Gotcha. Not calling you out just curious where the info is coming from.
Ill first start by saying that Athletic Directors at most non-hockey universities have no interest in adding any sports including hockey. They are evaluated on football, football, and football. Adding on a new sport means complying with Title IX, new facilities, and funding all of it. Almost 90% of what an Athletic Director are evaluated on is what happens to the football program. Also, in the vast majority of Athletic Departments only Mens Basketball and Football make money and every other sport is a major money loss. Basically football funds everything.
So to approach and Athletic Director and ask them to add hockey, even with a massive check in your hand, is unlikely to go anywhere. Hell, Iowa is going to have a brand new 5k hockey arena just off campus, a conference to join, and a great fan base....and they still are not considering hockey. Same with Nebraska.
ASU had a terrible club program until Greg Powers came along and turned ASU into a club powerhouse and won the club National Championship. He then had a mega-donor (who was not an ASU alum) approach him about having the club team turning D1. At the time ASU hired Ray Anderson as the AD who had a very open mind and liked the idea of adding hockey. The problem was the donor wanted hockey to be added ASAP or he was going to walk.
Now understand its not easy to force something through a public school with 100+k students. They basically made magic happen and obtained the approval from everyone necessary. The donation was also for over $30 Million. The school was also planing on building a field house for the volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastic teams and now they have the anchor tenant (hockey) to go with it. Shovels go into the ground later this year for that facility.
After watching all of this and being involved in it ASU is lucky to add hockey. So many different things could of derailed it. I guess timing is everything on this one and Greg Powers and Ray Anderson worked tirelessly to make it happen.
If you want to anything about conference affiliation I'm happy to share that as well.