One CIS Team inches closer to the NCAA

The UBC takes ‘first step’ towards joining U.S. collegiate sports giant

BORIS KORBY, THE UBYSSEY (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA)

VANCOUVER (CUP) — The University of British Columbia might be on its way to joining the NCAA, the largest and most financially lucrative collegiate sports organization in the world.

NCAA president Myles Brand, following approval by the executive committee, introduced a 10-year pilot program that will allow international schools to seek membership with the American sports giant.

“This is not a massive change, but conceptually it’s an interesting change,” said Brand, adding that the decision would likely only affect three schools.

“I would characterize this latest step as the first of many in the process to open the door for international membership,” said NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn, adding that “the interest is definitely there” to see a Canadian school in the NCAA by the end of the 10-year program, or sooner.

“It’s our hope that when we get to the end of the 10 years we will have two [to] three [international] schools that are active NCAA members,” Osburn said. “The 10-year window also allows time for not only having new membership, but hopefully they’ll have been members long enough to evaluate the process and recommend any changes that need to be made.” So far UBC and St. Claire’s College in Ontario have been the only institutions to explicitly express interest.

While the NCAA did not mention UBC specifically, Bob Philip, the university’s director of athletics and recreation, has no doubt the decision was made as a result of the interest UBC has expressed in joining the NCAA.

“The decision was certainly initiated by our interaction with them,” Philip said.

According to Philip, the next step towards submitting an official application will be to evaluate the conditions attached to foreign university acceptance, followed by a campus-wide university engagement that will evaluate what is needed — both from UBC and the community at large — to compete successfully against American programs.

“We want to make sure everybody is comfortable with [switching to the NCAA],” Philip said. “We are not now coming back and saying we want the students to pay twice as many fees or we want to get a whole bunch of students [into UBC] who aren’t qualified.”

“To be successful down there we’d have to be able to attract the top Canadian athletes . . . and there are people that have expressed an interest — if we competed at the NCAA level — in generating a lot of support for scholarships.”

While the NCAA’s three divisions would still need to change their legislation before a Canadian university could join, Osburn said this should not be seen as an obstacle to UBC’s eventual application.

“The emphasis is more on making sure it’s done right and well so it’s an easy transition for any schools that decide to participate in the pilot program,” she said.

The university expects to be in contact with the NCAA in the upcoming week regarding the specific intent of the announcement, and to clarify a few remaining details. However, the department of athletics considers the announcement the ideal outcome to a courtship process they have been engaged in for more than 20 months.

“We do need to hear from the NCAA what the conditions would be [for entrance] . . . but obviously the door has now been opened for us,” Philip said.

“We’re happy that the doors have been opened, now once we hear what that means we’ll have that debate and see where we go.”