Coaches Continue Push for Women’s Hockey Playoff Expansion

DULUTH, Minn. — Back in the summer, a group of women’s college hockey head coaches laid out their proposal to expand the playoff field for the NCAA women’s hockey tournament.

The NCAA turned down that proposal, so this week the movement was taken to social media.

This past spring a bracket expansion committee of coaches and administrators was formed to help form the proposal, it would ending being tabled, but the push for further consideration is back.

“Having done this for 20 years or so I think the growth of this sport has been remarkable and there are a lot of new teams that keep coming on every single year and in order to make our tournament the best it can be and have the best teams in it, I think expansion is necessary,” Maura Crowell, UMD Women’s Hockey Head Coach said.

This week, a graphic was the centerpiece of the social media campaign that revealed the discrepancies between men’s and women’s college hockey programs, and Coach Crowell says, the numbers don’t lie.

“When you see the contrast with men’s hockey and the amount of money the NCAA spends per student athlete that one’s pretty powerful to me that it’s a $6000 difference,” she said.

Bringing light to these differences, and making a request for more equality during this season and beyond is a request the women’s hockey community is standing firm with.

“This would promote our league and just in general women’s hockey I think it’s time we deserve it, there are plenty of good teams who deserve this opportunity so let’s make it happen,” Coach Crowell said.