List of NCAA Division III men's ice hockey seasons

==Nebulous Beginning==
In 1973 the NCAA changed its classification system to a numerical method. Schools were reclassified in three separate divisions with Division III being the lowest. The former College Division teams were mostly slotted into Division II despite a majority coming from D-III schools. Because the NCAA did not hold a national tournament for either D-II or D-III at the time there was no need to have a formal delineation between the two lower divisions, however, ECAC 3 had already been formed out of schools from ECAC 2 in order to allow them to participate in a more balanced conference. While there was no formal classification of ECAC 3 as a D-III conference until much later, the teams in ECAC 3 and the independents who later joined the conference are sometimes regarded as NCAA Division III programs during the first decade of play.
 
No.	Season 	Tournament	Start 	Finish
1 	1973–74	None 	November	March
2 	1974–75	None 	November	March
3 	1975–76	None 	November	March
4 	1976–77	None 	November	March
5 	1977–78	None 	November	March
6 	1978–79	None 	November	March
7 	1979–80	None 	November	March
8 	1980–81	None 	November	March
9 	1981–82	None 	November	March
10 	1982–83	None 	November	March
==Tournament Play Begins==
In 1983 the NCAA announced they would hold an NCAA Division III Championship for the upcoming season. While most of the teams that were eligible for tournament continued to play at the Division II level, they submitted bids for the new championship at the end of the season. Due to the level of interest the tournament was founded as an 8-team championship with no automatic bids being offered. Prior to the tournament, because no conference championships were yet held for western teams, an 8-team qualifying tournament was held instead to determine which teams would receive bids to the national tournament. The regional tournament was discontinued after 1985 when the western conferences began their league playoffs.
Because the Division III level was skewed towards eastern teams, that region received more bids than the western teams for the first three years. Afterwards, both the eastern and western regions received 4 bids each. 
 
No.	Season 	Tournament	No. of teamsin tournament	Start 	Finish 	NCAA Champion(number) 	ChampionConference	ChampionRecord	Championship Site
11 	1983–84	1984 	8 	November	March 18	Babson 	ECAC 2 	(27–5–1) 	Rochester, New York
12 	1984–85	1985 	8 	November	March 23	RIT 	ECAC West 	(26–6–1) 	Schenectady, New York
13 	1985–86	1986 	8 	November	March 22	Bemidji State 	NCHA 	(34–9–2) 	Bemidji, Minnesota
14 	1986–87	1987 	8 	November	March 21	Vacated 	— 	— 	Elmira, New York
15 	1987–88	1988 	8 	October 	March 25	Wisconsin–River Falls 	NCHA 	(31–6–1) 	Elmira, New York
16 	1988–89	1989 	8 	October 	March 25	Wisconsin–Stevens Point 	NCHA 	(34–5–2) 	Rochester, New York
17 	1989–90	1990 	8 	October 	March 24	Wisconsin–Stevens Point (2)	NCHA 	(28–4–6) 	Stevens Point, Wisconsin
18 	1990–91	1991 	8 	October 	March 16	Wisconsin–Stevens Point (3)	NCHA 	(27–9–0) 	Elmira, New York
19 	1991–92	1992 	8 	October 	March 21	Plattsburgh State 	ECAC West 	(32–2–2) 	Plattsburgh, New York
20 	1992–93	1993 	8 	October 	March 27	Wisconsin–Stevens Point (4)	NCHA 	(25–5–2) 	Maplewood, Minnesota
==Increased Participation==
In 1994 the NESCAC, the primary conference for several eastern teams, announced that they were rescinding their policy barring member schools from participating in national tournaments. Their new policy, however, restricted members to only one postseason tournament. Because of that, some ECAC East schools had to decide whether or not they would participate in their conference tournament or sit out and hope that the selection committee would choose to offer them a bid. Williams was the first teams to take the gamble in 1994, but they did not receive a bid. The following year Middlebury sat out the ECAC East Tournament and received a bid. This began a five-year run for the Panthers as NCAA champions, the longest unbroken streak for a champion at any level of college hockey.
 
No.	Season 	Tournament	No. of teamsin tournament	Start 	Finish 	NCAA Champion(number) 	ChampionConference	ChampionRecord	Championship Site
21 	1993–94	1994 	8 	October	March 19	Wisconsin–River Falls (2)	NCHA 	(21–8–4) 	Superior, Wisconsin
22 	1994–95	1995 	8 	October	March 25	Middlebury 	ECAC East 	(22–2–2) 	Middlebury, Vermont
23 	1995–96	1996 	8 	October	March 16	Middlebury (2) 	ECAC East 	(26–2–0) 	River Falls, Wisconsin
24 	1996–97	1997 	8 	October	March 22	Middlebury (3) 	ECAC East 	(22–3–2) 	Middlebury, Vermont
25 	1997–98	1998 	8 	October	March 21	Middlebury (4) 	ECAC East 	(24–2–2) 	Plattsburgh, New York
26 	1998–99	1999 	8 	October	March 20	Middlebury (5) 	ECAC East 	(21–5–1) 	Norwich, Vermont
==Tournament Expansion and Exclusion==
In 1999 the NCAA announced a plan to begin offering automatic bids for the Division III NCAA tournament. As part of this new policy, they would only offer bids to conference tournament champions of eligible Division III leagues. To qualify, none of the postseason participants could be ranked above Division III and the conference must have at least 7 members playing during the season. This caused several changes to college hockey, including the NESCAC sponsoring ice hockey as a sport for the first time and the termination of its policy restricting member teams to only one postseason tournament.
Due to five eastern conferences and two western conferences qualifying, the NCAA also abandoned its policy of having an equal number of eastern and western teams participate in the tournament. One at-large bid would be offered to the non-league champion with the best record but, after two years, the tournament was expanded to 9 teams with a second at-large bid included so that each region could provide an additional team. A further at-large bid was added in 2006 which could go to either region. The tournament was expanded to 11 teams in 2009 with an additional at-large bid which was converted into an automatic qualifier once the MCHA met NCAA regulations in 2010. 
 
