On April 1, Arkansas State posted its annual April Fool’s Day joke. This year, the joke was that they would tell everyone that the Red Wolves would be getting an ice hockey team. The joke was funny to me, and I almost fell for it. But for once, I wish that the April Fool’s Day joke was actually real.

The sport of ice hockey has been steadily gaining popularity over the years. The National Hockey League is expanding, with cities like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City receiving expansion franchises and viewership steadily increasing over the last 10 years. College hockey does not have the viewership that the pros have. Instead, college hockey has something of a cult following, with smaller schools and small but highly passionate fanbases. The majority of the schools that participate in Division I hockey are located in northern states. But NCAA Hockey has been expanding southwards, much like the NHL. Arizona State has a D1 hockey team, and the Sun Devils have made the NCAA tournament twice.

More recently, Lindenwood University began playing hockey at the highest level in 2022. For those of you who don’t know, Lindenwood is in St Louis, which is a 3 ½ hour drive from Jonesboro. Tennessee State University announced that they will sponsor hockey starting in 2025. This makes TSU the first historically Black college or university to sponsor hockey at any level. Hockey is growing and heading south, and I think Arkansas State needs to be next.

There are some logistical problems involved in bringing hockey to Jonesboro, of course. The first is where we would even play. Contrary to what A-State suggested, First National Bank Arena is probably not an option to use as a hockey rink. Hockey season is in full swing at the same time as basketball, so you can’t always change the floor for both. So the option is to build a stadium. It doesn’t have to be a big stadium, but just big enough to hold maybe 2,000 to 2,500 fans. FNB Arena holds over 10,000, so you can tell this doesn’t need to be a large facility.

In terms of conferences, hockey is a completely different landscape than most other collegiate sports. There is no SEC, there is no ACC. Most conferences in college hockey exist only for hockey, with the exception to this being the Big 10 conference. Most of these conferences’ teams are based in the northeastern or northern United States. The exception to this is the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Members of this conference include Omaha and Denver, who are former Sun Belt Conference members. This conference would keep travel expenses somewhat low while ensuring potential rivalries are kept closer to home.

As for Title IX, which would have to be followed for this team to exist, Arkansas State could finally sponsor softball for NCAA play. Practically everyone else in the Sun Belt sponsors it, so why not?

Red Wolves hockey might require some spending, but anything worth achieving requires that. I know it’s a long shot of happening any time soon, but I think a hockey team could do very well at Arkansas State.

Categories: Sports