Michigan now has a PWHL team with the league expanding to Detroit. Next season the number of PWHL players from Michigan will continue to grow after several from the state were selected at the 2026 Draft. And the American national team, which came home from the 2026 Olympics with gold, also has a Michigan factor, including the overtime golden goal scorer Megan Keller.

Despite the rich women's hockey history, bright future, and overflowing talent pool in Michigan however, there remains no NCAA Division 1 programs for women. There are seven NCAA Division 1 men's programs in the state, but none for women, including at powerhouse hockey schools like the University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Western Michigan. The closest program for girls hockey players in Michigan remains the arch rival of most in the state, Ohio State.

It's where former Canadian national team member Tessa Bonhomme played her collegiate hockey.

"I wanted nothing more than to be able to play against Michigan, nothing more, and it always blew my mind why there isn't," said Bonhomme of the absence of an NCAA Division one program in the state at an event in Detroit in June.

While, Bonhomme, 40, was shocked as a rival 20 years ago, the same confusion among elite women's hockey players from the state at the absence of a women's hockey program persists today.

"Growing up I think all of us would probably say if Michigan had a college team it would have been high on our list," said Keller, a Farmington Hills product at a PWHL Mentorship event in Detroit.

"I know they're working ot get one and hopefully having PWHL Detroit here is a good first step. To have a women's college team, there's so much girls hockey throughout the state of Michigan, they call it Hockeytown for a reason, that would be great to have, I would have loved to have gone there."

Michigan has been completing feasibility studies to launch a women's program, but it remains several years away, the there remains more road blocks than clear pathways.

Former Little Caesars girls hockey director Manon Rhéaume has stepped into the general manager role with PWHL Detroit. She used her second pick in the 2026 Draft to select a former player and Port Huron, Michigan product Casey Borgiel. Borgiel left Michigan to play collegiately at Colgate in New York.

"I think everyone in the state of Michigan has been waiting for it," said Casey Borgiel. "I mean, I grew up here 10 years ago, and we were sitting there, we're like, all right, when's Michigan State, when's Michigan going get a team? So I'm hoping that PWHL Detroit, just pushes it so much closer."

American national team member, Olympic gold medalist, and NCAA national champion Kirsten Simms also left the state. She was recruited by Wisconsin where she won multiple NCAA titles. Now, the former Little Caesars star is heading to Toronto after the Sceptres chose her 8th overall. She knows the impact having an NCAA team in Michigan would have had in her youth, and for girls today.

"I mean, it would be unbelievable. I'm super grateful and had an unbelievable time at Wisconsin, but obviously, there's a little special place I have for my hometown in my own state, and so it would be amazing if they could bring girls hockey," Simms said.

"And I mean, they have a (PWHL) team here now is just unbelievable and shows you the strength, and the girls, the woman, talking in Detroit, and in Michigan in general, and just what girls bring and have to offer here. 
So I think it would be incredible for young girls to be able to look up to a dream to get to go to college in their own state."

Elyssa Biederman is heading to PWHL Hamilton next season. She's another Little Caesars alumni who left Michigan, joining Borgiel at Colgate, for her college career. She was a member of USA's collegiate select team last season, and echoed Simms' statement on the importance of one day soon having a collegiate program in the state for girls to see.

"You know, you grew up chanting, 'Go Blue' or "Go White" in the state of Michigan,
that's kind of the way we're raised," Biederman said.

"So I think having that drive to be able to commit to a school like that, that you cheered for for such a long time would be such an amazing feeling to have that there. Obviously, that's not the case right now, so a lot of us leave, but I think all Michigan people would be thrilled to put that kind of sweater on and represent their state and their city."