Zac Electrifly

This concept will be taking place during the 2023-24 season. In this concept, Apple bought ESPN from Disney. ESPN merged with AppleTV. As part of that Apple is pumping seemingly unlimited money into ESPN to create as much content as possible. ESPN now has eight national networks, ten regional networks, and a ridiculous amount of sub-regional networks. ESPN has expanded to adding every professional league and minor league. They are now consistently covering high school sports. They are also covering amateur and recreational sports. At the front of this massive expansion is the NCAA. The NCAA and ESPN have entered a partnership that would see NCAA division one programs expand to adding all five major North American sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer) plus at least the the power five conference schools would add all of the olympic sports and variations on all of the five major North American sports and olympic sports. All of this would happen by the year 2040.

Ice hockey would be the only major North American sport that would need significant investment from programs. It is easily the smallest NCAA sport in the top five. In this concept, ESPN and Apple would invest up to seventy five percent of between seven hundred and fifty thousand to two and a half million per NCAA hockey program per year until 2045. Money for that would also come from other donors and sponsors. This would have been announced in April of 2023. It likely would have been worked on behind closed doors for over six months before that. That would have given the over three hundred new NCAA division one ice hockey teams enough time to be ready by the 2023-24 season.

For this concept, in the United States there are three college hockey leagues. The NCAA is the top league. The American Collegiate Hockey Association is the second league. The Amateur Athletic Union also has a league. For this concept each program has a men’s and women’s structure. The men’s structure is the NCAA division one, the ACHA division one, the ACHA division two, the ACHA division three, the AAU division one, the AAU division two, and the AAU division three. The women’s structure is NCAA division one, the ACHA division one, the ACHA division two, the AAU division one. Additionally programs will have teams in conference or regional leagues, local leagues or their own leagues. NCAA ice hockey programs would not be permitted to own professional teams, have teams that compete in junior leagues, or have travel and high school hockey teams. ACHA and AAU teams can also be from the NCAA division two, the NCAA division three, or from outside of the NCAA.

Each team will have a primary venue. Some teams may have a secondary venue. Both venues would have to be within fifty miles of the school campus. Most schools basketball arenas would be large enough to fit ice hockey. National Hockey League, American Hockey League, ECHL, and Southern Pro Hockey League venues would be used as much as possible. Neutral site games would be allowed. Neutral site games would be games between any two teams outside of their primary or secondary venues. The goal would be that by 2050 each team would have a 5,000 capacity primary venue. Bowl games take place at outdoor venues. Majority of tournament games are neutral site games. Conference tournament games could be played at the higher seeded teams venue. That would mimic what professional leagues do for the playoffs and would further separate NCAA ice hockey and NCAA basketball.

For this concept the season will be broken down into three parts. The first part is the preseason. The second part is the regular season. The third part is the postseason. Games are split into conference and non-conference games. Conference games are played by two teams who are in the same conference. Non-conference games are played by two teams who are not in the same conference. Conference games only effect the conference standings. Non-conference games effect the overall NCAA standings. During the preseason teams participate in tournaments followed by up to three preseason games. Teams are allowed to play up to thirty five regular season games. Teams have to play each team in their conference at least once at home and once away. As part of the regular season teams play in bowl games which are outdoor hockey games that count as regular season games. The postseason consists of conference tournaments and national tournaments.

For this concept it is the 2023-24 season. That is the 76th season of NCAA ice hockey. It is also the 130th season of college hockey. The preseason is in the first half of October with the regular season starting around the middle of October. The regular season ends around the second week of March. Conference tournaments would be around the middle of March. National tournaments would start around the third week of March and go into April.

The ACHA division one will have a similar style season to the NCAA. The ACHA division two will limit who teams can play based on if a team is in the eastern or western united states. The ACHA division three will limit teams to primary playing within their federal region and prioritize conference play. The AAU will prioritize conference play.

For this concept, the home jerseys will be light. The away jerseys will be dark. Additional jerseys can be light or dark. Teams will have at least two jerseys. There is no limit on how many jerseys a team can have.

