Teams play a 24-game regular season schedule, with the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs consisting of a best-of-three semifinal round, and a best-of-three championship series.

In 2011, the BCIHL accepted its first US-based team in Eastern Washington University, which had previously played in the American Collegiate Hockey Association at the Division II level.

The 2016–17 season would see the BCIHL get its first NHL alumni as former Montreal Canadiens forward Patrick Holland would join the University of Victoria.

[4] In March 2021, Selkirk College announced it would be discontinuing the Saints men's hockey program due to budget constraints as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[7][8] On February 8, 2022, the Logan Lake Miners were added to the BCIHL via expansion, consisting of student-athletes from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt.