What happened to Ice Hockey at BYU?

In 1994 a hockey team of BYU students was formed called the Provo Ice Cats. The team tried to secure an affiliation with BYU, but based on historic documents, because there wasn't a facility for the team and that along with concerns about sustaining a team the university held off. BYU administrators said they would consider recognizing the team if these things were overcome.

The Ice Cats continued to provide an opportunity for BYU students to play hockey as part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association up until 2005 when the ACHA required that all teams needed to be affiliated with and recognized by a college or university. The team had continuously sought BYU affiliation, but with the potential loss of hockey for BYU students and the popularity of the relatively recent 2002 Winter Olympics the university reconsidered.

Things had changed. Peaks Ice Arena, a two ice sheet facility, which hosted international hockey games for the 2002 Winter Olympics had been constructed and provided a stable venue for hockey, and by now there was a proven track record of sustaining a team for over a decade.

The right people were in place at BYU who saw the potential of a BYU club hockey team and the Ice Cats were able to enter into a contract with BYU that allowed the affiliation with the University. In about 2007, the team became officially recognized by BYU and played as the BYU Cougars in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

For 15 years that affiliation has benefited Brigham Young University, the many student-athletes who have played on the team, other students and faculty who are fans of the team, and the city of Provo.

In the spring of 2021 Brigham Young University's Student Life Vice President, Julie Franklin notified the team that after the 2021-2022 season BYU would no longer allow the existence of a BYU hockey team. Her reasons were spelled out in an email as follows:

"Students have a wide variety of interests. The university is able to facilitate involvement in some of those, but not all. For several reasons including, Title IX constraints the university has chosen to not sponsor its own ice hockey team. We also believe it is not helpful to the university to be engaged in an arrangement with a group that is not officially sponsored by the university.
In consultation with other administrators on campus, I have determined it is now time to make a change."

In recent years the team has been very successful, not only in terms of wins, but also financially, organizationally, and its popularity among the BYU Student Body and Provo Community. Attendance at games has routinely reached near capacity at Peaks Ice Arena which can seat 2,300 fans. On some nights it has been standing room only.

The team has never received any support from BYU either financially or use of BYU facilities and have always been good ambassadors of the school. Brigham Young University even has two ice hockey classes in its current course catalog: SWELL 151 "Ice Hockey", and SWELL 153 "Intermediate Ice Hockey". Both classes were taught by BYU hockey players. BYU Bookstore sold BYU Hockey merchandise including t-shirts, hats, stickers, and even jerseys. While Brigham Young University benefited from these activities, none of the proceeds went to the team.

With these things in mind, the team administration sought an opportunity to talk with Julie Franklin and see if we could find out what might be required to keep the team. During this time, a petition had been started to keep the team, and in just a couple of months’ time had gather over 5,600 signatures and hundreds of comments in support of ice hockey at BYU.

After several attempts and perhaps because of concerns from parents, players, students, and the community, Ms. Franklin agreed to allow a meeting with Nathan Ward (Dean of Students), Nathan Ormsby (Director of Student Wellness), and Morris Havea (Extramural Sports Director).

Her email stated: “You have asked for the opportunity for a discussion; before we initiate one, I want to you to be aware of the realities you face. We are not in a position to have a negotiation with the Ice Cats that would create a unique set of operational guidelines for the hockey team. As I stated at the outset, if there is to be a BYU hockey team, it must fit within the parameters of the program.

If you feel these overarching parameters are workable for you, you are welcome to reach out to Nathan Ormsby, Morris Havea and Nathan Ward who will be able to arrange a time to share with you in greater detail the requirements that exist for BYU extramural teams.”

Ms Franklin stated that BYU was not interested in negotiating a unique set of guidelines for the team; likewise, the team was only interested in finding out what was required by BYU to be an extramural sport.

The manager of the team and two of the team captains met with these men to find out what the university’s expectations were and if the team could meet those expectations. After two meetings, it was looking like the requirements of the university were not unreasonable and that the team would be able to meet them.

At the end of February the Cougars played in the ACHA Regional playoffs where they advanced to the second round before their season ended. Upon return to Provo, the team manager reached out to Nathan Ward to set up the next meeting.

He received the following response: "Thank you for reaching out to me to schedule another meeting to continue the talks about Hockey. Since our last meeting, abc4 News posted an article describing the current situation involving BYU and IceCats. The university provided the following statement for the article: “In May of 2021, BYU agreed to allow the Provo IceCats hockey program to use the name and mark of the university for one final year, ending in May 2022. The program has never been sponsored by the university, nor has it been a part of BYU Athletics or the Student Life extramural program. BYU appreciates the understanding that has been shown by the IceCats organization of this decision, which was based upon several concerns, including Title IX constraints and organizational matters.” In light of this recent statement, I do not believe it will be productive for us to continue our talks."

