What's next for RSEQ women's hockey?

[AdamMcg83]

With the end of the 2023-24 varsity season comes the end of a six-team Quebec conference in women's hockey: Ottawa and Carleton will join the OUA this fall.

This leaves only four RSEQ teams: Concordia, Montreal, McGill, and Bishops. It's home to a couple of the best programs in the country - Concordia just completed a 25-0 regular season and won a national championship, while Montreal just claimed bronze at nationals.

But, how long can that last in a four-team league? How much is recruiting going to be impacted? I can't imagine it would be appealing to play only three other teams, wherein the longest road trip is not even 2 hours down the highway - and where three of the four teams share the same city.

So does the RSEQ start looking for schools that would add a women's program? UQTR is an obvious one, for sure. Does Bishops look to move to the AUS as they did in football, leaving the Montreal schools to follow the men's model of an expanded OUA East division?

Very interesting times indeed for the USports women's hockey landscape, which has consistently grown in both support and quality of the product over the past decade or so.

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[FreddyFoyle]

I would certainly like to see an interlock schedule between RESQ and AUS. The AUS teams need to play to a higher standard if they are ever going to challenge RESQ-level teams at Nationals.

 

[AdamMcg83]

I would certainly like to see an interlock schedule between RESQ and AUS. The AUS teams need to play to a higher standard if they are ever going to challenge RESQ-level teams at Nationals.

With the way the schools are bunched geographically, I'd think it would be relatively easy to put that together - especially if you did three-game weekends to limit travel.