March 28, 2026






Atlantic Hockey Commissioner Michelle Morgan, and Everyone, Caught Off Guard by Mercyhurst Announcement

by Anthony Travalgia/CHN Reporter (@atravalgia)

ALBANY, N.Y. — Mercyhurst announced early Friday morning that it was dropping its men’s hockey program. The Lakers won four regular-season and three conference tournament championships in their history, but had hit difficult times lately. 

Coach Rick Gotkin is retiring this year after 37 seasons, and was set to be replaced by assistant Tom Peffal. Gotkin only found out about Mercyhurst’s decision Friday morning, five minutes before the players did.

Mercyhurst recently transformed its entire athletic department from Division II to Division I. In the current landscape, that comes with enormous financial burdens, and the men’s hockey team was the victim. Mercyhurst has to figure out a way not just to deal with increased travel expenses that being in D-I demands, but how to find the resources to pay some players, or else why even bother.

It’s not just at Mercyhurst that cuts to programs have occurred when schools are faced with this new reality. It’s just that, in this case, it happened to be a Division I men’s hockey program, which is what we cover here.

So that leaves Atlantic Hockey with its second loss of a team in as many years. 

“College hockey is growing, but we need more,” Bentley coach Andy Jones said. “We don’t need to be losing teams. We need more teams, right? And so the news is unfortunate. Sitting here today, I can’t claim to know all the reasons, but we’re looking for more opportunities for student athletes, not fewer, more opportunities for staff, not fewer. And so that’s unfortunate news.”

With nine teams now, the immediate thought is that Atlantic Hockey will look to add another school. The league has been reluctant recently to add programs like Long Island and Stonehill, which have been playing as independents, but are in the league’s footprint. That feeling may change now, though it remains to be seen.

Conference commissioner Michelle Morgan wasn’t yet to give details on any possible program additions, but touched on that and other matters Friday while attending the NCAA Regional in Albany, where member team Bentley was playing.

CHN: When did you find out about Mercyhurst?

Morgan: 8:57 this morning. Not the news that I was looking to receive on a game day when we’re trying to focus on Bentley and a Regional and what’s left of the season. Obviously it’s hard news to take and (we) certainly think about all the lives that that decision affects.

CHN: Have you spoken to Rick Gotkin?

Morgan: Rick and I exchanged messages. He’s actually out in the Sioux Falls Regional because he’s still on the (NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey) Committee. So I didn’t have the opportunity to actually talk to him, but did exchange messages. He’s feeling all the feels right now. And I did have the opportunity to talk to Tom (Peffal) too, and I think that neither one of them had a lot of warning or saw that this was coming. And so they’re obviously looking to take care of their players and the program and do things in order, which makes sense.

CHN: After losing two teams, what does this mean in the big picture?

Morgan: Five years ago, what college athletics, not just ice hockey, what college athletics looked like versus what it looks like today is completely different, right? We know ice hockey has a lot of barriers of entry. It’s an expensive sport. It’s very regionalized. And so I understand that oftentimes that’s a sport depending on the program or the institution that might be criticized or inspected, probably a little bit dissected, probably a little bit deeper, knowing that you know all the things it takes to support a successful program. When I look at AIC’s decision, and although there’s probably more questions than answers in Mercyhurst decision, I think a lot of those topics, or themes, come at both of these decisions, albeit for different reasons. I don’t think any institutional leader or president stays up all day saying, ‘Man, how can I make life hard on a lot of people.’ They have to do what’s best for the integrity and the future of their their academic institution.

CHN: Robert Morris was able to rally after its program shut down. Is it possible Mercyhurst can do the same?

Morgan: Never say never right? When you put people with a passion and some drive behind them and some voices, I think you never know what’s going to happen. When I was made aware this morning, it was brief and there wasn’t a lot of time for follow-up questions because of the sequence of announcements and telling the team and other personnel. That said, I spent some time on Mercyhurst’s campus a couple weeks ago with Rick’s retirement and I met a lot of alums, all different generations, all different ages, eras that they played. Their common theme was, Rick brought them together. They have a passionate alumni base that people are proud to have lived through.

CHN: Will you look to bring another team in, is the obvious question?

Morgan: Yeah, I’m smirking because I think I’ve heard from almost every independent (team) possible today. As soon as the news came out, they were emailing, calling, texting from all angles, and understandably so. I know that we have a board meeting here in the next week or two. And this certainly will be a big topic, you know? I think in the short term, we have to look at things like schedule and potentially, does that include what the composition of our league is, I think anything’s on the table. It’s certainly not ideal to have these conversations in this frequency. And so I know there’s some work ahead of me in terms of what next steps look like, but it’s my job as commissioner to be prepared and present the options to the board too, so that they can ultimately decide.

CHN: How about the conference’s health as a whole?

Morgan: Now being unified under one men’s and women’s together, I think, from an operational standpoint, that’s helped us tremendously, from cost savings, from brand awareness from some of the institutions. (There are) bigger, well- known brands, like service academies on the men’s side, and then you have some Power 4 institutions, Penn State and Syracuse on the women’s side. Having some wins that were high-profile wins against opponents. We need more of them, right? But that certainly helped. … What does the future hold? Nobody really knows what’s around the corner again in collegiate athletics, but I think understanding what our lane is, so to speak, and being the best that we can at it, and growing the game and awareness, and helping to support our member schools and their hockey programs. WQe’re never going to have 10,000-seat buildings. That’s just not who or what this league is. But long gone are the days prior to my arrival where it wasn’t a fully-funded league, or didn’t support full scholarships and resources. We have committed institutions that want to make this a class effort and be competitive programs on the national stage. It’s, how do we how do we lift everybody at once to achieve that together? And those are the small steps we’re working on every day.