Western Collegiate Hockey League

The Western Collegiate Hockey League (WCHL) is a Division 1 collegiate ice hockey league in the ACHA, which is the highest non-varsity Club Level for college hockey. The ACHL is made up of ten teams from the Western United States.
== History ==
In 2012, the WCHL was created and played its first season in the ACHA in 2013-14 with six founding member teams. Arizona, Arizona State, Central Oklahoma, and Oklahoma joined the league after competing as ACHA D-1 Independent programs. Those four teams, joined Colorado and Colorado State, who made the transition to from ACHA D-2 to ACHA D-1.
In the WCHL's first two years of competition, they won back-to-back ACHA D-1 National Championships, which was hosted at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
In 2013–14, Arizona State defeated Robert Morris for the 2013–14 ACHA D-1 National Championship.
And in 2014–15, Central Oklahoma defeated Stony Brook for the 2014–15 ACHA D-1 National Championship.
During the 2014 season, Arizona State announced their departure from the WCHL D-1 Club Level and established a formal NCAA D-1 ice hockey program 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 hockey club 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.
Not to be confused, Arizona State's NCAA D-1 team is the only Independent men's hockey team in the country, but ASU also maintains both ACHA Club Level teams with our WCHL D-1 Sun Devils, and the PAC-8 D-2 Sun Devils, respectively.
In 2017, Central Oklahoma won their 2nd ACHA D-1 National Championship after defeating Ohio University.
Subsequently, Arkansas left the WCHL after the 2018–19 season, and (currently) no longer has a D-1 hockey club.
==Expansion==
In September 2019, the WCHL expanded from seven to ten teams with the addition of University of Utah, UNLV, and Grand Canyon University for the 2020–21 season.
==Format==
With ten member schools in the conference, beginning in the 2020–21 season, the WCHL is now divided into two geographic divisions for conference play. Each WCHL team will play a home-and-home series against every conference member within its division, as well as one home series and one road series against conference members from the opposite division, for a total of 20 WCHL conference games per season.
==Potential expansion candidates==
The West Division: BYU Hockey, if they're willing to part ways with the Mountain West Collegiate Hockey League and elevate to D-1 competition. And Utah State University, if Grand Canyon decides to dropped down to D-2 competition.
The East Division: The University of Northern Colorado who are the 2017, 2018, and 2019 champions of the Big Mountain Hockey Conference at the ACHA D-2 level.
==Conference divisions==
The West 	The East
Arizona 	Colorado
Arizona State	Colorado State
Grand Canyon 	Missouri State
UNLV 	Oklahoma
Utah 	Central Oklahoma
==Current Teams==
School 	Location 	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname 	NCAA Conference 	Colors
University of Arizona 	Tucson, AZ 	1885 	Public 	38,057 	Wildcats 	Pac-12 (D-I) 	
Arizona State University 	Tempe, AZ 	1885 	Public 	69,317 	Sun Devils	Pac-12 (D-I) 	
University of Central Oklahoma	Edmond, OK 	1890 	Public 	17,101 	Bronchos 	MIAA (D-II) 	
University of Colorado 	Boulder, CO 	1876 	Public 	29,884 	Buffaloes 	Pac-12 (D-I) 	
Colorado State University 	Fort Collins, CO 	1870 	Public 	24,875 	Rams 	Mountain West (D-I)	
Grand Canyon University 	Phoenix, AZ 	1949 	Public 	20,500 	Antelopes 	WAC (D-I) 	
Missouri State University 	Springfield, MO 	1905 	Public 	22,385 	Bears 	MVC (D-I) 	
University of Nevada-Las Vegas	Las Vegas, NV 	1957 	Public 	30,704 	Rebels 	Mountain West (D-I)	
University of Oklahoma 	Norman, OK 	1890 	Public 	29,721 	Sooners 	Big XII (D-I) 	
University of Utah 	Salt Lake City, UT	1850 	Public 	33,058 	Utes 	Pac-12 (D-I) 	
==Conference Arenas==
School 	Hockey Arena 	Capacity
Arizona 	Tucson Convention Center 	6,791
Arizona State 	New Multi-Purpose Arena (2022)	5,000
Central Oklahoma	Arctic Edge Ice Arena 	700
Colorado 	CU Student Rec Center 	700
Colorado State 	Edora Pool Ice Center (EPIC) 	700
Grand Canyon 	AZ Ice Arcadia 	200
Missouri State 	Jordan Valley Ice Park 	700
Oklahoma 	Blazers Ice Centre 	700
UNLV 	Henderson Event Center (2022) 	6,000
Utah 	Salt Lake City Sports Complex 	2,500
==ACHL Conference Champions==
Year 	ACHL Champion 	Runner Up
2013–14	Arizona State 	Oklahoma
2014–15	Arizona State 	Central Oklahoma
2015–16	Central Oklahoma	Colorado
2016–17	Central Oklahoma	Arizona State
2017–18	Central Oklahoma	Colorado
2018–19	Arizona 	Central Oklahoma
2019–20	* Arizona 	* Arizona State
==References==
==External links==
*Official WCHL website
*Arizona Wildcats 
*Arizona State Sun Devils
*Central Oklahoma Bronchos
*Colorado Buffaloes
*Colorado State Rams
*Missouri State
*Oklahoma Sooners
==See also==
* American Collegiate Hockey Association
Category:ACHA Division I League
Category:Ice hockey leagues