The conference logo, manufacturer logo, and some sort of team logo, wordmark or lettermark will go on the front of the jersey. Logos on the shoulders or arms will be optional. Player numbers will go on the arms, shoulders, and/or the front of the jersey. In this concept unlike in professional ice hockey, teams do not have to have player numbers on the sleeves or shoulders. Most teams will have a unique font for the player numbers. A lot of this is based on hockey, football, and basketball jerseys used during the 2023-24 season. Some of this will be inspired by what different brands did in my FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 ice hockey concept.

In this concept there are twelve uniform providers. In addition to that there are five gear manufacturers. Adidas, Air Jordan, Bauer, CCM, Gemini Athletic, JOG, K1, Militia, New Balance, Nike, SP Apparel, and Under Armour provide uniforms for teams. Bauer, CCM, Sherwood, True, and Warrior provide equipment for teams. For this concept teams will be using the same gear providers as the National Hockey League. Uniform providers were assigned to each team based on who provides their ice hockey, football, or basketball uniforms. It is only based on their ice hockey provider if they are one of the current NCAA division one ice hockey teams.

Adidas has two templates. Their first template is the Sixteen template which is based on the 2016 World Cup Of Hockey jerseys. The second Adidas template is the Primegreen template. That template is based on the current NHL jerseys. All of the current Adidas sponsored NCAA division one ice hockey teams and football teams that switched over to the latest Adidas template use the primegreen jerseys. All of the Adidas sponsored teams outside of the NCAA division one ice hockey that use the old Adidas football template or do not have a football program use the Sixteen template. In this concept all Adidas sponsored hockey teams used the Sixteen template prior to the 2019-20 season and since then would have been given the option for one of the other. Adidas teams will use CCM as their equipment provider. While CCM is no longer owned by Adidas, they still have a strong relationship for this concept.

Air Jordan has two templates. The Jordan Rio and Jordan Team. Both templates are Nike templates with the Air Jordan logo. Only teams sponsored by Air Jordan use either of the templates. Teams with the latest football template use the Jordan Rio template. Teams with an older template use the Jordan Team template. Air Jordan teams would use Bauer equipment due to both companies relationship with Nike.

Bauer has one template. The Bauer Flexlite jersey. It will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use Bauer jerseys. That teams will also use Bauer equipment.

CCM has two templates. The CCM Quicklite template is based on the jerseys seen in the American Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League. The CCM Premier template is based on the NHL jerseys from 2008 to 2016. CCM Jerseys will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use CCM jerseys. CCM teams will also use CCM equipment.

Gemini Athletic has one template. The Gemini Athletic Pro Cut template. It will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use Gemini Athletic jerseys. Gemini Athletic teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

JOG has one template. The JOG Premier template. Not to be confused with the CCM Premier template. That template is based on the current NHL jerseys. It will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use JOG jerseys. JOG teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

K1 has one template. The K1 College template. It will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use K1 jerseys. K1 teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

Militia has one template. The Militia Pro Spec template. It will be used by current NCAA Division one teams that use Militia Jerseys. Militia teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

New Balance has three jersey templates. The Pinnacle template is based on the NCAA jersey template they used prior to 2023. The Placid jersey template is based on the 2008 to 2016 NHL jerseys. The Frostbite 2.0 template is based on their new NCAA template. Current NCAA division one hockey teams sponsored by New Balance will use either the Pinnacle or Frostbite 2.0 jerseys. New Balance Sponsored NCAA teams without NCAA division one ice hockey teams will use the Placid jerseys. New Balance teams will use Warrior hockey equipment since New Balance owns warrior.

Nike has six templates. The Nike Recycled template is based on the 2018 winter olympic ice hockey jerseys. The Nike Dri Fit template is based on the 2022 winter olympic ice hockey jerseys. The Nike Flywire template is based on their old college and NFL template. The Nike Vapor Pro template is a combination of the Nike Dri Fit hockey jerseys and the Nike Vapor Untouchable football jerseys. The Nike Vapor FUSE jersey is a combination of the Nike Dri Fit hockey jerseys and Nike Vapor FUSE football jerseys. The Nike Vapor Varsity template is based on the Nike Authentic Hockey Jersey. The Nike Recycled and Dri Fit templates are used by current NCAA Division one ice hockey teams. The Nike Flywire, Nike Vapor Pro, and Nike Vapor FUSE are used by Nike sponsored schools based on which football jersey they use. The Nike Vapor Varsity template is used by Nike sponsored schools that do not have football teams. Nike sponsored teams use Bauer as their equipment provider. While Nike no longer owns Bauer they still have a strong relationship.

