American Collegiate Hockey Association announces new Midwest College Hockey Conference. 

DeKALB — The ice hockey team was promoted to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I Thursday, starting 2019-20.

“This has been three years in the making,” General Manager Ian Kalanges said. “We have always wanted to move up to be able to play at the highest division. The ACHA was looking for programs that were ready to make the move, and other current ACHA DI teams spoke highly of NIU’s hockey program and said the pieces were in place to have a successful ACHA DI team.”

The promotion to DI comes with the ACHA’s announcement of the new Midwest College Hockey conference that will launch in 2019-20. 

NIU is one of seven charter members of the new conference, along with Illinois State University, Lindenwood University-Belleville, Maryville University, McKendree University, Midland University and Waldorf University.

“This is the biggest news our program has ever had,” Kalanges said. “To have the honor to play at the highest level of the ACHA shows our program is truly one of the best in the country. Personally, it means a lot, but I honestly could not have done it without the help of all the past and current players, coaches and staff members. I had a vision of what we could make of this program, and they helped put everything into motion to make it happen.”

The ACHA created the Midwest College Hockey Conference due to its growth over several years. There are now 60 DI teams in the ACHA. 

Maryville and McKendree will join NIU as first-time Division I ACHA schools as a part of the newly formed conference. 

Each team in the conference will play 20 conference games in the inaugural season. The season will end with a three-day conference playoff tournament. 

“Myself, the coaching staff and players are beyond excited for the future: next season,” Kalanges said. “Of course, we are all going to concentrate on the season at hand, but we are ready as an organization to put in the leg work to make sure next season we are competitive right out of the gates. I believe our program will thrive being in the Midwest, right in the middle of some of the best ACHA D1 programs out there. We are very grateful that we can right away jump into the new Midwest College Hockey Conference and have strong