UBC to the NCAA?

Actually I have put a great deal of thought into idea and I think that UBC would be a good addition to NCAA Division one Hockey. Why not? I have heard people say that it would cause more competition for recruiting for teams like DU, UND, UMD and Wisconsin. Yeah so what! If anything it would affect teams that recruit more heavily in the BCHL.

Seriously, all these fore mentioned teams have or will have nice facilities and have storied programs that speak for themselves. For my team, I don’t think it would affect UND all that much since the Sioux have a 110 million dollar arena, a storied history and program, seven NCAA titles and a top notch coaching staff. Recently, UND has gotten a majority of their Canadian recruits from the AJHL recently so I am not so sure it would affect our team anyways. I am open to the idea. The more the merrier. Hockey is eventually going to need a regional re-alignment we need more teams in the west.

BC MAY APPLY TO NCAA

Simon Fraser of Burnaby, British Columbia was accepted into the NCAA earlier this year, It will compete at the Division II level starting in 2011. Simon Fraser will be the first Canadian college in the NCAA.

The University of British Columbia is exploring the possibility of applying, too. "It's up to our athletic administration to apply," Dragicevic said. "And they want to make sure that everything is in order to apply either this summer or next summer.

"You might see it happen. We have a brand new facility of 6,000 people. They want to pack that place. They want to bring NCAA to UBC for a couple of years and they are just waiting for the right opportunity."

Dragicevic said there has been some interest from conferences who want UBC as a member.

"In one end, it is an exciting time for UBC because of the new facility and potentially having the NCAA down the road," he said,

The Doug Mitchell Sports Center actually seats 5,700. It will be used for women's hockey in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. "It is a world class facility," Dragicevic said. "You will probably hear more news about this in the upcoming months."
UBC has 40,000 students and is a strong academic school.

One thing that would make it difficult for UBC to go Division one hockey would be: the moratorium on "playing-up". UBC would have to play Division II first and currently there are no Divison II hockey teams. It would take at least 5-10 years before there would be any benefit to moving to the NCAA.

Prospective Division I members would be required to spend at least five years as active members of Division II before beginning the five-year reclassification process under a set of recommendations being considered by the Division I Leadership Council The Council also is considering an application fee model, though the exact amount, parameters and eventual uses for the fee have yet to be determined.

The recommendations discussed at the Council’s October 6 meeting in Indianapolis are expected to be part of a full report sent to the Division I Board of Directors after the Council’s January meeting and distributed to the membership for feedback. The proposals are the result of the Council’s year-long study of membership standards. The Board, which declared a membership moratorium in August 2007, directed the Leadership Council to develop standards that will balance the desire to allow access to the division with a need to provide full services and consistent competitive opportunities to its members.

The recommendation that schools spend five years as active Division II members before beginning the reclassification process arose out of comments from Division II, though preliminary recommendations from the Council also would have required that institutions be a member of Division II before applying for Division I membership. No time limits were suggested, though, in the original proposal.