The March 2011 announcement that the Big Ten Conference would start sponsoring men's ice hockey in the 2013–14 season, which came shortly after Penn State had announced that it would upgrade its team from club to full varsity status effective in 2012–13, led to a major wave of conference realignment in that sport.

Once the Big Ten took the ice with six teams, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) faced the loss of three of its mainstays (Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State), while the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) was set to lose two prominent members (Minnesota and Wisconsin).

The upheaval also gave Hockey East its first non-New England member in Notre Dame.

The former conference would go on to lose UConn to Hockey East, which was already home to the school's women's team, for the 2014–15 season.

The U.S. College Hockey Online poll was voted on by coaches, media, and NHL scouts.