In 2012, the WCHL was created and played its first season in the ACHA in 2013–14 with six founding member teams.
Arizona,
Arizona State,
Central Oklahoma, and
Oklahoma joined the league after competing as ACHA D-1 Independent programs. Those four teams, joined
Colorado and
Colorado State, who made the transition to from ACHA D-2 to ACHA D-1. In the WCHL's first two years of competition, they won back-to-back ACHA D-1 National Championships, which was hosted at the
Comerica Center in
Frisco, Texas, for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. In 2013–14,
Arizona State defeated
Robert Morris for the 2013–14 ACHA D-1 National Championship. And in 2014–15,
Central Oklahoma defeated
Stony Brook for the 2014–15 ACHA D-1 National Championship. During the 2014 season,
Arizona State announced their departure from the WCHL D-1 Club Level and established a formal
NCAA D-1 ice hockey program for the 2015–16 season. This move left the WCHL with five members until the league announced the additions of
Arkansas who created a new ACHA D-1 hockey club after years of success at the ACHA D-3 level, and
Missouri State who moved up from the ACHA D-2 level on January 12, 2015. Not to be confused, Arizona State's NCAA D-1 team is the only
Independent men's hockey team in the country, but ASU also maintains both
ACHA Club Level teams with our WCHL D-1 Sun Devils, and the
PAC-8 D-2 Sun Devils, respectively. In 2017,
Central Oklahoma won their 2nd ACHA D-1 National Championship after defeating
Ohio University. Subsequently, Arkansas left the WCHL after the 2018–19 season, and (currently) no longer has a D-1 hockey club. ==Expansion==