CollegeSportsInfo.com News: NCAA Considering Adding Canadian Schools

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

NCAA Considering Adding Canadian Schools

After licensing a new football bowl game in Toronto last month, the NCAA will study the possibility of allowing schools from outside the United States to become members.

Canada's University of British Columbia and St. Clair College have expressed interest in joining the association. The NCAA's highest policy-making group, the executive committee, asked for recommendations on the issue to be delivered in October.

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams stressed there is still much to learn, including how Canadian laws might affect NCAA rules, and that the executive committee only authorized the working group two weeks ago. Even with new member schools from the United States, he noted, "it's not an overnight process."

UBC athletic director Bob Phillip, who traveled to Indianapolis last year to meet with NCAA officials, said Canadian television markets might be part of the attraction to the NCAA.

As for UBC, which has 40,000 students, Phillip said "the attraction for us is basketball and hockey in Division I." But he mentioned another motivation, one that has been a contentious issue for years in Canadian college sports -- what schools may give athletes.

Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), the country's version of the NCAA, allows schools to pay only for athletes' tuition. Although the NCAA doesn't offer scholarships in Division III, the other two divisions can provide room, board and books as well as tuition. That has resulted in what one Canadian newspaper called a "brawn drain" of athletes leaving the country for scholarships in the U.S.

"Our position is that our school should offer the same opportunity to Canadian students," Phillip said. "Others feel that if you raise money for athletic scholarships, it'll drain other areas where schools generate revenue."

There are more than 1,000 schools in the NCAA. The CIS has 50.

posted by Matt Peloquin # 5/31/2006

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