Post #134 – April 12, 2024 – Sifters + Possible D-I Recruiting Changes?
How will the absence of the COVID 5th year graduate transfer change D-I recruiting?
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Errors & Omissions…
Omissions…
One more crack at correcting my myself about the USA Hockey Girls Tier II National Championship Tournament locations… I was partly correct in saying they were held in Green Bay, WI. However, only the U16 division was held there.
I omitted the fact that the Tier II tournament had 3 separate locations for each age division, whereas the Tier I tournament was held at a single location for all divisions. The U14’s were in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, U16’s in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and U19’s in East Lansing, Michigan.
Possible D-I Recruiting Changes W/ COVID 5th Year Grad. Transfers Going Away…
Change is coming to the way D-I coaches manage their future recruiting classes. Which should be good news to future incoming first-year recruits – in that there will be more of them entering college hockey. Why?
The upcoming 2024-2025 season will be the last year D-I programs can recruit 5th year Graduate Transfer players. And with around 80-90 grad. transfer players (plus or minus a few), dotting D-I rosters since 20-21, a majority of those 80-90 roster spots will now be filled with first-year incoming players. Around 265-ish players is the average makeup a typical recruiting class across D-I. So about one-third was taken up of grad transfers.
There will still be a small number of grad transfers for reasons like for medical/injury red-shirt situations or other NCAA waivers players could take advantage of. I think the question programs are wondering is how may players with eligibility left in their career will decide to transfer. There has always been a small number of players each year that decide to move on from their previous school with eligibility remaining. The NCAA has made transferring easier with the introduction of new rules allowing players to become eligible right away without sitting out a year.
We’ll have to wait and see what the numbers look like at the start of the 25-26 season. Suffice to say, there will undoubtedly be more first-year recruits than grad transfers a part of future recruiting classes.
Sifters… Little Lobs of News & Info From Around Women’s College Hockey
-Post University is seeking a new head coach as it has posted for the position. That makes 3 new head coaches for 24-25, 2 in the WCHA and 1 in the NEWHA.
-Congrats to Chris MacKenzie of UCONN and Joe Cranston of UW-River Falls for being named the D-I and D-III AHCA National Coach of the Year.
-The SUNYAC, State University of New York Athletic Conference, will be adding William-Smith beginning in 25-26.
-Transfer rules may be changing to allow student-athletes to transfer as many times as they like and be immediately eligible as long as they meet academic requirements. The change could come to a vote at the D-I council meetings April 17-18.
-Forrest Karr, athletic director at MN-Duluth, has been named the new Executive Director of the American Hockey Coaches Association. Karr will take over for longtime Exec. Dir. Joe Bertagna in July.
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and Take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Hello There! Grant Kimball here… founder and contributing writer to my blog & website: Women’s College Hockey.org. I’m very glad you found my site. My goal is simple – to help those play women’s NCAA college hockey. I am beginning my 6th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. I have developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey having coached and recruited literally hundreds of players from across the globe and talked with thousands of parents during my close to 30 years of amateur and NCAA coaching. I have coached at 6 NCAA DI and DIII programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, I have served in a variety of leadership capacities. I currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Women’s Hockey where I lead our D-I and D-III coaching body and sit on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
