—— The five independent schools in college hockey have formed the United Collegiate Hockey Cup, an end-of-season tournament that will be hosted at Lindenwood’s Centene Community Ice Center.
The inaugural tournament will be held from March 5-7, 2026. The tournament winner will not receive an automatic NCAA Tournament bid, but it will provide a championship experience for the independent programs, which include Alaska, Alaska Anchorage, Lindenwood, Long Island, and Stonehill.
St. Louis just hosted the 2025 Frozen Four and also hosted a regional at Centene Community Ice Center in 2024.
“We are thrilled to bring this tournament to the St. Louis market,” said Jason Coomer, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Lindenwood University. “This event not only provides a competitive platform for our student-athletes but also showcases the growth and quality of independent NCAA hockey programs on a national stage.”
The format for the five-team tournament will include a play-in game. All teams are guaranteed at least two games over the three days of competition. It will be single elimination, and they will use the Pairwise rankings for seeding purposes.
“The ability to compete for a championship is an important part of every student-athlete’s experience, and we are excited this event will provide that opportunity for each participating program,” said Dean O’Keefe, Director of Athletics at Stonehill College. “We appreciate the St. Louis community welcoming this inaugural event to their region, and we look forward to Stonehill being part of this Division I post-season tournament.”
Tickets for the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Cup will go on sale this summer (August 1) through Lindenwood’s ticket office.
“The passion and dedication of these student-athletes deserves to be highlighted,” said Brock Anundson, Director of Athletics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “This tournament is about creating meaningful postseason opportunities and demonstrating the strength of these hockey programs in the NCAA landscape. We’re grateful to Lindenwood and the St. Louis community for hosting this inaugural event.”
Notably, this tournament does not involve Tennessee State, which is scheduled to launch as an independent program next season.
However, TSU has faced huge financial hurdles, and the school said the team would have to be self-funded. People in the program are trying to raise the funds, but it seems increasingly less likely that TSU will be ready for the 2025-26 season.
At this point, I’d be more surprised if they did compete as a D-I independent than if they did not.
