Utes Ranked For First Time in Division 1

November 2, 2016 Salt Lake City, UT The latest ACHA Division I Rankings were released on Wednesday afternoon and in the first computer rankings of the season, the University of Utah Skatin’ Utes are ranked in the ACHA’s top division for the first time in team history. The Utes made their debut in the polls at number 23, their first and highest D1 ranking in the program’s first year in Division I of the ACHA. The Utes were helped tremendously by their strength of schedule as the rankings made their mid-season shift to the computer rankings, as they have done the last couple of years at the ACHA D1 level. In their six games in Division I this season, the Utes have played two games against Minot State (who stayed at number one in the first computer rankings), Jamestown (moved up from 25th to 6th), and Arizona State (moved up from 14th to 8th). With all the games being top ten teams, it leads to one of the toughest D1 schedules so far this season in the country. In all, five teams made their debut in the polls thanks to the switch in the rankings system. The previous six weeks’ rankings were decided by the coaches until the league had enough data to rank the teams via the computer rankings. Iowa State and Colorado State are the only two teams ranked that are still on Utah’s schedule apart from Jamestown, with Iowa State coming in at #5, and Colorado State at #24. With the Utes being ranked at number 23, the team finds itself just three spots away from the top 20 which would qualify them for Nationals in Columbus come March. For the full rankings, click here Utah hits the road again this weekend for a pair of D1 games against east coast programs Buffalo and Syracuse this Friday and Saturday.