SP Apparel has one template. The SP Evolution template. It is based on the current NHL template. It will be used by current NCAA division one hockey teams that use SP jerseys. SP teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

Under Armour has one template. The Under Armour Game Day Select template. It is based on their current NCAA hockey jersey template. Under Armour teams will use another company as an equipment provider.

The conferences in this concept are based on the 2023-24 NCAA conference alignment. There are thirty four conferences. The largest conference has sixteen teams. The smallest conferences have eight teams. There are no football only conferences in this concept. There are no other single sport conferences in this concept. There are no independent teams in this concept. In this concept the traditional ice hockey conferences were abandoned in favor of teams playing in their primary conferences. I did not completely realign the NCAA conferences. I did move teams that only had ice hockey as a division one sport into conferences.

I did realign the ACHA and AAU. The ACHA and AAU conferences are based on proximity. They are going to be realigned to put the closest teams together. They will also try to divided the teams evenly. The ACHA will have conferences of eight to twelve teams with three, four, or six team divisions. All ACHA conferences will have divisions. The AAU will have between eight and fourteen team conferences without divisions.

Preseason tournaments are all played in the beginning of October. All of the tournaments have a group stage and an elimination stage. There will be international tournaments, national tournaments, regional tournaments, and conference tournaments. All preseason tournaments except for the conference tournaments would be invitational. All except for the conference tournaments would be at neutral sites. The conference tournaments would have one host.

The ACHA division one will have preseason regional and conference tournaments. The ACHA division two will only have preseason conference tournaments. The ACHA division three and AAU will not have preseason tournaments in favor of allowing teams to play more preseason games.

The outdoor ice hockey games in this series will be called bowl games. These games are inspired by the NHL Winter Classic and NHL Stadium Series. There will be at least sixty eight bowl games. That number includes the current number of NCAA football bowl games and the number of NCAA football conferences. Additional games will be added. Each conference will have at least one bowl game. Bowl games will prioritize college rivalry matchups. Bowl games will be played from December through February. ACHA and AAU teams will also participate in bowl games that their NCAA teams play in.

Each conference will have a tournament. The number of teams in each tournament varies by conference. Seeding for each conference tournament is determined by overall conferences standings or divisional standings based on if the conference has divisions. Tournaments can be single elimination or have a group stage and elimination stage. Games can be played at neutral sites or be home games for higher seeds. That would vary by conference.

The ACHA division one would have conference tournaments. The ACHA division two and the ACHA division three would only have conference championship games. In the AAU the conference regular season winner is the conference champion.

The NCAA Division One National Ice Hockey Tournament is the top tournament in the NCAA. It is a single elimination tournament. It would include sixty four teams and could be expanded to sixty eight depending on qualifying. All of the regular season conference champions and conference tournament champions would automatically qualify for the tournament. The remaining spots would be filled based on the overall NCAA standings. The tournament would be split into four regional tournaments based on proximity. The winners of those tournaments face off in the Frozen Four. All of the games for this tournament would be played at neutral sites. Matchups would be based on a lottery draw.

The National Hockey Invitational Tournament (or HIT for short) is the second tier national tournament in the NCAA. It is a thirty two team single elimination tournament. The tournament is filled up with the thirty two highest teams that are not in the NCAA Division One National Ice Hockey Tournament. This tournament would see a mix of higher seeded team home games and neutral site games.

The College Hockey Tournament is the third tier NCAA tournament. It is another thirty two team single elimination tournament. Teams are selected based on over NCAA standings. This tournament would be for teams that did not make the other two tournaments. All of the games would be played at the higher seeded teams venue except the final which would be at a neutral site.

The ACHA division one would have the ACHA National Championships. They would be a thirty two team world cup style tournament. teams would be selected by the overall ACHA standings. They would also have two additional sixteen team single elimination tournaments. The ACHA division two and ACHA division three would both only have one sixteen team tournament. The AAU would have a 128 team single elimination tournament for both of it’s divisions.