Quote Originally Posted by AKBison View Post
So.....with the recent announcement that the NAIA will be sponsoring hockey again, does it change the face of ACHA club hockey? 8-9 schools that are currently NAIA are taking their club teams and moving them to NAIA. More are slated to do so next year. This whole movement might give schools like Minot State, Iowa State, and NDSU a reason to dip their toe into cost containment hockey. I am not sure of the legality of NCAA schools putting one sport in NAIA but there is definetly plenty of precedent for it. As long as they were committed to non scholarship/sorta kind club Hockey it could be a blast. Outside of coaching cost, most of the program's money is self funded through student fees correct? I am sure a Hockey booster club could be put together to help raise extra funds to compete in the NAIA.

Positives.....

A) Don't need scholarships
B) Don't need FCOA
C) Don't need new facilities

Negatives....
Schools like NDSU would not play in an NAIA hockey division. The new NAIA league will be a new division formed within the ACHA. They basically hope that more NAIA schools add club hockey so that they can eventually bring it into the NAIA governing body. I somewhat doubt that the level of competition in this league will be any better than ACHA D1.

https://www.aqsaints.com/article/2360.php

The ACHA has announced that a division for its NAIA member institutions has been created and will begin competition next season. Six member institutions of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) will form an NAIA division within the America Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), beginning the 2017-18 season.

The charter members of the ACHA's NAIA Division are Aquinas College, Indiana Institute of Technology, Lawrence Technological University, Life University, Lindenwood University-Belleville and Waldorf University.
ACHA Executive Director Mike Walley led the effort to create a new division for the growing number of varsity programs at NAIA institutions, with the NAIA Hockey Coaches Association working closely with ACHA leadership to create the new division that will host the NAIA varsity programs. The ACHA will continue to serve as the governing body and support the programs as the sport continues to grow at the NAIA level.
Said Aquinas College athletic director Nick Davidson, "We appreciate the ACHA working with our conference and other NAIA schools to develop a NAIA Division. Our hope is that other NAIA schools will continue to add hockey and move in the direction of creating hockey as a Championship Sport in the NAIA. This is a start of a movement in that direction."
Aquinas College's men's hockey team currently competes in the ACHA as part of the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC). Competition in the new division will begin October 2017.