by Peyton Whittet
In the landscape of Division 1 hockey you have your powerhouses like the Penn States and Michigans of the Big10, and then you have the ECAC: A League combined of half Ivy’s and half non Ivy’s. Half give scholarships, NIL and are NCAA champs, and half are your average poor little Ivy’s with zero NIL and zero athletic scholarships to give. Forget about winning their own league, but the NCAA tournament? It seems impossible.
The level of stars aligning to have enough good players, team chemistry, and ability to develop players when the transfer portal exists is incredibly low odds. In a world of D1 hockey where the rich are getting richer (and by rich I mean literally, just look at how much Penn State paid Gavin McKenna) there lies the ECAC, a conference home to Ivy’s like Princeton who fight to stay above .500 and Quinnipiac who wins National Championships.
But, looking back on my original thoughts on the topic, it seems I may soon need to revise my previously unwavering stance. While I believe the Ivy’s to remain the pretentious academic type who are too proud to pay (says the child of a Brown grad — yes the alumni are annoyingly prideful), I saw their downfall loom in the distance.
Because this is what would happen, I see this scenario with my own eyes constantly: A new stud freshman player comes in. He gets all the minutes, scores all the goals, and stands out in every aspect. So, the NHL calls and a Big 10 program throws thousands at him (pocket change). Then the portal opens at the end of their team’s piss poor playoff run. Goodbye star player, goodbye any hopes, and goodbye to the thought of bringing in more stars next season to make the entire team better. Rinse. Repeat. The cycle never ends. The average stay average.
Good players used to pick Ivy’s for academics, the hope that they will get lots of minutes freshman year, not having to sit on the star teams bench waiting for NHL bound teammates to get drafted so they can climb the ranks. If you were 21 years old (thanks junior hockey), now you’re a freshman, you’re a star, you committed to an Ivy when you were younger and less developed. Now you see your old junior teammates living in luxury high rises with seemingly infinite money to toss around and you are stuck with 15 dollars in per-diem on your weekly weekend road trips. Sucks, huh.
But, that is the Ivy world, they can’t offer you much else besides the 6 figure job you’ll earn once you graduate. If you’re good enough that NHL teams want you, why would you stay and live in squalor when you could transfer and get paid to play the sport you love? For many it’s a no brainer. So yes, that is why I was going to die by my stance that the Ivy’s will never be able to develop talent far enough to compete and win the NCAAs.
But, Dartmouth Hockey is catching my attention. They are winning. A lot. And they are making me second guess everything I just said.
How is Dartmouth 10-0? Ten and zero? The only team in the top 20 that’s undefeated? Oh, and they’re ranked 8th in the country right now.
It’s just baffling, I know. But, I invite you to watch them play, I mean hell. They have depth, they are fast, confident. They beat all their non-ranked ECAC opponents by multiple goals. They look like they are having so much damn fun.
So now I ask: What if the Ivy League is just evolving? Survival of the fittest, darwinism, adapt and survive perhaps?
Looking forward, it’s not like they can out spend anyone (they’re broke). But, the Ivy’s might just become a place players look who are chasing that NHL dream and still want the Ivy diploma for bragging rights. Maybe? I could be wrong here, but if these teams build legacy and reputation around strong team chemistry and stand-out coaches, it just might prove that culture can play against cash. I mean don’t they say money doesn’t buy happiness?
I personally cannot wait to see how Dartmouth does in the second half of the season. Who will be the team to upset them? (I personally hope it’s Brown, I am my father’s daughter after all.)
I believe we are actively watching a league fighting to stay relevant change the way the transfer portal is looked at. Or, we could see that the Ivy’s never dominate again and this is a one-off season. But, who knows. Maybe the Ivy League isn’t destined to be permanent outcasts in the wild west of NIL, but instead can be an example that there are other ways to win besides deep pockets.
The Ivy’s may now define a new kind of player, ones who are thinkers, dedicated to more than just hockey, these standout team culture guys. I think Dartmouth has a chance to put the Ivy’s on the map this season and make their potential NCAA tournament run all the more impressive by defying the new age of college hockey but doing it with zero NIL and zero athletic scholarships; just pure developed talent and culture.
If they pull this off, it will be a statement to the entire hockey world and show that you do not in fact need to pay a player (a rumored) $700,000 to play big time hockey.
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