This week, news broke that the University of Iowa’s club hockey team was upgrading their hockey arena. This news immediately got some college hockey fans thinking about the Hawkeyes chances of joining the ranks of Division I hockey and the Big Ten Hockey Conference.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The Hawkeyes aren’t moving to Big Ten and division I, there’s a small chance later, if they can find a funding stream. For now, they’re only moving up to division I ACHA once their new arena is built. Building a new arena is a good start. There does sound like there’s some reluctance to move the program to division I status. See the embedded tweet below.
I also live in Iowa and worked at the University of Iowa between hockey jobs. The arena is being built by the city of Coralville and hasn't budged the current administration on its hockey stance. Would love to see it happen, but if it does it won't be for a very long time.
— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) September 28, 2018
In the future, if the Hawkeyes added division I hockey they could be the conference’s eighth team. That would solve a lot of scheduling problems for the B1G. The move to the Big Ten Seems logical.
From Jeff Johnson of the Gazette.
Head coach Kevin Brooks has lofty goals for the program. He is back in charge after a two-year absence, spending five years previously as coach.
“My plan is go to D-I once we have the rink because you have to be able to sell 500 seats,” Brooks said.
Iowa plays its home games at the Coral Ridge Mall rink. There are 42 players on the roster, including a pair of kids from Cedar Rapids in defensemen Jeff Stack and Ethan Welch.
Forward Ian McKay is from Iowa City and defenseman Trevor Katz from Waterloo. The rest of the squad is comprised of kids mostly from Minnesota and suburban Chicago.
The state of Iowa would be a natural fit for division I college hockey. The State of Iowa has five USHL teams Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Sioux City, Waterloo.
