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NCAA

2020-21 NCAA season tracker

As news about the upcoming season comes in, track what each conference (or school) is doing here.

As the pandemic continues to plague the United States, the status of college sports is still up in the air. Schools and conferences have started cancelling the fall seasons, including Division II and III cancelling their fall championships.

But, college hockey is in a unique position as one of the sports that plays over both seasons. Here we’ll keep track of what each Division I conference and schools have said most recently about the 2020-21 season. As new updates come in, we’ll add to this article and bump the most recent news to the top of the page as well.

WCHA

Nov. 15 - The weekend before their first games, St. Cloud State announced they were postponing at least their first set of games, as eight people within the program tested positive in the last nine days.

Nov. 6 - The WCHA announced the first month of their season, set to start on Nov. 20.

WCHA releases first month of 2020-21 schedule

Oct. 9 - Commissioner Jennifer Flowers told the Duluth News Tribune that a November start date isn’t out of the question. This comes after the Big Ten men’s conference announced its return to play earlier in the week, a key point as the Big Ten schools with D1 women’s hockey programs play in the WCHA. A big difference is that other schools in the WCHA are markedly smaller with vastly different resources, something Commissioner Flowers noted back in August as an issue for testing requirements.

Aug. 11 - Madison.com published an interview with Commissioner Jennifer Flowers about the upcoming season. She said the conference hasn’t totally counted out starting in mid-September, but “conceded teams also are eyeing the possibility they’ll have to push season openers back to January.”

While five of the seven teams are located in Minnesota, Flowers mentioned that the Division II schools in the WCHA don’t have the same resources to keep up with the NCAA standards for practice and competition, which require weekly testing.

Hockey East

Nov. 16 - Vermont announced they will postpone their season until Dec. 18. They had six games in that time period.

Nov. 11 - Hockey East announced their schedule for the entire 2020-21 season, with play set to start on Nov. 20.

Hockey East releases 2020-21 schedule

Sept. 14 - Vermont’s athletic director told the Burlington Free Press that the Catamounts expect to start hockey in November. “We are looking at a variety of different possible start dates mostly focused on the month of November with an emphasis on league play,” said athletic director Jeff Schulman.

July 30 - As a conference, Hockey East said they do intend to play a season. They’ll focus on conference games with as limited travel as possible. It also seems as if they’ll have a new start date as their releases noted that information on that would come later.

Aug. 10 - Holy Cross announced they would be fully online for the fall semester, with a few exceptions, including “a limited number of athletes who need proper training to compete in the winter season.”

ECAC

Nov. 16 - RPI announced they will not play this season, leaving five teams to make up the usually 12 team conference.

RPI cancels 2020-21 hockey season

Nov. 12 - The Ivy League schools jointly cancelled their winter season, meaning half of the ECAC won’t play the season.

Ivy League cancels winter season, including women’s hockey

Nov. 5 - Clarkson and Quinnipiac announced a four game series between the two team starting on Nov. 28.

Clarkson, Quinnipiac announce first Division I games of 2020-21 season

July 10 - The ECAC said they are continuing to work on various schedule models for the teams. “All models feature a balanced scheduling approach that includes league contests and opportunities for member institutions to play non-league opponents,” the league wrote in the press release.

July 8 -  The Ivy League announced they had cancelled their fall sports and pushed the start date back of all sports to Jan. 1. The ECAC is in a unique position in that six of its school are Ivy League schools, who tend to make decisions as a unit separate of the ECAC.

CHA

Nov. 9 - RIT cancelled their season, making the Tigers the first Division I team to outright cancel. Earlier in the day, they were included on RMU’s 20-21 schedule.

RIT cancels winter sports, including women’s hockey

Nov. 9 - RMU announced their schedule, the lone CHA team to do so.

NEWHA

Nothing out of the newest D1 conference yet.

NCAA

Sept. 10 - The Hockey Commissioners Association officially delayed the start of the Division 1 season.

Start of D1 college hockey season officially delayed

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