NCAA Expanding into Canada
For the first time, a college located outside the United States has been granted NCAA membership. Simon Fraser University, located in Burnaby, British Columbia, will begin a two-year probationary membership in Division II starting in September, and could become a full member by 2012.
(It will be interesting to see if the NCAA's team nickname police go after the new guys. SFU's teams are nicknamed "The Clan." Unfortunate, that.)
Why move to a league based south of the border? Geography. Playing in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference will align SFU with several schools in Washington and Oregon -- a short drive from their suburban Vancouver campus.
Another benefit: the ability to offer full athletic scholarships. Canadian Interuniversity Sport - the Great White North's answer to the NCAA - limits grants to tuition and fees -- room and board are not included.
Will more Canadian schools make a run for the border? SI's Joe Lemire reports the University of British Columbia has considered a similar move. If Simon Fraser has success playing in the NCAA, you can bet other schools will follow.
In the short term, the addition of a couple of Canadian schools to Division II won't have much of an impact. But it's not hard to imagine a scenario where a few of the imports become successful enough to make a jump to Division I. A Canadian school playing at the highest level of college basketball might become a really attractive option for Canada's best talent.
Comments
Just so you know Charlie, this move has been considered for several years now by SFU (who was an NAIA school for decades) and the University of British Columbia. It may interest you to know that if they have success at the NCAA level, the likelihood of it spreading across Canada is extremely low.
The vast majority of schools in Canada are located in Ontario and Quebec, which in turn means they control much of what goes on in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). These schools are dead set AGAINST any Canadian school joining the NCAA, with the primary belief that students should be rewarded on academic prowess alone and that scholarships should not be extended to student-athletes (although several schools circumvent that ideology with very little enforcement of the rules).
The ideal situation for these schools would be to compete in NCAA in major sports (such as basketball, baseball and hockey) but compete in the CIS for the minor sports (volleyball, swimming, track, etc.). It is common for this to happen with NCAA, with basketball being the only div 1 sport at several schools. The CIS however is going to exclude any members that go to NCAA.
Following up the SFU story, they will join NCAA Div 2 in 2010 season. For this year, the CIS ruled that they will not be allowed to compete in the playoffs (this was ruled after they overturned a decision that said they would not be able to compete at all this year).
This decision has put a strain on the Western Canadian schools relationship with the CIS as the CIS, particularly Ontario schools, has very ‘elitist’ views of athletic participation that do not reflect many schools out west. It is no surprise that schools out west have dominated most of the sports at the CIS level, particularly Calgary, Alberta and UBC. These schools not only want to save money cutting travel costs across country, an eventual move to NCAA Div 1 would provide a huge boost in competition for these schools, with these schools in turn bringing outstanding reputations with them as not only tremendous schools for athletics, but for academics as well.
However, with the power centered in Ontario and Quebec in the CIS there would be very little reason for those schools to move towards NCAA competition as their needs are met sufficiently within the CIS. If you are to see movement of Canadian schools to the NCAA, expect it to come from the provinces west of Ontario, which is only about 10 – 12 schools, with maybe 5 an appropriate size for Div 1.