The State of Michigan Again Dominates College Hockey Rankings

This might look familiar" The Great Lakes State is back dominating men's college hockey as the top three teams in this week's polls all hail from what's also known as the "Mitten State."

It's No. 1 Michigan, which is one vote away from being a unanimous choice, Michigan State is back up to No. 2, and reigning national champion Western Michigan has climbed back up to No. 3, although is No. 5 in the National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index that will be used to select teams and seedings for the NCAA Tournament.

Back in Weeks 3 and 4 of this season, with the Oct. 20th and 27th voting, the same three teams were atop the polls, but not in the same order. It went Michigan State, Western Michigan and Michigan for the first week, and then the bottom two teams switched spots a week later before Penn State subsequently moved into the No. 3 spot.

In case you're wondering, three teams from the same state have never finished 1-2-3 in the final polls. There have been plenty of examples of two teams being in the top three, including two years ago with No. 2 Boston College and No. 3 Boston University.

Michigan, which has won five straight despite losing its starting goaltender to an injury, will play three ranked opponents over the next five weekends, and all in the top 10. It has a home-and-home with No. 2 Michigan State on Feb. 6-7, followed by a home series against No. 8 Penn State and a visit to No. 5 Wisconsin.

The Spartans will visit Penn State on Jan. 30-31. All of its other Big Ten series are against unranked teams (Minnesota twice, Notre Dame and Ohio State).

Western Michigan, meanwhile, has won seven straight, include five against ranked opponents. It only faces two ranked teams the rest of the regular season including at No. 7 UMD this weekend. It will close its regular season by hosting a showdown against No. 4 North Dakota.

Made biggest jump: Both Providence, which swept Boston College last weekend, and St. Thomas moved up three spots. The Tommies have moved into first in the CCHA, but Augustana is only one point behind, and Michigan Tech two.

Had biggest fall: Technically it's Princeton, which took a 4-2 loss to Union and 2-1 loss at then-No. 13 Cornell, causing the Tigers to fall out of the Top 20. Dropping three spots were Wisconsin, which got swept by the-No. 4 Michigan State, and Boston College.

Most underrated ranked team per National Collegiate Percentage (NPI) Index: The polls are beginning to reflect the NPI more, but it's still St. Thomas. That's despite moving up a spot to No. 13.

Most overrated ranked team per NPI: This was led by four teams from Hockey East last week. Now it's led by just two Hockey East teams, Maine and Connecticut. The Black Bears are No. 26 in RPI, while the Huskies are No. 19. At least UConn can claim being in first in Hockey East, Maine is in seventh.

USCHO Men's Poll

January 19, 2026

Rank	Team	Record	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Michigan	20-4	998 (49)	1
2	Michigan State	17-5	938	4
3	Western Michigan	16-6	864 (1)	3
4	North Dakota	18-6	812	5
5	Wisconsin	15-5-2	783	2
6	Quinnipiac	18-4-2	724	7
7	Minnesota Duluth	17-7	708	6
8	Penn State	16-6	681	8
9	Denver	13-10-2	575	9
10	Dartmouth	14-4-1	519	10
11	Providence	13-7-2	503	14
12	Cornell	12-5	412	13
13	Connecticut	13-7-3	375	11
14	Augustana	16-6-3	347	15
15	Boston College	11-8-1	296	12
16	St Thomas	14-7-3	321	19
17	Maine	12-9-2	225	16
18	Boston University	12-10-1	223	20
19	Michigan Tech	16-8-2	116	NR
20	Minnesota State	12-8-5	82	17

Others receiving votes: Northeastern 48, St. Cloud State 47, Union 17, Arizona State 13, Miami 13, Massachusetts 12, Bentley 11, Princeton 10, Harvard 8, Colorado College 5, Bemidji State 2, New Hampshire 2, RIT 1

USA Hockey Men's Poll

January 12, 2026

Rank	Team	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Michigan	680 (34)	1
2	Michigan State	639	3
3	Wisconsin	589	4
4	North Dakota	552	5
5	Wisconsin	545	2
6	Minnesota Duluth	506	6
7	Quinnipiac	492	7
8	Penn State	454	8
9	Denver	398	10
10	Dartmouth	360	9
11	Providence	337	14
12	Cornell	299	12
13	Connecticut	261	11
T14	Boston College	219	15
T14	Augustana	219	13
16	St. Thomas	152	T18
17	Maine	134	16
18	Boston University	84	20
19	Michigan Tech	51	NR
20	Minnesota State	49	17

Others Receiving Votes: Northeastern 33; St. Cloud State 30; Harvard 15; Princeton 11; Union 10; Arizona State 8; Massachusetts, 5; Bemidji State 3; Miami 3; RIT 1.

USCHO Women's Poll

January 19, 2026

Rank	Team	Record	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Wisconsin	21-1-2	300 (20)	1
2	Ohio State	21-3	280	2
3	Minnesota	20-4	260	3
4	Penn State	21-4	240	4
5	Connecticut	18-4-2	207	5
6	Quinnipiac	19-5-2	204	6
7	Princeton	17-4	182	9
8	Northeastern	17-6	156	7
9	Minnesota Duluth	12-10-2	133	8
10	Yale	16-7	120	13
11	Clarkson	15-7-3	102	11
12	Cornell	12-7-2	90	10
13	Minnesota State	11-12-1	42	14
14	Holy Cross	16-7-1	26	NR
15	St. Cloud State	8-14-2	24	15

Others receiving votes: Colgate 20, Mercyhurst 13, Brown 1

USA Hockey Women's Poll

January 13, 2026 (Will up updated with new poll Tuesday)

Rank	Team	Points (1st)	Prv.
1	Wisconsin	285 (19)	1
2	Ohio State	266	2
3	Minnesota	247	3
4	Penn State	219	4
5	Connecticut	213	5
6	Quinnipiac	175	7
7	Northeastern	169	6
8	Minnesota Duluth	156	8
9	Princeton	149	9
10	Cornell	105	10
11	Yale	75	13
12	Clarkson	69	11
13	Minnesota State	65	12
14	Colgate	47	15
15	St. Cloud State	1312	14

Others receiving votes: Holy Cross 11; Mercyhurst 8; St. Thomas 6; Brown 2.