Peter Mills
The Carillon (University of Regina)

REGINA (CUP) – Earlier this year the NCAA approved a 10-year pilot program to allow international universities to join their Division II. The overwhelming majority of Canadian universities showed no interest in joining the NCAA, but this past summer, Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby, B.C. became the first institution outside of the United States to be accepted to the NCAA.
SFU’s decision to join the NCAA didn’t come as a surprise considering their decades-long history in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). SFU currently has 19 teams competing in the NAIA and CIS.
Initially SFU was to play two more seasons in Canada West – one of four conferences in the CIS – before joining the NCAA for the 2011-12 season. However, after being put on probation by the Canada West in September, SFU worried that the Canada West was going to kick them out following the 2009-10 campaign.
SFU athletic director Dr. David Murphy told the Vancouver Sun that he didn’t believe his university had “done anything to warrant being placed on probation.”
University of Regina athletic director Dick White disagreed, while explaining the implications of the probation decision.
“We felt it entirely inappropriate for SFU to have any impact on the future of Canada West,” said White. “Fundamentally (probation) doesn’t allow any of their people to hold an office in Canada West, and it doesn’t allow them any vote at our AGM. It still allows their teams to participate fully, win championships, be all stars.”
In order to ensure their athletes have a league to play in next season, SFU reached out to the NCAA and were granted entry a year early. White, who was the president of the CIS from 2005 to 2009, said that if SFU does in fact join the NCAA Division II next season, Canada West “could resolve what was really going to be a sticky issue.” However, he also said that SFU “haven’t officially withdrawn from us … they haven’t communicated formally with us at all.”
From the very beginning, SFU acted without consultation with Canada West, making things difficult. White said, “They probably don’t feel they really need to. All along we would have preferred … to have the opportunity to work back and forth with how the transition looked like, what’s our public strategy going to be. We would have preferred that but it hasn’t gone that way for whatever reason. It’s unfortunate.”
SFU has constantly praised the NCAA for its world-class level of competition. White said, however, that NCAA Division II is not as prestigious as Division I, and that “Division II and III are not that different, from what I hear … from CIS.”
He also said that “there are CIS schools that beat Division I schools.”
Additionally, he acknowledged that the NCAA “have a few enhanced scholarship opportunities and those kind of things.”
Despite Murphy’s explanation to the Vancouver Sun that SFU’s experience in the CIS was “wonderful”, White said their constant public praise of the “superior” NCAA has brought unnecessary negativity toward the CIS.
“My preference, and I think members of the conference agree … if (the NCAA) is where you want to be, that’s your universities’ autonomous privilege, but then get out of our league. We’re not here just to be your whipping boy, to be here for your convenience … don’t be negative about our league, because we think the CIS does many good things.”
In the wake of such negative attention, many have argued that SFU’s departure has hurt the image of the CIS. White said that SFU would “not horribly” hurt its image, but “if UBC were to go, (it) would be more hurtful than SFU. I say that only because SFU had a long history in the U.S.”
“We weren’t overly shocked by their decision to go back … we can manage this one just fine.”
When asked whether he thought any other universities might follow suit White responded firmly, “No I don’t.”
So what lies ahead for Canada West?
“Hopefully this is coming to some sort of an end in the next little while and (Canada West) can get on with our business,” said White. “We’ve got to make next year’s schedule (and) we can’t do that until we know who’s in and who’s out. We need to look at our league and our competitive structure … There’s more important things to do than worry about (SFU), but this is in the way of us moving forward.”