It appears that Penn St. is set to upgrade it’s club hockey team to a full Division 1 program. It might not be the most groundbreaking news for college sports fans, but the implications are quite big. In sponsoring hockey, there will now be (6) Big Ten schools sponsoring hockey: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan St., Ohio St., and now Penn St. The NCAA requires a conference to have (6) members and with Penn St., 6 is enough. If the Big Ten opts to launch a hockey league, they will immediately have another product to showcase on it’s Big Ten Network.

Previous plans to put the (5) hockey schools in a Big Ten sponsored conference were scrapped as many of the schools did not with the end their affiliations. That might no longer be the case with the NCAA playoff bid intact at 6 schools and the increased revenue through the Big Ten network.

And if the Big Ten sponsors hockey, the remaining conferences would find themselves in a tough spot with membership losses.

Michigan, Michigan St., and Ohio St. are all in the CCHA, so their departure would leave the conference at 8 members. Minnesota and Wisconsin are in the WCHA, currently a 12 member conference.