Established 2012 Division Division I Region Western United States | Association ACHA Members 7 | |
Sports fielded Ice hockey (men's: yes; women's: no) | ||
The Western Collegiate Hockey League (WCHL) is an ACHA Division I level ice hockey league. The league is made up of seven teams from the Western United States.
Contents
History
The league was announced in late 2012 and played its first season in the ACHA in 2013-14 with six member teams. Arizona, Arizona State, Central Oklahoma, and Oklahoma joined the league after participating as ACHA D-1 Independents. Those four schools joined Colorado and Colorado State who made the transition to ACHA D-1 from ACHA D-2.
The league's first membership change occurred on November 18, 2014 when Arizona State announced the addition of NCAA Division I ice hockey for the 2015-16 season. This move left the WCHL with five members until the league announced the additions of Arkansas, who created a new ACHA D-1 level team after years of success at the ACHA D-3 level, and Missouri State, who moved up from the ACHA D-2 level, on January 12, 2015.
In their first two years of competition, WCHL teams have won the ACHA National Championship. Arizona State defeated Robert Morris for the 2013 title. The following season Central Oklahoma defeated Stony Brook for the league's second national title.
Format
In the league's first two seasons, each member team played 16 league games, including three games against each interstate league opponent and four games against each intrastate opponent. After the membership shuffle, for at least the 2015-16 season, each team will play an unbalanced league schedule between 14 and 22 games.