Conference (NE-10), announced it was joining the Northeast Conference (which also does not sponsor ice hockey) that July, starting its own transition to D-I. Before this announcement, Stonehill had been one of seven NE-10 members that played men's ice hockey under Division II regulations, despite the NCAA not sponsoring a championship event at that level. (All other D-II schools with varsity men's ice hockey play under D-I regulations.) Women No women's program has competed as an independent in the National Collegiate division of women's ice hockey, the de facto equivalent of Division I in that sport, since the 2018–19 season. The NCAA has never sponsored a Division II championship in the sport, although it does sponsor a Division III championship. Five schools competed as independents in the 2018–19 season, all participating in the nascent New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), which had originally been established in 2017 as a scheduling alliance among all of the then-current National Collegiate independents. The NEWHA initially included six schools, but Holy Cross left after the inaugural 2017–18 NEWHA season to join Hockey East. The NEWHA officially organized as a conference in advance of the 2018–19 season, but was not officially recognized by the NCAA as a Division I league until the 2019–20 season, by which time the newly launched LIU program had joined as the sixth member. The newest National Collegiate hockey school is Stonehill, which started varsity play in the 2022–23 season as the newest (full) member of the NEWHA. Two other schools will add the sport in 2023–24. Assumption joined the NEWHA for administrative purposes alongside Stonehill in 2022, but will not start conference play until launching its varsity team a year later. Robert Morris, which had dropped the sport after the 2020–21 season due to COVID-19 impacts, will resume play in 2023–24, returning to its previous conference of College Hockey America. Current programs which were at one point independent Men Women Defunct teams Men Women See also List of NCAA Division I ice hockey programs NCAA Division I independent schools NCAA Division II independent schools (ice hockey) NCAA Division III independent schools (ice hockey) References NCAA Division I Independents Independents, ice hockey Ice Independent