The team’s manager responded: "Thank you for your response. I must admit that I am a bit confused. That statement is the same statement they sent to the other news outlets 5 months ago. We have always acknowledged that position. I was under the impression we were meeting to work through the challenges and become part of the BYU extramural program. I hope I didn't misunderstand too badly. Could you help clarify?"

To understand what was being asked of the team and why things seemed to be moving in a positive direction, here are the concerns BYU had:

1. MONEY: BYU never spent any money to support the team, and in fact benefited financially by having Ice Hockey classes in their course catalog and BYU hockey merchandise in their store. While the players did pay fees to play, the team was collecting enough in gate proceeds and sponsorships to nearly be self-sufficient. Any money required from BYU to fund the team without player fees would have been nominal. Money was not an issue.

2. FACILITIES: Brigham Young University never allotted use of the university’s facilities to the hockey team even though there are facilities on campus dedicated to extramural sports. The hockey team was paying for its own locker room at Peaks and ran all of its practices and workouts at Peaks. The team paid for its own travel and did not use BYU vehicles. Facilities were not an issue.

3. COACHES: BYU wanted all coaches to be BYU employees. Apparently, the coaches of extramural sports must be employees of BYU. All of the coaches on staff are men in good standing with the LDS Church and hold positions of responsibility in their various congregations. All of the coaches are volunteers and none of them are paid, in fact all coaches are paying money out of their own pockets to coach the team. All of the coaches have the combined experience (as has been proven with the success of BYU hockey) to coach at the collegiate level, and finally, all of the coaching staff were willing to apply to coach hockey at BYU and, universally, donate back whatever salary they received to the team. If the university wanted to hire their own coaches, none of the coaching staff would have objected, their interest was the players and fans. Coaches were not an issue.

4. TITLE IX: BYU had concerns about Title IX, but there were several reasons this wasn’t a problem: The team was coed already. While there were no girls on the team at that time, the ACHA does allow all its teams to be coed. Girls are allowed to tryout for and play on the team. A women’s team was not out of the question. There was enough participation by female students in the ice hockey classes offered at BYU as well as BYU female students participating in the local leagues, that a women’s team could have been formed and actually would have enhanced BYU’s Title IX status since BYU is currently not in compliance even by dropping the hockey team. There is an exception to the Title IX requirement where there isn’t adequate competition to have a representative team. That is currently the case in the west and one of the reasons other universities who have men’s teams but not women’s teams are still in compliance. Title IX was not an issue.

5. STUDENT AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT: In the past 7 years the hockey team has regularly drawn crowds at home games in excess of 2,000 and many times on the road BYU hockey fans outnumber the opposing team’s fans. Looking at the social media following of BYU Hockey, it is on par with other extramural men’s teams and even some of the NCAA sports teams at BYU who receive funding and promotion from the University. Student and Community support of the team was not an issue.

6. REPUTATION: BYU hockey has always represented the school at its highest standards. In fact, in 2019 BYU Hockey was awarded the National Service Award by the American Collegiate Hockey Association for its charitable work. This season in an invitational with Boise State hockey club the team helped raise more than $40,000 for Meals on Wheels. At that event in Boise, a BYU hockey jersey was auctioned off for $2,200. BYU’s good name and reputation were not an issue.

In spite of the hockey team’s willingness to meet all requirements of BYU, Mr. Ward answered: "I am sorry for any confusion. I shared the university statement and information about the story to communicate that although we have had conversations over the last several months about alternative solutions, the university’s position on this decision has not changed. I have mentioned at each of our meetings that we were willing to discuss alternatives, with the understanding that there would not be any expectation that we were negotiating to arrive at a particular desired outcome. It does appear that our perceptions of what these meetings would lead to was different. Continued conversations will not be productive as the university is in not considering any expansion to the extramural program at this time."

His response made clear that these meetings were only meant to appease the team, the media, the fans, and other supporters until the end of the season. The team either had met or was willing to meet all criteria to become an extramural team. Further discussions were centered on how to make the transition. It was a less than honest approach by BYU administration despite Mr. Ward’s protests to the contrary. Ms. Franklin and her staff had made their decision and were not going to change, thus the end they wanted justified the means to reach it.

It is therefore with deep regret that we must announce that after nearly 30 years of ice hockey at BYU, there will no longer be a team for BYU students to play on or support.

A former player that preferred we not use his name told KSL Sports, “The school dropping the team has been a long time coming. It’s been discussed pretty much my entire time at playing for BYU. The hockey team as it currently exists is very different from the other clubs at the school and I think its current agreement to use BYU’s name while operating as its own independent business is likely unpopular with the athletic department. I think the team is definitely done for right now, petitions or protests won’t save it. But I hope this opens up the door for a few years down the line for players at the school to approach the athletic department to create a team that is an official club with the school, with oversight from the athletic department, access to campus facilities and resources, without a dysfunctional and controversial board and coaching staff of parents and family members. There could be a real opportunity in the future to make this program into something that works better and doesn’t exist with so much ambiguity like the team has existed since its creation.”