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The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a group of colleges and universities in the Midwestern United States that play NCAA Division I women's ice hockey against one another every season. The champion is automatically invited to the NCAA Division I women's hockey tournament. When the WCHA ran a men's league, the men's champion was also automatically invited to the Division I men's tournament.
Founded in 1951 as a men's hockey league, the WCHA added a women's division in the 1999–2000 season. The league would expand far beyond its traditional Midwestern base, adding teams in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, and Indiana at different times. The WCHA shut down its men's division after the 2020–21 season when seven of its 10 members left to start a new Central Collegiate Hockey Association.[1]
Today, eight schools are members of the now women-only WCHA.
- ↑ Christensen, Joe (July 2, 2021). "WCHA's men's hockey era officially ends after 70 years". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. Retrieved July 3, 2021.