WCHA

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a men-only league, adding women's competition in the 1999-2000 season. It operated men's and women's leagues through the 2020-21 season; during this period, the men's WCHA expanded to include teams far removed from its traditional Midwestern base, with members in Alabama, Alaska, and Colorado at different times. The men's side of the league officially disbanded after seven members left to form the revived Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA); the WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league.

The men's WCHA would fold after the 2020-21 season, but the women's WCHA announced a further expansion effective in 2021-22 with the arrival of St. Thomas, a Twin Cities school that received NCAA approval to directly transition from Division III to Division I. St. Thomas had been expelled from its longtime D-III home of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference effective with the end of the 2020-21 school year due to perceptions by many members that it had grown too strong for that conference in multiple sports.The Summit League offered the Tommies a D-I home, and backed the school's bid to directly transition from D-III.

The now women-only WCHA has 8 members

• http://www.wcha.com/