Following an extensive evaluation process, the University has officially decided to close its consideration of sanctioning Division I men’s hockey.

In a statement by Illinois athletic director, Josh Whitman, he pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic for disrupting many of the financial plans they had set. While the price tag of adding hockey was steep at first, sitting at least $50 million, the pandemic found the cost increasing by 30%.

Whitman also pointed to the recent introduction of NIL, which has changed the landscape of college athletics.

“We are investing heavily in new benefits for student-athletes, which increases the marginal cost associated with any new sports offerings,” Whitman said. “Such intense disruption has created ambiguity about the future, and we believe it unwise for Illinois Athletics to expand our sports model in such an uncertain environment.”

While they were hoping that an investment of this magnitude would benefit multiple other sports which had been previously neglected (volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics), they have found other alternatives to increase investment into those sports.

The addition of hockey as the 20th Illinois sport would’ve created a new market within the Big Ten hockey conference, which to date has seven teams participating. With Illinois producing a steady stream of hockey players every year, it would’ve been an easy sell to athletes and their families to join the program.

Before the pandemic, Whitman and the University had plans to announce the addition of the program by the spring of 2020. Despite the mass amounts of investments by donors and corporate sponsors, the pandemic proved too damaging to the financial situation of the University.

Despite this setback, Whitman doesn’t believe that this is the nail in the coffin for the eventual reintroduction of this project.

“We believe the interest in hockey and the opportunity for the sport to succeed here is very real. You never say never in this business, and if the right opportunity were to present itself down the road, we would always be willing to reconsider. That said, due to other programmatic priorities and needs, we can no longer allocate human and financial resources toward the ongoing pursuit of this project,” Whitman said. “My heart believes that we can support hockey, but my head tells me it is time to direct our attention elsewhere. We must continue the upward momentum that Illinois Athletics has created in recent years, and that will require the focused energy of our staff and our community in the years ahead.”

Read the complete statement from Director of Athletics Josh Whitman here.

@JonathanAlday7

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