The UAH athletic dept. & Board seemed quite serious about pursuing the new arena before the announcement of the WCHA dissolution. So the lingering question in my mind is: Did that announcement encourage the UAH powers to proceed with greater haste, or have they given up on DI hockey?
The LU men have established a very strong DII CLUB hockey program, and the new home in the 2,500-seat Centene Community Ice Center's USA Arena sure seems to be the keystone for building a DI program. The team & training facilities there will be first-class once finished; that's probably 2-3 months away, based on what I saw today as I snooped around.
That's a DII CLUB program. That's not real college hockey.
Actually we have ACHA DI and ACHA DII on the men's side. The DI men's team is coached by Rick Zombo and has been for years, when the St. Louis Bandits used to be in town he would get many recruits from them, as of right now we have a transfer who played at UMass Lowell (NCAA), many players have gone on to play in the ECHL, and AHL. While yes ACHA is club hockey, it shouldn't be outright dismissed. Many DI ACHA teams like Lindenwood could compete with NCAA DIII teams, as you go lower down the levels you get more and more true club programs.
Now for everyone else I'll copy and paste a long post I had made on a thread in the Minor league forum:
I'm not entirely convinced that this arena in Clarksville will be home to minor league hockey. In my opinion it could more likely be home to a hockey program associated with Austin Peay State University as part of the NHL's recent College Hockey Feasibility studies. Illinois (Chicago Blackhawks), and Oakland (Detroit Red Wings) were the only two named schools and NHL partners in the study, and others were undisclosed according to this article
Collegiate Consulting Completes Five NHL Funded Hockey Feasibility Studies — Collegiate Consulting
another article at the end mentions the possibility of 8-10 schools:
Four NHL College Hockey Feasibility Studies Underway - The Mack Report
The Austin Peay Governors logo is clearly featured front and center on the concept art (see below), although I did read somewhere they could use the arena for basketball which could be their only involvement in the project. But it's not out of the question that they are one of the schools that partnered with an NHL franchise (Predators) to conduct a study. Now I'm not sure of Austin Peay's finances for adding hockey, or their Title IX considerations. However, I do know they've recently put a lot into football and specifically their football stadium, and you don't get your logo on the concept art for a project like this unless cash has exchanged hands so it's reasonable to assume they're putting a good sum in this arena project. They are members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) which is a Division I athletic conference, FCS level for football. The Predators have been stepping up to grow hockey in and around central Tennessee opening new rec rinks, and have seen tons of growth in youth hockey since their recent Stanley Cup Final appearance, so getting a close college program only an hour or so away from Nashville could be a huge step in that.
The landscape of college hockey is changing see the WCHA:
7 of 10 WCHA Teams Announce Plans to Leave
Those changes will occur in two seasons, giving time for this project to get underway and the wheels in motion for Austin Peay, and also for Lindenwood University outside of St. Louis who I suspect will be adding DI NCAA hockey on the men's side (they already have women's) in that time frame. They just opened a new 2500 seat arena in partnership with the St. Louis Blues, and some of the comments made at the grand opening ceremony seem to have the wheels in motion for that to happen.
Now my points on Austin Peay in Clarksville are all speculation, and should be taken as such. But with the shakeup in college hockey, Liberty and Lindenwood having ready arenas and now this development from High Point, I could see Liberty, Lindenwood, Alabama Huntsville, Austin Peay, and High Point coming together to form a conference. Travel wise it would be tough going from Lindenwood to Liberty or High Point. But for the most part travel isn't outrageous, Liberty and HP are somewhat close maybe a third school can fill in the gap over there, AP to Huntsville and Lindenwood is somewhat ok.