Michigan has been without an NCAA Division I women's hockey program since Wayne State University dropped its program in 2011 after 12 seasons due to funding issues.
But Dennis Ilitch is hopeful that will change soon. Ilitch, who serves on the University of Michigan Board of Trustees, publicly called for the university to add a varsity women's hockey team at a March 28 board meeting.
The athletics department has since taken the first step towards establishing a women's team, launching a feasibility study in late May to investigate the viability of the proposed initiative.
The feasibility study will include an examination of Title IX impacts and costs associated with forming a team, including facilities, scholarships, travel, recruiting, conference affiliation and coaches' salaries.
Ilitch said the University of Michigan has hired College Sports Associates, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based recruiting and consulting firm, to lead the study, and College Hockey, Inc., a nonprofit organization funded by the NHL that has been involved in more than 10 previous feasibility studies, will help collect data and conduct interviews.
A University of Michigan athletics spokesman confirmed that a feasibility study is underway but said the university would not comment further until it is completed. Ilitch said the study is expected to be completed by early to mid-fall. It will then be presented to the Board of Trustees, which will require a majority vote to approve a varsity sports program.
“I'm very excited,” Ilitch told MLive on Tuesday. “The athletic department has been very receptive and they've moved quickly, so I'm very excited that the work is moving forward now. I'm looking forward to everyone being interviewed. I'm going to be interviewed as well. So I think it's really moving along well. I'm cautiously optimistic.”
Related: Michigan doesn't have an NCAA D1 women's hockey team, and the Wolverines could change that.
The goal of the feasibility study is not to recommend whether the university should add a team, but to provide as much information as possible so school officials can make an informed decision about next steps. As a result of the feasibility study, the University of Delaware announced the addition of a women's hockey program last December.
But not all have translated into adding varsity sports programs. Northern Michigan University approved a feasibility study for women's hockey in 2018 but never made a formal recommendation to the board because it would have needed to build a separate facility to support the women's program, a costly undertaking for a Division II university in every sport except men's hockey.
Michigan boasts one of the richest college hockey histories in the country and is one of seven schools in the state with a Division I men's program.
Ilitch, an avid hockey supporter whose husband and wife team, Mike and Marian Ilitch, bought the Detroit Red Winds in 1982, believes Michigan has a chance to be a trailblazer for women's hockey in the state. She highlights the recent success of the Wolverines' club teams and the wealth of young talent compelling them to leave the state in search of Division I opportunities.
Coached by Jenna Turbiano, the club team has compiled a record of 37 wins, 10 losses, two ties and three draws over the past two seasons and has made consecutive appearances in the American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.
There were 45 Michigan players on Division I women's teams last season, the fourth-most of any state behind Minnesota (221), Massachusetts (103) and New York (52).
Those three states have a combined 20 women's college programs, but Michigan has zero women's college programs and only one Division III program (Adrian College).
Several Michigan players play in the professional women's hockey league, including Taylor Girard and Sian D'Arcangelo, who played in front of 13,736 fans at Little Caesars Arena on March 16, a U.S. attendance record for professional women's hockey.
“We're a hockey town,” Ilitch says. “We're a hockey state. Our club hockey, led by Jenna, has been going for almost 30 years, a lot of it from Little Caesars (Detroit's youth travel program). I started to want to understand the business side of what Jenna does. I wanted to contribute in some way, so I started to learn her challenges, her team challenges. I learned that all the elite female players who play youth hockey were being pushed out of our state and had to go to other states.
“I had been talking about a women’s hockey team for a while, but I was always told, ‘No, it’s too expensive.’ Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to speak publicly about it and encourage the community to put a hockey team at the University of Michigan.”
Yost Ice Arena, home of the men's team, doesn't have the space to support other collegiate teams, forcing the university to find or build a new facility for the women's team. The operating costs of women's hockey are also typically higher than other sports.
At Ohio State, women's hockey was the second-most expensive women's varsity sport in the most recent fiscal year, with expenses totaling $3,352,519, according to data submitted by the university to the NCAA. Total revenue, at $224,247, was sixth among women's teams.
Cost may be the biggest obstacle to adding a national team, but Ilitch said he has already received a lot of support from the hockey community who want to help the cause.
“People have really responded positively,” she said. “When we started getting calls — usually we'd ask donors for financial support — we started getting calls from donors saying they wanted to have lunch with us, they wanted to help with programs, they wanted to donate. We got a lot of emails and calls, calls from the media, a lot of calls from people who wanted to help.”
“The hockey community is so close-knit, it's like a family. I grew up in that family, so I have a lot of peers, a lot of emails and a lot of people saying, 'What can we do to help build this program?'
