The hockey world was extremely excited when Tennessee State announced they were adding an NCAA Division One hockey program. The traditionally all black college was being talked about as being a pioneer for making the bold move with ice hockey.
Since the announcement in 2023 at the NHL draft in Nashville, there has been a lot of work done to recruit and commit players.
All of that work though now appears to have been wasted time. TSU has not met its fundraising goals to finacially support the program. No schedule was announced, and those speaking off the record have said that they did not secure practice or game ice.
This failure to launch was no secret in hockey scouting circles. Communication with program leadership came to a hault in early January, and no new commitments have been announced recently.
Granted, TSU has undergone a lot of changes and challenges of late due to financial pressures. The college recently applied for nearly 100 million in State financial aid.
That said, how did a university think it would be prudent to announce the formation of an NCAA program without first having raised the funding for such a program? How could the NCAA allow for such an announcement, and the commitment of players to take place?
When NCAA hockey is in a once in a life time period of change, and player pressure on the system that does not have enough openings for qualified players, questions need to be asked.
Late Thursday, official word came out that the team was not going to launch this year. It is suspect that the program will launch in 2026 or beyond, and there was no mention of what would happen to a full roster of players that had already committed to the program.
Seven NAHL players, Seven BCHL players, two CCHL, and one MJHL player are immediately effected by this. Nine additional players from the transfer portal were also committed. What do these players do now? Is there any recourse for them? Will the school enrol them on scholarship and hope to launch in the future?
Thankfully there are only four players effected in 2026 and beyond right now. As the university stays silent and not making anny official comments, it does a disservice to these players who have been off the recruiting market for months now. And now eight have to accept this or scramble to find another place to play when nearly all registration deadlines have passed.
Someone needs to answer these questions. Someone from the NCAA should be held responsible for allowing this to happen. Someone from TSU needs to make a statement.
In a time when American born players are losing faith in the NCAA system, nothing like this should ever be allowed to happen.
