Women’s College Hockey.org

***Breaking NCAA News: Recruiting Dead Period Extended Until April 15, 2021***

DI and DIII Women’s Coaches Have Monthly Zoom w/ NCAA and Conference Commissioners, No New Women’s Cancellations or Postponements

At 6:20pm tonight the NCAA’s DI Council announced it is extending the recruiting dead period until April 15, 2021. It was set to expire January 1. You can read the NCAA’s announcement HERE. Interestingly the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania Athletic Director, M. Grace Calhoun, is the NCAA DI Council chair. The dead period means no off-campus evaluation or face-to-face contacts for DI coaches and no official or unofficial visits to campus for recruits and their families. DI coaches were hoping for a April 1 or earlier date leaving all of April when many high-level events take place.

We are coming up on more than 24-hours without a NCAA DI women’s hockey related COVID postponement or season cancellation. Needless to say it’s been a tough week for positive news. Women’s coaches across DIII and DI, the five D-I conference commissioners, along with members of the NCAA all met today for their monthly Zoom to discuss national tournament and recruiting issues. 10 games is the minimum needed to be played to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Conferences that start the year with at least 4 teams will retain its automatic bid. The ECAC stands at four, Hockey East at ten, WCHA at seven, CHA at five, and NEWHA at five as well. One piece of good news did come out as Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf announced all Hockey East women’s games would be streamed live FOR FREE this season. We’ll get the details and pass them along.

Men’s DI hockey took a bit of a COVID hit in the last 24-hours. Colorado College is pausing all hockey activity after a player tested positive. CC is scheduled to be a part of the NCHC bubble Dec. 1 in Omaha. Sacred Heart has postponed its games with AIC and Quinnipiac this weekend as well as games with Army slated for Nov. 27-28, after a few a small number of cases and contact tracing came back on the team.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our regularly scheduled post with an update on the program as we wind down the Fall semester and part-II of our Understanding the Process series on how academics play into our recruiting process.

Until next time… stay safe and be well.