How D1 college hockey teams are actually ranked, plus a conference directory covering 82 Division I programs.
NCAA Division I hockey teams are ranked two different ways: the USCHO.com poll (a weekly media/coaches vote, similar to AP Top 25 polls in other sports) and the Pairwise Rankings (PWR), an RPI-style formula the NCAA itself uses to select and seed the tournament field. Neither number lives on this page -- both change weekly during the season and are published by USCHO.com and the NCAA directly. What you'll find here instead is a conference-by-conference directory of 82 Division I men's and women's hockey programs, so you know who's playing in which conference before you go check this week's poll.
"NCAA hockey rankings" usually refers to one of two separate systems, and they're used for different things:
The NCAA Division I men's hockey tournament is a 16-team single-elimination bracket. The field is set by a mix of automatic qualifiers (each conference's tournament champion) and at-large bids, with every team seeded using the Pairwise Rankings described above -- there's no committee vote involved in seeding the way some other NCAA sports work.
The first round is played as four regionals of four teams each, hosted at pre-selected neutral sites rather than at the higher seed's home arena. The winner of each regional advances to the Frozen Four, the national semifinals and championship, held at a separate host site each year. As with the rankings themselves, we don't publish live bracket or regional-site data here since it's set fresh each March -- NCAA.com is the authoritative source once the field is announced.
Every NCAA Division I hockey program, grouped by conference. Some schools field teams in more than one conference because their men's and women's programs compete separately.
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Boston College | Chestnut Hill, MA | men's & women's |
| Boston University | Boston, MA | men's & women's |
| Merrimack College | North Andover, MA | men's & women's |
| Northeastern University | Boston, MA | men's & women's |
| Providence College | Providence, RI | men's & women's |
| University of Connecticut | Storrs, CT | men's & women's |
| University of Maine | Orono, ME | men's & women's |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | Amherst, MA | men's |
| University of Massachusetts Lowell | Lowell, MA | men's & women's |
| University of New Hampshire | Durham, NH | men's & women's |
| University of Vermont | Burlington, VT | men's & women's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Brown University | Providence, RI | men's & women's |
| Clarkson University | Potsdam, NY | men's & women's |
| Colgate University | Hamilton, NY | men's & women's |
| Cornell University | Ithaca, NY | men's & women's |
| Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | men's & women's |
| Harvard University | Cambridge, MA | men's & women's |
| Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | men's & women's |
| Quinnipiac University | Hamden, CT | men's & women's |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Troy, NY | men's & women's |
| St. Lawrence University | Canton, NY | men's & women's |
| Union College | Schenectady, NY | men's & women's |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | men's & women's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona State University | Tempe, AZ | men's |
| Colorado College | Colorado Springs, CO | men's |
| Miami University | Oxford, OH | men's |
| St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud, MN | men's |
| University of Denver | Denver, CO | men's |
| University of Minnesota Duluth | Duluth, MN | men's |
| University of Nebraska Omaha | Omaha, NE | men's |
| University of North Dakota | Grand Forks, ND | men's |
| Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, MI | men's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Augustana University | Sioux Falls, SD | men's |
| Bemidji State University | Bemidji, MN | men's |
| Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, OH | men's |
| Ferris State University | Big Rapids, MI | men's |
| Lake Superior State University | Sault Ste. Marie, MI | men's |
| Michigan Technological University | Houghton, MI | men's |
| Minnesota State University | Mankato, MN | men's |
| Northern Michigan University | Marquette, MI | men's |
| University of St. Thomas | St. Paul, MN | men's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Air Force Academy | Colorado Springs, CO | men's |
| Army West Point | West Point, NY | men's |
| Bentley University | Waltham, MA | men's |
| Canisius University | Buffalo, NY | men's |
| College of the Holy Cross | Worcester, MA | men's |
| Lindenwood University | St. Charles, MO | men's & women's |
| Mercyhurst University | Erie, PA | women's |
| Niagara University | Lewiston, NY | men's |
| Pennsylvania State University | University Park, PA | women's |
| Robert Morris University | Moon Township, PA | men's & women's |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | Henrietta, NY | men's & women's |
| Sacred Heart University | Fairfield, CT | men's |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY | women's |
| University of Delaware | Newark, DE | women's |
Includes Notre Dame, which competes as a Big Ten hockey affiliate without being a Big Ten member in other sports.
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan State University | East Lansing, MI | men's |
| Ohio State University | Columbus, OH | men's |
| Pennsylvania State University | University Park, PA | men's |
| University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | men's |
| University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | men's |
| University of Notre Dame | Notre Dame, IN | men's |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Madison, WI | men's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Bemidji State University | Bemidji, MN | women's |
| Minnesota State University | Mankato, MN | women's |
| Ohio State University | Columbus, OH | women's |
| St. Cloud State University | St. Cloud, MN | women's |
| University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | women's |
| University of Minnesota Duluth | Duluth, MN | women's |
| University of St. Thomas | St. Paul, MN | women's |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Madison, WI | women's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Assumption University | Worcester, MA | women's |
| Franklin Pierce University | Rindge, NH | women's |
| Long Island University | Glen Head, NY | women's |
| Post University | Waterbury, CT | women's |
| Sacred Heart University | Fairfield, CT | women's |
| Saint Anselm College | Manchester, NH | women's |
| Saint Michael's College | Winooski, VT | women's |
| Stonehill College | North Easton, MA | women's |
| Program | Location | Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Long Island University | Brookville, NY | men's |
| Stonehill College | Easton, MA | men's |
| University of Alaska Anchorage | Anchorage, AK | men's |
| University of Alaska Fairbanks | Fairbanks, AK | men's |
No schools match your search.
Men's and women's D1 hockey are organized as separate conference systems, and a school's men's team and women's team don't always play in the same conference. Ohio State men's hockey, for example, competes in the Big Ten, while Ohio State women's hockey plays in the WCHA. When you're checking a specific team's conference, confirm you're looking at the right program -- men's or women's -- since the standings and rankings are entirely separate.
For this week's actual numbers:
Once you know which conference a program plays in from the directory above, both sites let you filter straight to it.
Two ways: a weekly media/coaches poll published by USCHO.com, and the Pairwise Rankings (PWR), an NCAA-run formula based on record, strength of schedule, and common opponents that determines the actual tournament field.
It's the NCAA's selection formula for D1 hockey -- an RPI-style head-to-head comparison system used to decide which teams make the NCAA tournament and how the bracket is seeded. Unlike the USCHO poll, it's calculated from results, not voted on.
9 conferences currently sponsor NCAA Division I men's and/or women's hockey: Hockey East, ECAC Hockey, NCHC, CCHA, Atlantic Hockey America, Big Ten, WCHA, NEWHA, Independent.
Not always. Several schools field their men's and women's programs in different conferences -- for example Ohio State's men's team plays in the Big Ten while its women's team plays in the WCHA.
USCHO.com publishes the weekly D1 men's and women's poll every Monday during the season. NCAA.com publishes the official Pairwise Rankings once the season has enough games for the formula to stabilize, typically by December.
It's a 16-team single-elimination bracket, filled by conference tournament champions (automatic qualifiers) and at-large teams, seeded using the Pairwise Rankings. The first round is played as four four-team regionals at neutral sites, with each regional winner advancing to the Frozen Four.
At pre-selected neutral sites announced each season, not at the higher seed's home arena. Regional and Frozen Four host sites are set by the NCAA in advance -- check NCAA.com once the field is announced for the current year's locations.