It is now official:
 
          Women's Hockey will be an MIAC varsity sport in 1998-99!
 
   (5/22/98) --The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will add
   womens ice hockey as the 23rd sport awarded championships by the
   league in the 1998-99 school year, after the sport was approved for
   championship status at a meeting of the conferences faculty athletic
   representatives May 22 at Macalester College.
 
   Previously, the leagues athletic directors recommended the sport for
   approval at their May 11 meeting. The MIAC will award its first
   championship, along with selecting an all-conference team, during the
   1998-99 school year. It will be the 11th womens sport awarded
   championships by the MIAC.
 
   Six MIAC colleges will offer womens hockey at the varsity level in the
   1998-99 school year Augsburg College (began in 1995-96), Gustavus
   Adolphus College (1997-98), the College of St. Benedict (1997-98), the
   College of St. Catherine (1998-99), St. Marys University (1998-99) and
   the University of St. Thomas (1998- 99). Concordia College-Moorhead
   will offer womens hockey in the 1999-2000 school year, and Hamline
   University will offer the sport in 2000-2001. Among other MIAC
   schools, St. Olaf College and Carleton College also have club women's
   hockey programs.
 
   Last year, the MIAC received a $440,000 grant from the United States
   Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to
   develop womens hockey as a sport on the varsity level. The NCAA and
   USOC issued 13 grants totaling $8 million to 40 NCAA conferences and
   organizations to develop Olympic sports in colleges. The NCAA has
   identified womens hockey as a emerging sport, as nearly 40 colleges
   across the nation will offer it on the varsity level in the 1998-99
   school year.
 
   The MIAC will be the second conference in the nation, and the first in
   the Midwest, to offer a championship in womens hockey. The Eastern
   College Athletic Conference (ECAC) sponsors two womens hockey leagues
   a Division I style league for its larger varsity squads and a Division
   III-style alliance league for smaller varsity and club teams. The MIAC
   will be the first conference in the nation to offer womens hockey
   completely at the NCAA Division III (non-athletic scholarship) varsity
   level. Most MIAC schools have competed in recent years in the
   Midwestern Collegiate Women's Hockey Alliance, a group of varsity and
   club teams in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
 
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 hungerf
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