Interesting Perspective: Canada and the NCAA

Here is an interesting perspective on the CIS schools joining the NCAA. Sounds like not all involved think it will be a great idea nor will their schools see or make a lot of the big dollars that some of the big schools in the major college sports are enjoying. DUH! I also don't think it is going to be all doom and gloom like some are suggesting. Sure there will be more competition for the top Canadian athletes but I also think top hockey schools like Michigan, Minnesota, UND, Wisconsin, Michigan State are still going to get the pick of the top recruits. So what if they have to work a little harder. Somethings in life are worth the extra effort.

Newbould said a school such as the University of British Columbia, which has spearheaded the push to join the NCAA, would dwarf every Division II college in terms of enrolment, but that wouldn't necessarily guarantee success. “The competition is really good,” he said. “Any Canadian school coming to the States is going to have to work hard.”

The biggest difference, he said, would come in how scholarships are awarded. While NCAA scholarships allow for compensation for room and board in addition to tuition and fees, they are limited in number by sport-specific caps. And aside from marquee Division I sports such as football and basketball, teams are under tight financial constraints.

In Division II, for instance, scholarships are limited to the equivalent of 36 a team in football and 13.5 in men's ice hockey. In some sports, such as men's volleyball, where only 4.5 scholarships are available for each team, many CIS programs would have more athletes receiving scholarships than Division I NCAA programs.

UBC athletic director Bob Philip has said a big motivation for joining the NCAA would be to keep more athletes in Canada. An estimated 1,500 Canadians are competing at U.S. colleges.
But competing in Division II would not necessarily help ease that drain, Newbould said.

“The kids are not getting a free ride coming down from Canada in Division II, and very few in Division I do,” he said. “It sounds more glorious than it is in that sense.

“A baseball player's only going to get one-third of a scholarship. Basketball and football in Division I, sure, that's the big time. TV, full rides, everything – but even the other Division I sports, it's not that way. A lot of students that are going to school on an athletic scholarship, they're still paying a portion of their education.”

Even if UBC opts to join Division I after a few years, as the pilot program would allow, Newbould said there's no guarantee a Canadian school could woo a top athlete away from the U.S. juggernauts. UBC's current athletic budget is small, even by the standards of top-spending Canadian universities, and would be minuscule compared with the big machines fielding top Division I teams.