Many of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) schools developed club teams over the years, and eventually varsity hockey programs at the Division III level of the NCAA. Most of these varsity teams were established in the late 1990s. After Title IX gave equal access to women's sports, the MIAC, being one of the oldest conferences in the NCAA, finally had enough programs to offer women's ice hockey as a conference starting with the 1998–99 season. Six member programs began play at the time.
History In the 1998–99 season, the conference held a postseason tournament named the Augsburg invitational. This served as the first unofficial MIAC Championship.
In the 1999–00 season, the official MIAC women's ice hockey tournament was established to determine the postseason conference champion. With two more schools joining the MIAC, the top four teams qualified, with the higher seed hosting a two-game aggregate. The winner, would advance to the AWCHA Division III ice hockey championship to play a best-of-three series for the national championship. This was prior to the NCAA sponsoring Division III women's ice hockey.
In the 2001–02 season, the NCAA established a Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship, of which the MIAC tournament champion received an automatic bid. The MIAC, now at ten teams, added a fifth team to their conference tournament. The new play-in game featured the 4th place team hosting the 5th place team, with the winner playing the #1 seed. The conference also eliminated the two-game aggregate model, moving towards a more traditional single-elimination style tournament. In the 2002 tournament, the semifinals and championship were held at a neutral site. The next season, in 2003, the entire tournament was held at a neutral site. From that point on, the MIAC tournament went back to the higher seed hosting through all rounds. This format stayed the same for years, with the only temporary adjustments coming because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2020-21 tournament was cancelled due to the pandemic, the 2021-22 tournament was modified so that all ten teams qualified for the conference tournament. This was done so to allow all players the chance to play additional games after a few COVID cancellations bled into the 2021–22 season. This gave the top six teams in the standings a bye in a traditional ten-team bracket with no reseeding.
For the 2022-23 season, it was announced that the women's tournament would return to the traditional five-team field.
2000
SeedSchoolConference record1 Augsburg 12–1–12 Saint Mary's 12–1–13 Gustavus Adolphus 11–3–04 Saint Benedict 6–7–1
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2001
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 16–2–02 Saint Mary's 15–3–03 St. Thomas 12–5–14 St. Catherine 11–6–1
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2002
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–0–12 Saint Mary's 15–2–13 St. Thomas 12–3–34 Concordia (MN) 11–6–15 Saint Benedict 9–9–0
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2003
SeedSchoolConference record1 St. Thomas 14–2–22 Concordia (MN) 12–5–13 Gustavus Adolphus 11–4–34 Saint Mary's 10–4–45 Augsburg 10–6–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2004
SeedSchoolConference record1 St. Thomas 16–1–12 Gustavus Adolphus 16–2–03 St. Olaf 11–7–04 Saint Mary's 11–7–05 Augsburg 10–6–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2005
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–1–02 St. Thomas 16–1–13 St. Olaf 13–4–14 Augsburg 10–7–15 Saint Mary's 7–8–3
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2006
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–0–12 St. Thomas 15–2–13 Bethel 10–7–14 St. Olaf 10–8–05 Saint Mary's 8–7–3
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2007
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–1–02 St. Olaf 12–5–13 St. Thomas 12–6–04 Hamline 10–6–25 Saint Mary's 9–7–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2008
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 18–0–02 St. Thomas 14–4–03 Concordia (MN) 10–6–24 Hamline 8–7–35 Bethel 8–9–1
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2009
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 16–0–22 St. Thomas 14–2–23 Bethel 10–5–34 Concordia (MN) 7–7–45 St. Olaf 7–9–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2010
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 14–3–12 St. Catherine 13–3–23 St. Thomas 12–4–24 Saint Mary's 9–7–25 St. Olaf 9–7–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2011
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 14–2–22 St. Thomas 10–4–43 Bethel 11–5–24 St. Olaf 11–5–25 Concordia (MN) 8–6–4
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2012
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 16–1–12 Concordia (MN) 10–3–53 St. Thomas 11–6–14 St. Olaf 9–7–25 Bethel 9–7–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2013
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 18–0–02 St. Thomas 13–4–13 Concordia (MN) 11–4–34 Bethel 11–5–25 St. Catherine 8–7–3
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2014
SeedSchoolConference record1 St. Thomas 14–2–22 Gustavus Adolphus 14–4–03 Bethel 13–5–04 Concordia (MN) 11–5–25 St. Catherine 8–9–1
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2015
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 15–2–12 St. Thomas 11–3–43 Concordia (MN) 9–6–34 Saint Mary's 9–7–25 Bethel 8–7–3
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2016
SeedSchoolConference record1 St. Thomas 12–4–22 Bethel 12–4–23 Augsburg 10–5–34 Concordia (MN) 11–7–05 Saint Mary's 9–7–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2017
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 13–2–32 Augsburg 14–4–03 Concordia (MN) 11–5–24 St. Thomas 9–5–45 Hamline 10–8–0
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2018
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 13–2–32 Hamline 13–3–23 Augsburg 9–4–54 Concordia (MN) 6–7–55 Bethel 7–9–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s), St. Thomas finished 2nd, ineligible for conference playoffs
2019
SeedSchoolConference record1 St. Thomas 15–1–12 Hamline 14–2–23 Augsburg 11–3–44 Gustavus Adolphus 11–3–45 Saint Mary's 6–8–4
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2020
SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 15–1–22 Hamline 14–1–33 Augsburg 15–3–04 St. Thomas 11–6–15 Saint Mary's 6–10–2
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2021
Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022 SeedSchoolConference record1 Gustavus Adolphus 13–1–22 Hamline 11–5–03 Saint Mary's 9–5–24 St. Scholastica 8–5–25 Augsburg 8–6–26 Saint Benedict 6–7–17 Bethel 5–6–28 Concordia (MN) 5–10–19 St. Catherine 4–12–010 St. Olaf 3–15–0
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2023
SeedSchoolConference recordPoints1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–1–0 522 Augsburg 14–3–1 403 Saint Benedict 11–7–0 334 St. Olaf 10–7–1 305 Hamline 8–9–1 25
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2024
SeedSchoolConference recordPoints1 Gustavus Adolphus 17–1–0 522 Augsburg 15–3–0 423 Saint Mary's 12–4–2 384 Hamline 13–5–0 385 Bethel 8–9–1 26
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
2025
SeedSchoolConference recordPoints1 Augsburg 16–2–0 482 Gustavus Adolphus 15–3–0 443 Hamline 11–7–0 354 Saint Mary's 10–8–0 315 St. Olaf 9–8–1 28
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
Championships by school +SchoolChampionshipsTitle YearsConf. Tourn. AppearancesGustavus Adolphus152001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2020, 2022, 2023, 202424St. Thomas62003, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 201919Augsburg22000, 202513Saint Mary's1200216Hamline1201810Concordia (MN)013Bethel012St. Olaf011St. Catherine05Saint Benedict04St. Scholastica01
References