College Hockey Mid-America was formed in 2006 with eight founding members: Duquesne, Indiana U of PA, John Carroll, Pittsburgh, Slippery Rock, Washington & Jefferson, West Virginia, and Youngstown State.
Most of the programs in the CHMA existed long before the formation of the league, though. Duquesne, IUP, Pitt, and Slippery Rock were founding members of the Western Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Hockey Association (WPIHA) in 1971, which eventually became known as College Hockey East (CHE). Washington & Jefferson, West Virginia, and Youngstown State eventually passed through that same league over the years before landing in the CHMA.
West Virginia, led by Don Spencer, was one of the programs that helped created the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) in 1991. Duquesne joined the ACHA a few seasons later, and those two programs were the only ACHA Men's Division 1 teams in the region for many years. When the ACHA formed its Men's Division 2 level in the mid-1990s, Pitt and IUP soon entered their programs in that division. Those two programs helped found the University Hockey League (UHL) in 1998, which included a second team from West Virginia. In 2001, W&J moved its team to the ACHA D1 level, placing three such programs in the region.
By the early 2000s, club hockey in the region was booming, coinciding with the growth of the NHL into the new century and as an aftershock of the Stanley Cup championships of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992. So talks began among teams in the region to push more programs into the ACHA D1 level. That came to fruition with the establishment of College Hockey Mid-America in 2006, with Andy Mecs serving as the first league Commissioner with the 8 founding teams. Those 8 teams comprised the CHMA membership for its first six seasons.
Mercyhurst and Robert Morris moved their teams from other D1 leagues into the CHMA for the 2012-13 season. Those additions had the league at ten teams for one season, but Youngstown State and W&J dropped from the CHMA in 2013. The league then held steady again at the same eight teams for the remainder of the decade. The next big change in the league occurred when Slippery Rock went dormant after the 2019-20 season, and then all but three league members were put on hiatus for the 2020-21 season due to the global pandemic. All 7 league members returned for the 2021-22 campaign, and Kent State moved its existing D1 team into the CHMA for the first time. That put the CHMA at 8 teams, which encompassed every ACHA D1 team within the league's geographic footprint at the time. However, that trait only lasted for one season because the University of Pittsburgh left the CHMA to join another league in 2022. After consecutive seasons of change, the CHMA remained stable when the same 7 teams returned for the 2023-24 season.
League leadership has changed a few times in CHMA history, as well. Andy Mecs transitioned to a new role of Executive Director in the mid-2010s, and West Virginia alum Brandon Dudt-Mulzet became the league's second commissioner. All leadership roles were condensed back into the commissioner title when Chris Wilk took the job in the late-2010s. Wilk had been the Head Coach and General Manager at John Carroll and became the third commissioner in the history of the CHMA. Dave Fryer, Jr. was named the fourth commissioner of the league in 2021, but he was not new to the CHMA and its roots. Fryer was instrumental of the formation of the UHL in 1998 and was the existing commissioner of College Hockey East. Fryer had also coached in the CHMA with Duquesne from 2006 to 2009 and was at the helm for Robert Morris when they were formally accepted into the league in 2012.
Change has been good for the league on the ice, as parity has remained a constant in league history. Washington & Jefferson won the first regular season title in the CHMA for the 2006-07 season, but Duquesne took the playoff championship that season. Duquesne became the first CHMA team to win the league's regular season and playoffs in the same season in 2008-09, giving the Dukes 3 of the first 6 varieties of championships. However, Duquesne has failed to earn either crown since, during which time no team has been able to stay on top for long. John Carroll was able to repeat as playoff champions in 2017 and 2018, then Indiana U of PA went back-to-back in 2023 and 2024. The playoff repeat by IUP also included a repeat as the league's regular season champions, the first time in the 18 years of the CHMA that a team repeated both titles. But winning both even once is rare. Only eight times (less than half) has the league's top team from the regular season gone on to win its playoff championship.
The 2024 playoff title by IUP moved them into a tie with West Virginia and Robert Morris with 3 CHMA playoff championships. The regular season title that same year by the Crimson Hawks also tied them West Virginia and Pittsburgh with 3 CHMA regular-season titles. West Virginia and IUP pace the league with 6 combined titles each, and only Youngstown State and Kent State lack any type of league title on its CHMA resume.
From its inception, the CHMA had rights to an automatic bid to the ACHA Men's Division 1 National Tournament. For the first 12 years of its existence, the league granted that bid to its regular season champion. That was first taken by W&J in 2007, but West Virginia also went to the tournament that season due to its national ranking. Duquesne also earned a spot in the national tournament via its ranking in 2009, but the Dukes also secured the auto-bid of the league that year, preventing a second CHMA team from getting a tournament bid.
In 2012, ACHA Men's Division 1 expanded its national tournament format to include 20 teams and 4 play-in games to start the event. West Virginia used the play-in round that year to earn the league's first victory in the National Tournament, but the Mountaineers failed to advance beyond the first round. As the tournament host in 2015, John Carroll was given the 20th seed in the event, joining Robert Morris as a pair of CHMA teams at nationals. In 2020, Indiana U of PA won the CHMA auto-bid, becoming the 9th different CHMA member to qualify for the ACHA Men's D1 National Tournament. Robert Morris entered the National Tournament in 2021 as the #2 seed, the highest a CHMA team has ever been ranked at the end of the regular season. The CHMA had a pair of teams at the National Tournament for the third time in 2022, when John Carroll went as the league's auto-bid and Pittsburgh qualified as an at-large via rankings. Pittsburgh won its first round game but failed to finally get a CHMA team into the third round. That appearance by Pittsburgh marked its third trip to the National Tournament, equaling Robert Morris and John Carroll for second most by a CHMA member at the time. IUP joined that group in 2024, but West Virginia still holds the top spot with four National Tournament appearances as a member of College Hockey Mid-America.
