On Friday, November 13, 2020, the Wisconsin Badgers faced the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a mens collegiate ice hockey game. This was a remarkable moment for college hockey fans all over the country, and inserts an opportunity for the sport to gain a mainstream presence on sports fans, especially those enamored with professional hockey, who will not have their fix until at least early 2021.
Unfortunately, the Ivy League will not be a part of the spectacle. The coalition of prestigious colleges cancelled all winter sports competition, thus ending any participation for these teams, despite the Ivy League not even having a hockey conference.
The Ivy League teams that sponsor a hockey team participate in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the league has claimed to expect a 2020-21 winter season for the schools who choose to participate. The league will survive without the Ivy League teams, as they still retain seven of their 13 conference members, but the prestige will definitely be affected.
Cornell University will be a massive loss for the league, as both the men’s and women’s programs have been the class of the conference in recent memory. The mens team finished 23-2-4 last season, and were ranked No. 1 in the country when the season was suspended. Despite losing some talent, the Big Red were still expected to compete for a national title, and were ranked as high as No. 6 in the country according to pre-season polls.
The women’s team finished 28-2-3, good for No.1 in the country, and were ranked No.2 in the preseason polls for this season.
Arguably the two best teams across the NCAA are done for the season, and whether this decision is correct or not is frankly irrelevant in this particular blog post. Other teams will be participating this season, and if they are successful, recruiting athletes to Ivy League schools will become even more of a challenge than it already is.
Players will head to other schools, especially if they are exempted from the one-year transfer penalty as a result of Covid-19, and others will seek opportunities at the Juniors level or even professional levels. Even the ones that stay will be frustrated at their school, as they will feel like they have been screwed out of an opportunity.
While the reality stinks, it is what the schools decided, and they must live with any consequences it may have, regardless of whether the season finishes or not. Regardless, if you know any Ivy League winter athlete, send some sympathy to them.