Ice Hockey Scholarships
Another sport that is very well suited as a spring board for a future professional career is ice hockey. At the moment, approximately one third of all current NHL players got their careers started playing college hockey at some point. In total there are 163 men’s and 103 women’s hockey programs, with most of them being located in the northern and northeastern states of the USA.
In those regions, the significance and the popularity of college hockey is way bigger than anything that hockey fans from around the world are used to in their countries. While some hockey powerhouses such as the University of North Dakota, University of Wisconsin, or the University of Minnesota average around 10,000 spectators per game, the all-time attendance record was broken in 2010 when over 104,000 people were in attendance at Michigan Stadium for the rivalry game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State.
Am I eligible?
Having a high enough GPA or SAT/ACT score is the passport to obtaining an ice hockey scholarship. Achievements in hockey will count for nothing if you do not fulfill the academic requirements set by the NCAA and the university of your choice. The College Sports America team has the ability and the experience to steer you through this rather difficult qualification process. It is an integral element of our approach to carefully evaluate and help fulfil your personal potential by working with you to select a university where you can fit in both athletically as well as academically.
Advantages of playing college ice hockey
The international influence in college hockey has also grown steadily over the last few years and currently 26% of all college hockey players come from outside of the United State. The US college system is the only place where young athletes can combine their sports career with a high quality education. In other countries, after finishing high school, young athletes need to pick between turning professional or fully committing themselves to their education and therefore putting their sporting dreams on hold. That is where the US presents a unique opportunity where young athletes can do both, study and further improve in their respective sport. Ice hockey is one of several college sports, where teams offer big scholarships to incoming recruits, some of them even covering up to the entirety of the costs. This applies for both men’s and women’s ice hockey, and as the game of women’s hockey is growing worldwide, the opportunities for women’s hockey scholarships increase for foreign players as well.
Here are some more important facts about college ice hockey and ice hockey scholarships:
- Number of NCAA Div 1 ice hockey teams: Men 60, Women 36
- Total Number of ice hockey teams (all divisions): Men 163, Women 104
- Total number of college ice hockey players: Men c. 5000, Women c. 2500
- Scholarship limit per team: D1 Men & Women: 18, D2 Men: 13.5, D2 Women: 18, NJCAA Men: 16
- Number of players with college experience per NHL team in 2016: Pittsburgh 15, Minnesota 14, Anaheim 9, Detroit 9, NY Rangers 9, Tampa Bay 9