LOVELAND • You can’t put a price on the DU Pioneers’ love for winning hockey championships.

“There’s nothing better than winning … There’s no option to lose,” said junior forward Sam Harris, making his third straight trip to the Frozen Four after Denver crushed National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival Western Michigan 6-2 on Sunday at Blue Arena.

These defiant Pioneers, who dare anyone to beat them, are the biggest little miracle in college sports.

“Our messaging to incoming players and recruits: You’re not coming here because we’ve won, you’re coming because you want to win and add to the tradition,” said DU coach David Carle.

At age 36, Carle is seeking his third national championship in his fifth trip to the Frozen Four.

For those of you keeping score at home, Miracle on Ice legend Herb Brooks made four trips to the Frozen Four as coach of the University of Minnesota. 

In college sports, where everything is now for sale, the Pioneers just might be the last great, old-school dynasty in the era of name, image and likeness.

While we bemoan the death of Cinderella in the NCAA basketball tournament, the most dominant college hockey program in the United States can be found on the University of Denver campus, with a total enrollment of approximately 12,000 students.

DU is a small school with big ambitions. The Pioneers proudly represent the NCHC, which is to hockey what the Southeastern Conference is to football. Hockey just means more in this league, where frozen ponds outnumber crazy-rich donors by a factor of at least 100 times.

“Seven of the last national champions have come from our conference,” Carle said. “It’s hard to argue with the facts of it.”

The Frozen Four is set.

It’s going to be an epic battle of love versus money.

DU and North Dakota will proudly represent the NCHC.

To reach a showdown in the championship game, however, the Pioneers and Fighting Hawks will have to go through Michigan and Wisconsin from the Big Ten, which prints the money shaping the future of college sports.

The Michigan athletic department, blessed with billionaires Stephen Ross and Larry Ellison signing checks, is as big as its football stadium, capable of housing 107,000 paying customers.

On the other hand … DU hasn’t fielded a football team since 1960.

But the beauty of college hockey is that the little guys still have a chance to win it all. The Big Ten hasn’t taken home the trophy from the Frozen Four since Michigan State did it in 2007.

Why are the hockey teams of the NCHC feisty underdogs with so much bite?

“We’re hypercompetitive. That, to me, separates our conference from the other conferences,” said Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler. “There are zero easy wins in the NCHC.”

Ferschweiler proudly insists his Broncos, who won the national championship a year ago, will be the last team in NCAA history to hoist the trophy without a penny of NIL money.

Two significant economic realities keep the ice from being outrageously tilted toward the Pioneers’ rivals from the Power 4 leagues calling the shots in most college sports.

No. 1: Many of the best players on DU’s roster have been drafted by NHL teams, giving them the financial security of knowing there’s a job out there waiting for them.

No. 2: A year ago, the school also opted into the House v. NCAA court settlement, giving Carle access to a healthy slice of multimillion-dollar revenue sharing with athletes.

Before this NCAA tourney began, Carle predicted the champ would be from the league that the Pioneers call home.

After Denver jumped on Western Michigan with four goals on 10 shots in the opening 15 minutes and 13 seconds of the first period, the Pioneers never looked back.

“We made seven mistakes in the first period and four went in our net,” Ferschweiler said.

In another example of how college sports have become a huge entertainment industry, rather than a great way to get an education, the Frozen Four will be staged on the second weekend in April under the bright neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip.

“I spent my 21st birthday there,” DU junior defenseman Cale Ashcroft said. 

The Pioneers are going to Vegas, baby.

Only a fool would bet against them.