It was very nice to see the Collegian's board of opinion devote an editorial to congratulating the ACHA Division I PSU Icers on their third-straight national championship. Any true hockey fan, however, must surely have mixed emotions about this third straight championship.

Mixed emotions about a three-peat? Well, yes, when the three-peat is in a league in which you can't find schools named New Hampshire, Minnesota or Michigan State. Instead, you find schools named Kent State, Eastern Michigan and Minot State. Far be it from me to say these teams are not worthy opponents.

As an undergraduate I attended many Icers games, both at home and on the road, and I saw some great hockey. But I didn't see the best college teams in America on Penn State's schedule. And that in some way tarnishes their accomplishments. I realize there are reasons why Penn State isn't in the NCAA. The Greenberg Ice Pavilion is about 1,000 seats short of the 2,500 seats mandated by NCAA rink requirements. Furthermore, NCAA bylaws and congressional legislation related to the always-controversial Title IX make it difficult to add new teams. But these hurdles can be cleared. The Icers have played a handful of NCAA Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3 teams in recent years, and they've held their own, but it might be a stretch to say they would be able to succeed against the upper echelon of the NCAA.

The only way to be the best, however, is to play the best, and in the ACHA, Penn State will always just be "the best of the rest." I hope that the team's recent success gives the team more much-deserved attention from both fans and the university. With any luck, that attention can some day lead to a team which competes in the NCAA for "all the marbles."