Hobart beat Utica, 2-1 in overtime, to win the Division III men's hockey championship, March 30. Three championships in 3 years. The 2-seed Statesmen got a first-round bye in the 14-team tournament, then beat Trine U (of Fort Wayne (Angola), Indiana) 3-2 in OT, #4 SUNY Geneseo 2-1 in the semis, and #6 Utica 2-1 again in overtime for the title. At the Utica University Nexus Center (2022, 1200 seats).
New York State-heavy tournament: Hobart, Utica, Geneseo State (which beat West 1-Seed Aurora), Hamilton, Oswego State.
Division 2 men's hockey is down to one league and no longer has a national playoff.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/icehockey-men/article/2025-03-30/hobart-wins-2025-ncaa-diii-mens-hockey-championship
Hobart has been coached for the last 25 seasons by Mark Taylor. That name might sound familiar to, er, long-term Big Red fans like me -- he was hired as an assistant coach at Cornell in 1990, after Mike Schafer took an assistant coaching job at Western Michigan. Taylor worked with fellow assistant Casey Jones for a couple seasons and was with the Big Red until 1995, after which he coached at UMass-Lowell before landing the head coaching job at Hobart in 2000.
What is the purpose of/difference between Div. II & III in mens college hockey really?
Scholies isnt it?
DII schools wanted to be a bit more competitive than DIII but weren't ready to challenge Cornell, Denver, BU. As DII contracted, some did move up to D1 such Bemidji State, RIT, Mercyhurst, some dropped down, and a handful stayed as DII, but not big enough the NCAA to want to continue to give them a playoff of their own: Assumption, Franklin Pierce, Post, Saint Anselm, St. Michaels, Southern New Hampshire, all now in in the Northeast-10 Conference.
In football, when it was clear no Ivy or Patriot League school would ever compete against an Alabama - Ohio State for a national playoff berth, the NCAA created the D1 Championship Subdivision even if Big D1 essentially has its own championship, now. Not many schools want to be one run below the top.
Quote from: billhowardDII schools wanted to be a bit more competitive than DIII but weren't ready to challenge Cornell, Denver, BU. As DII contracted, some did move up to D1 such Bemidji State, RIT, Mercyhurst, some dropped down, and a handful stayed as DII, but not big enough the NCAA to want to continue to give them a playoff of their own: Assumption, Franklin Pierce, Post, Saint Anselm, St. Michaels, Southern New Hampshire, all now in in the Northeast-10 Conference.
In football, when it was clear no Ivy or Patriot League school would ever compete against an Alabama - Ohio State for a national playoff berth, the NCAA created the D1 Championship Subdivision even if Big D1 essentially has its own championship, now. Not many schools want to be one run below the top.
Of course, when it was created, it was called Division I-AA vs Division I-A, but I guess that sounded too "lower-level" so they switched the the FCS/FBS nomenclature.
Sometimes one suspects the NCAA is one big cranial — rectal inversion. I recall at the basketball tournament a couple years back, the officials wanted to eject Jason Gay from the press table because he brought a Wall Street Journal mug and was advised the only drinking vessel allowed is whatever sports drink it was that year.