ACHA is what you make it. Minot State goes all out, scores and highlights are generally on the 10:00 news and they even have a coaches show, it is their most visible athletic program after m/w basketball and football. A variety of schools across the spectrum like Illinois, Iowa State, Lindenwood, Jamestown, Colorado state and now Mary take it serious as well. I love college Hockey and wish NDSU would take Club hockey a bit more serious and fund it better but is what it is.
ACHA hockey can run the gamut of being a complete joke (like it is at USD) to being a high profile, well funded, high attendance program (like it was at Arizona State). Top end D1 ACHA programs will beat NCAA D3 programs, and don't kid yourself, to play NCAA D3 hockey you have to be pretty good these days. There is a glut of talented hockey players being produced in the United States now that have nowhere to go once they hit college age. Credit to USA Hockey for putting out so many good players. Now it's up to the colleges to provide more hockey opportunities, just like they should be expanding men's soccer, men's lacrosse, etc.