sample of many who have had to pack up their bags and go to school far from home in order to chase their dreams. There are more, including current Plymouth native and NCAA leading scorer Kirsten Simms, who’s up for the Patty Kazmaier Award this year at Wisconsin.
There’s no guarantee that these players would immediately play for Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech or any other school that would offer D-I hockey. But the fact that they didn’t have the option doesn’t mesh with how hockey crazed this state is.
“The time is now. I feel like we’re so behind in that aspect,” Darkangelo said of adding a D-I Michigan team in an interview with Daily Faceoff. She grew up in Brighton, a stone’s throw from Ann Arbor. “It would be absolutely awesome to see it happen. (The University of Michigan) is such an attractive place. If they would’ve had a team, it would’ve been pretty hard to pass up for myself to go there.”
Michigan’s long and storied women’s hockey history is undeniable, and it’s growing every day. From the Little Caesars, Honeybaked and Belle Tire junior programs that compete for national championships, to the six Michigan-born players in the PWHL — tied for third most of any U.S. state — Michigan has the base to support women's hockey. By playing an outreach game in Detroit, the PWHL is only reinforcing that.
“I think the growth of girls hockey throughout the state of Michigan has been incredible in these recent years,” Keller said Tuesday. “And so to have the opportunity to play there and hopefully have a lot of young girls in the stands to be able to witness us live for the first time, hopefully it just kickstarts everything throughout the state of Michigan and they’re able to get Division I programs or even a professional team down the road.”
It’s going to be expensive for someone to add D-I women's hockey. It’s probably more likely to happen at Michigan and Michigan State before any of the state’s smaller colleges. But at some point, a Michigan university needs to add D-I women’s hockey. The time has long been overdue.
Because the PWHL didn't pick Detroit by accident; it picked it because it knows Michigan is a women's hockey hotbed. It’s time the state’s universities realize that, too.
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