ASU Hockey: How the Sun Devils became a Division I team

On Nov. 18, 2014, the Arizona State University announced its club hockey team would be elevated from club to varsity status begin in 2015-16. ASU's process lasted merely four months, spring-boarding off a July article that quoted athletic director Ray Anderson as saying all the program needed was money in order to make happen. This thesis explains what happened between that July story and the November announcement. Almost immediately the school received calls from interested donors who said they were willing to completely fund the creation of a men's hockey program. In the end, a group led by Milwaukee businessman Don Mullett donated $32 million to ASU. The thesis also explains the challenges that are still to come for ASU. Those include the arena in which ASU will play, the conference it will join, the women's sport ASU will add in order to stay compliant with Title IX and whether the program will be profitable for the University, among other things. ASU will begin play as a Division I program, the southernmost and westernmost school in the continental United States. It truly is, as Anderson wanted, an example of ASU being "entrepreneurial."