Could a recently announced independent college hockey tournament serve as a model for Division I private university tournaments in other sports?

Independent D1 hockey programs Lindenwood, Alaska, Alaska Anchorage, Long Island University, and Stonehill are hosting their own postseason tournament. The United Collegiate Hockey Cup will take place from March 5-7, 2026, bringing together the five NCAA Division I men’s hockey programs. While it won’t bring them an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, it will allow these programs to compete for a championship and provide their programs with national visibility.

The growing influence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the recently-approved NCAA profit-sharing settlement by the NCAA’s largest programs have created a huge gap between the Power Four and the rest of Division I. Just what will happen to private universities in the ever-changing D1 college athletics landscape -especially in the sports dominated by the Power Four? They have seized control of football, and with the addition of profit sharing in the future, they will be eyeballing the billion-dollar revenue of March Madness as Cinderella rapidly disappears from March Madness. Some Power Four members have even proposed the elimination of auto-bids for conferences. Few, if any private schools outside of the Power Four will ever be able to compete for a championship in sports like basketball and volleyball.

There are 118 private universities out of 364 total Division I members. There are thirteen private Universities in the Power Four conferences (below).

As a precursor to what might ultimately be a breakaway private university division within D1, could the independent hockey tournament be a model for private Universities to establish their own tournament championships in select sports? A good place to start would be basketball and women’s volleyball, with a widening gulf between the haves and have-nots. As a start, the tournament could invite the top private universities that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. The idea would be to allow the remaining private universities to compete for a Private Collegiate Championship with their own TV deal and have their athletes compete for a championship against similar athletes and programs with similar value propositions.

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Using KenPom finishes from 2025 and rank-ordering the non-qualifiers for the NCAA National Tournament, the Private Hoops Tournament would look something like this if the brackets went according to form:

If successful, this could be a precursor to the formation of a DI private university division with its own rules and regulations, championships, and TV deals. While NIL will continue as-is, private schools could eventually establish scholarship caps, coaching caps, conference structure, etc., recognizing their institutional priorities. 104 schools out of 335 Division I institutions are private non-Power Four – more than enough to create a separate division, sponsorship deals, and TV. Of course, the top private school members in the Big 10, Big XII, ACC, and SEC would continue to compete at the Power Four level. One-offs, like Gonzaga, could elect to compete in the Power Four Tournament if they qualified, along with any other qualifying private universities.