The son of a friend of mine is interested in playing varsity ice hockey at a D3 college, particularly at one in the northeast. He noticed that Bates has a nice facility for hockey, but has only club teams and not varsity. It seems Bates is the only member of the NESCAC without varsity ice hockey, men’s or women’s. Can anyone explain why?
An alumnus donated the money for the rink and one of his conditions was that it could not be used for a varsity hockey team. Odd, I know, but money is money.
Thank you for replying. Wow, unbelievable. How could they accept the money under that condition - to never field varsity teams? Many/most colleges, particular in regions where ice hockey is popular, would tell the donor to keep his/her money.
The reason I heard was that the rink is slightly too small for regulation size for D3 Varsity games. Don’t know if that’s true, or if it is, why they would build a too-small rink.
Yes, I heard the same explanation recently. The donor’s condition was to build a slightly undersized rink (semi-ironically, the name of the facility is Underhill Arena) precluding the College from having varsity teams. The reason being the donor, when he was a student there many years ago, got cut from the hockey team, wasn’t happy about it, and would only fund the rink if no one else could play varsity hockey as well. Again, it’s incredible they agreed to that stipulation.
The ice surface is the regulation 200 ft x 85 ft… the same size used in the NFL.
Perhaps the indoor dimensions are too small to include regulation players and penalty boxes.
Another scenario is cost. E.g., Vassar crew was a NCAA sport until 2011. The college would no longer financially support the team; hence, it’s now a club sport. Amherst and Middlebury crew are also a club sports due to lack of financial support from the administration.
I enlarged the inside picture of Underhill Arena. https://www.bates.edu/tour/athletics-buildings/underhill-arena/
The inside dimensions of the facility appear to be more than adequate to support players and penalty boxes, etc.
I sincerely doubt a Bates alumnus would want to be known for his vindictiveness for posterity.
@CrewDad - does D3 varsity men’s rowing even exist? I thought all D3 varsity teams were women and men only club at that level (and some women clubs too).
Of course! Some of the schools with competitive D3 men’s rowing include MIT, Williams, Bates, Trinity, the US Merchant Marines, Tufts, Wesleyan, U. of Rochester, Colby, WPI, Rutgers, Mass Maritime, Franklin and Marshall, HWS, and Conn. College.
Hockey is expensive, as a team needs to have at least 18-20 members, and you have to multiply by two as usually schools feel compelled to have both women’s and men’s teams. Equipment, coaching, training is all pretty specialized and spendy.
@Ohiomomof2
Sue22 is correct. However, men’s rowing is not an NCAA recognized sport.
I guess I don’t understand the distinction. There are varsity men’s rowing teams in D3 but they aren’t recognized by the NCAA?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Men’s rowing team is not an NCAA sport for any division - D1, D2, or D3. The discussion as to why, while fascinating, is beyond the scope of this thread. I’m sure if you started a new thread, someone will provide an extensive history. 
Let’s stick to ice hockey and Bates here.
How about the fact they do play competitive hockey, are part of the American Conference of the NECHA (a branch of the ACHA?) Did that change?
^^
No. http://bateshockey.com/about
Every school has to figure out the best use of its resources, and at a small school like Bates it doesn’t make sense to have varsity teams for every sport. This is true throughout the NESCAC. For instance, among its varsity winter sports Hamilton has ice hockey but no skiing, Bowdoin has hockey and nordic (cross country) skiing but no alpine (downhill). Bates has both nordic and alpine but as noted hockey is a club sport, while Wesleyan doesn’t have a varsity ski team but they do have wrestling, a sport none of the other 4 offer. Conn College skips skiing but adds water polo into the mix. All 5 have swimming and diving. track and field, and squash.
I had no idea Bates had club only ice hockey! As a hockey mom of 10 years now to my freshman that is great news! One of the difficulties of guy’s ice hockey is that it has become super competitive to play beyond high school. Many of the rosters are filled with internationals and older players who have done P.G. years. How great - a great school with only club. Refreshing.
True. Adhering to Title IX may also mandate how financial resources are allocated.
No college offers every sport out there. Especially not small colleges. It’s likely that Bates has no history of hockey being a popular sport there, so they never chose to prioritize it. I would love to know if the story of the vindictive donor is true though.
I’m going to chalk that up to urban legend until proven otherwise. In my mind, it sounds like the old rumor that Eleanor Widener’s gift to Harvard for the library stipulated that all undergraduates had to pass the swim test to graduate because her son died on the Titanic.