How Augustana Men's Hockey Got Very Good, Very Fast

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

The Frozen Four is over, with Denver winning yet another national title. But today, I wany to pass the mic and talk about an interesting program that didn’t quite make the field this year….but came very close. And when you’re a tiny college in South Dakoa that wasn’t even playing D-I hockey a few years ago, getting “very close” is still quite an accomplishment.

Today we’ll hear from Tim Casey, a freelance writer who previously wrote about college basketball rivalries in Philly for us. I’ll turn the time over to him.

By Tim Casey

In April 2022, Garrett Raboin left a comfortable job as an assistant men’s hockey coach at the University of Minnesota to become the head coach at Augustana University, a small college in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that was launching a program. Four years later, Minnesota last month reportedly seriously considered hiring Raboin to lead its team. Instead, Raboin remains at Augustana, where he seems committed to a program he built from scratch into a national contender.

In just its third season, Augustana won 22 games, tied for second in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and was the last team left out of the NCAA tournament. No program at Augustana’s resource level has become so good in such a short period of time.

The Vikings’ success can be attributed to Raboin and his staff’s recruiting and development prowess. They also benefited from being able to add players via the transfer portal rather than solely relying on freshmen and starting the program during a time when many players had an extra year of eligibility due to the NCAA’s COVID-19 provisions.

Perhaps the major reason Augusta has adapted to Division I, though, is the school’s financial backing and commitment to hockey, an expensive sport and one that was new to the area at the college level. South Dakota does not sponsor high school hockey, although Sioux Falls has a junior team that usually leads the United States Hockey League in attendance. The Augustana campus is also about 20 minutes from the southwest border of Minnesota, which has a rich hockey tradition, and within driving distance of a few USHL teams, making it convenient for recruiting.  

Still, Augustana didn’t even have a club, intramural or junior varsity hockey team before joining Division I in 2023. That was different from other programs such as St. Thomas (2021), Lindenwood (2022) and Stonehill (2022) that fielded teams at lower levels for more than two decades before moving up to DI. 

In December 2019, Augustana’s board of trustees approved a plan called “Viking Bold: The Journey to 2030” that included several goals to help make the University more attractive to students as small, private colleges faced enrollment and fiscal challenges. As part of that plan, Augustana sought to have all of its sports transition to Division I and join the Summit League, but its bid was rejected in May 2020. 

Augustana then considered its options and decided to start a DI hockey program. The school competes in the Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in its other sports, but can play DI hockey because the NCAA does not sponsor a DII postseason hockey tournament. 

The school broke ground in October 2021 on Midco Arena, a 3,000-seat on-campus hockey facility projected to cost $40 million.  T. Denny Sanford, a local businessman and billionaire, was heavily involved with funding the arena and program, as were other individuals and businesses such as Midco and Sanford Health.

“A lot of our founding partners may not have had huge ties to Augustana,” said Josh Morton, who has been Augustana’s athletics director since 2018. “They appreciate what we do, who we are, how we represent the city of Sioux Falls, but they recognize that this was a differentiator for our community. Whether you're a business owner or community leader, this is just another important step in providing Division I athletics for our city.”

After securing the funding for the arena, Morton’s next step was to search for a coach.