No.	Season 	Tournament	No. of teamsin tournament	Start 	Finish 	NCAA Champion(number)	ChampionConference	ChampionRecord	Championship Site
27 	1999–00	2000 	8 	October 22	March 18	Norwich 	ECAC East 	(29–2–1) 	Superior, Wisconsin
28 	2000–01	2001 	8 	October 20	March 17	Plattsburgh State (2)	SUNYAC 	(29–5–0) 	Rochester, New York
29 	2001–02	2002 	9 	October 19	March 16	Wisconsin–Superior 	NCHA 	(24–5–5) 	Middlebury, Vermont
30 	2002–03	2003 	9 	October 18	March 22	Norwich (2) 	ECAC East 	(27–3–0) 	Norwich, Vermont
31 	2003–04	2004 	9 	October 18	March 20	Middlebury (6) 	NESCAC 	(27–3–0) 	Norwich, Vermont
32 	2004–05	2005 	9 	October 15	March 19	Middlebury (7) 	NESCAC 	(23–4–3) 	Middlebury, Vermont
33 	2005–06	2006 	10 	October 15	March 19	Middlebury (8) 	NESCAC 	(26–2–2) 	Elmira, New York
34 	2006–07	2007 	10 	October 15	March 19	Oswego State 	SUNYAC 	(23–3–3) 	Superior, Wisconsin
35 	2007–08	2008 	10 	October 19	March 23	St. Norbert 	NCHA 	(27–1–4) 	Lake Placid, New York
36 	2008–09	2009 	11 	October 17	March 21	Neumann 	ECAC West 	(21–9–2) 	Lake Placid, New York
==Conference realignment and dissolution==
In 2009 the MASCAC began sponsoring ice hockey for the first time. The 5 member schools, along with 2 associate members, formed the league's new ice hockey division but despite meeting the NCAA's requirements for an automatic bid, the conference didn't receive one until 2012. The following year, 2013, the WIAC began sponsoring ice hockey for the first time. As a result all 5 member schools that fielded teams left the NCHA. The NCHA responded by absorbing all members of the MCHA in order to retain its automatic qualifier. Due to the WIAC not having enough members the conference champion did not receive an automatic qualifier, bringing the number of at-large bids back to 4 since the MCHA no longer existed.
In 2017 the NCAA increased the number of tournament participants to 12 and offered the additional bid to one conference tournament champion whose league did not meet the minimum NCAA membership requirement. This bid was later given to the UCHC champion.
 
No.	Season 	Tournament	No. of teamsin tournament	Start 	Finish 	NCAA Champion(number) 	ChampionConference 	ChampionRecord 	Championship Site
37 	2009–10	2010 	11 	October 23	March 20	Norwich (3) 	ECAC East 	(26–1–4) 	Lake Placid, New York
38 	2010–11	2011 	11 	October 22	March 26	St. Norbert (2) 	NCHA 	(25–4–1) 	Minneapolis, Minnesota
39 	2011–12	2012 	11 	October 21	March 17	St. Norbert (3) 	NCHA 	(21–5–5) 	Tampa, Florida
40 	2012–13	2013 	11 	October 18	March 16	Wisconsin–Eau Claire 	NCHA 	(24–5–2) 	Lake Placid, New York
41 	2013–14	2014 	11 	October 26	March 22	St. Norbert (4) 	NCHA 	(28–3–1) 	Lewiston, Maine
42 	2014–15	2015 	11 	October 31	March 28	Trinity 	NESCAC 	(25–3–1) 	Minneapolis, Minnesota
43 	2015–16	2016 	11 	October 30	March 26	Wisconsin–Stevens Point (5) 	WIAC 	(24–5–2) 	Lake Placid, New York
44 	2016–17	2017 	12 	October 28	March 25	Norwich (4) 	NEHC 	(27–1–3) 	Utica, New York
45 	2017–18	2018 	12 	October 21	March 24	St. Norbert (5) 	NCHC 	(27–4–1) 	Lake Placid, New York
46 	2018–19	2019 	12 	October 13	March 23	Wisconsin–Stevens Point (5) 	WIAC 	(29–0–2) 	Stevens Point, Wisconsin
47 	2019–20	2020 	12 	November 1	March 8 	Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	Buffalo, New York
==See also==
*List of NCAA Division III men's ice hockey champions
==References==
==External links==
*USCHO.com
Category:NCAA seasons
Category:NCAA Division III