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NCAA Ice Hockey

Women's Division III is a set of schools and conferences that sponsor women's hockey and abide by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules and regulations for Division III ice hockey.

History[]

Women's Division III hockey started to develop with the 1997-98 season with the formation of the ECAC Alliance (with 12 teams) and the Midwest Women's Alliance (with 16 teams). With the exception of the 12 team Division I ECAC women's conference and a lone independent Division I team (Minnesota Golden Gophers) this was everything available at the varsity NCAA level.  The ECAC Alliance and the Midwest Women's Alliance was a mixture of what would become Division I and III schools.

For 1998-99 the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference started play with 6 teams and the ECAC formed a strictly Division III league.

The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association formed a women's division with five teams for the 2000-01 season

The 2001-02 season saw the formation of the New England Small College Athletic Conference women's division and the ECAC West women's division. The NCAA began sponsoring a Division III Women's Ice hockey championship in 2002 after two championships were held under the American Women's Collegiate Hockey Association name.

By the 2016-17 hockey season the NCAA had 36 Division I schools, 61 Division III schools and one team playing as a Division II Independent. To put this in perspective, a woman playing as a senior in 2016-17 was born around 1995 with there only being the ECAC hosting a women's hockey division and their being no national championship tournament at any level.

All-time Division III Women's Conferences[]

Current[]

Former[]

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