AAU College Hockey is a national collegiate hockey program that was established in March of 2023, through the collaboration of the Collegiate Hockey Federation (CHF) and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU is the premier non-profit sports organization in the United States, with more than a century of experience in promoting amateur sports and athletic programs. It was launched as a varsity-level sport in the United States, with the primary objective of providing student-athletes with an even greater opportunity to play high-level, standardized intercollegiate hockey while pursuing their post-secondary education. The new collegiate hockey model was scheduled to begin its first season under the banner of AAU in the fall of 2023.
Beginning with the 2023-2024 season, AAU College Hockey includes Men's Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3, and a Women's Division, aiming to offer the best collegiate hockey experience while prioritizing the needs of its member conferences, programs, student-athletes, and staff.
As the governing body of just shy of 140 collegiate hockey programs, AAU College Hockey began as the Collegiate Hockey Federation (CHF) in July 2019 by 5 individuals with long histories in the sport as players, coaches, and administrators across many youth and collegiate programs - and was designed and built “fit for purpose” to offer college student-athletes an alternative option to participate in a better collegiate hockey experience than currently offered by others. With the development of a framework and some infrastructure in place, the inaugural CHF season was kicked off in September 2019 with over 80 collegiate programs in 3 conferences covering Upper New York State, New England, Long Island, and Mid-Atlantic states.
Entering our 5th season, AAU College Hockey has seen the membership grow to just under 140 programs, throughout 4 divisions, with the recent addition of college and university teams from College Hockey South (CHS), the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Upper New York Collegiate Hockey League (UNYCHL), and the Empire Conference (Empire) to complement the original inaugural conferences, and members now spanning our coverage across 18 states on the east coast.
AAU College Hockey's efforts to support and promote its members and their competitive successes culminate each season with a National Championship Tournament. Formerly the CHF Federation Cup, 2023 saw AAU College Hockey rebrand this tournament for the first time in West Chester, PA, in what became the largest inter-collegiate athletic event ever held at a single venue in North America. The AAU National Tournament showcased 40 teams, and 1100 student-athletes, from 6 conferences competing in over 70 collegiate hockey games over a 6-day period, at the Ice Line Quad Rinks. It was organized into two divisions (National D2 and American D3), and featured a pool play, quarter-final, and semi-final round, with the winners in each division being crowned "AAU College Hockey National Champions".
AAU College Hockey desires to enable the best collegiate hockey experience for student-athletes in the United States. Period. This means being hyper-focused on expanding the opportunities for our members, showcasing the immense talent our programs possess, and doing so in a fiscally responsible manner. AAU College Hockey’s initiative, creativity, scalability, and organization afford the organization the foundation to sustain its commitment to providing the highest quality participation, opportunities, and access to all of our current and prospective student-athletes, and member programs.
