<p>Many of the NESCAC schools are hugely supportive of their hockey teams–Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury games are packed with students and locals cheering on the teams</p>
<p>downside of popularity… Yale- Cornell hockey game standing room only…</p>
<p>I second Wisconsin. It is huge in Madison. They regularly have over 17,000 fans at each game. The women’s program is amazing as well. However, I would have to give MN the nod as the top hockey state.</p>
<p>It’s all they got at U-North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND)</p>
<p>Hockey is HUGE in Minnesota (the state and the school) and there is nothing like watching a Gopher game at Mariucci Arena (except the state high school hockey tournament which NOTHING can beat).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I dont know about ‘regularly’, considering the Kohl only holds ~15,300 :P</p>
<p>At UW Madison there are several games a year where they sell out the arena well before start time. Also Madison has the (relatively) new Kohl center which is super nice and offers good viewing from even the worst seats. Most universities with a division one hockey team will have “booster clubs” where you can hang out with fellow hockey lovers and root for your school’s team at the games.</p>
<p>Basically anywhere in Massachusetts, although that’s been said before. The big ones people know around here are BC, BU, UMass, Northeastern.</p>
<p>diontechchristmas - My mistatke. The Kohl Center holds 17,000+ for basketball and 14,000 for hockey according to the Kohl Center website.</p>
<p>Whatever, UW still leads the nation in hockey paid attendance–and the women’s team is pretty good too.</p>
<p>Notre Dame,</p>
<p>opps, accidentally clicked “post”. haha, anyway:</p>
<p>Boston University, Michigan, Ohio sate, Boston College, Yale, Northeastern, Cornell, Princeton…</p>
<p>just go on NCAA.com and look for their hockey divisions, divions 1’s if you want the top.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Definitely not. Most students dont really care about it, and the administration doesnt care about the program, which is funny, because theyre quite good.</p>
<p>“Hockey is HUGE in Minnesota (the state and the school) and there is nothing like watching a Gopher game at Mariucci Arena (except the state high school hockey tournament which NOTHING can beat).”</p>
<p>Yeah, no. The atmosphere at Gopher games is pretty crappy. I went to their game against Minnesota-Duluth tonight, and people were even quiet during overtime. A lot of people started flocking to the exits with a minute left in overtime. Most people don’t bother showing up until a few minutes into the first period. In the college hockey community, Mariucci is frequently compared to a morgue.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is on the upswing. The University just committed to building a new facility dedicated to hockey on campus. They don’t have consistent student support yet, but they do come out in numbers for big rivalry games like against Michigan.</p>
<p>U Michigan is amazing and so is Boston College</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Link? I’ve heard nothing about this…</p>
<p>University of North Dakota wins this one, hands down. Hockey is huge. Look at their arena.</p>
<p>[Official</a> Website for the Ralph Engelstad Arena - University of North Dakota - Home of the Fighting Sioux - Grand Forks, North Dakota - <a href=“http://www.theRalph.com%5B/url%5D”>www.theRalph.com](<a href=“http://www.theralph.com/asp/default.asp?p=13]Official”>http://www.theralph.com/asp/default.asp?p=13)</a></p>
<p>Besides hockey, they offer all kinds of majors with very reasonable tuition. Most kids live on campus, unlike Minnesota, which has a much higher rate of commuting students. The only downside is it gets cold, but the OP is from Switzerland so it may not be much of an issue.</p>
<p>The best academics and Hockey combination would have to be the following universities:</p>
<p>Boston College (3 national championships)
Boston University (4 national championships)
Cornell University (2 national championships)
Harvard University (1 national championship)
Miami University
Michigan State University (3 national championships)
Princeton University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (9 national champinships)
University of Minnesota-Twin cities (5 national championships)
University of Notre Dame
University of Wisconsin (6 national championships)
Yale University</p>
<p>[NCAA</a> Men’s Ice Hockey Championship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Four]NCAA”>NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Hockey is huge at RIT. They play some of their games (like Cornell) at Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester. RIT just won (co-winners actually with AirForce) their league championship which isn’t surprising as they are usually one of the top teams. RIT won the league championship three years ago when they first joined Div 1. RIT women’s hockey does very well also and I believe they are moving to Div 1 next year. No football at RIT. Hockey is THE big sport at RIT with many Canadian fans and players.</p>
<p>I can tell you Cornell games are unbelievable. You really should go to one to see it. Lynah Rink is really small (I think it holds 4,000 but I’m not sure) but the fans are all practically on top of the ice. The student section is amazing. There are certain cheers for absolutely everything. It’s really unlike anything else. Students camp out for season tickets, it’s crazy. I can usually only get to 5 or six games a year, but I live a couple hours from Cornell. Personally, I think there is not better place for hockey than Cornell and the decent academics don’t hurt either.</p>
<p>Other schools that are good:
Michigan
Michigan State
Northeastern
Boston College
Boston University (as much as I hate to admit this)
North Dakota State
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Yale
Harvard
Princeton (good team, but atmosphere is nothing like Cornell. Went to a game there and the CU fans that made the trip were much louder than the Princeton fans)</p>