There's an interesting piece from Ian Hamilton in the Regina Leader-Post today. Hamilton talks to Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal and comes away with a couple of valuable notes. First, he addresses the new Canada West schedule. In the wake of SFU's departure, the conference is down to six teams, which could provide an opportunity to balance the schedule for everyone. That's something McCrystal would like to see.
"We put all this time and money and effort into the football program, so let's play more games," he told Hamilton. "We should be playing 10 games. We should be playing everybody twice."
This might be worth looking at. Currently, the conference plays eight regular-season games, and that hasn't changed thanks to SFU's departure. At the moment, the Rams get Saskatchewan, Calgary and Manitoba twice each, face UBC on the road and host Alberta. I'm not sure if that's "easily the toughest schedule in the CIS" as McCrystal calls it, but it is reasonably difficult; Saskatchewan and Calgary should both be strong, and a road game against UBC isn't easy thanks to the travel involved. Meanwhile, for example, UBC only plays Calgary once and Manitoba faces Saskatchewan once.
That's not saying the schedule is especially unfair; from this viewpoint, it looks like the schedulemakers did a pretty good job given the constraints of each team playing eight games in a six-team league. It's just that a eight-game schedule with five opponents is obviously going to give some teams an easier path. In a league where it looks like the competition for the third and fourth playoff spots might be particularly tough, that could make a difference.
The question is if a solution can be found, though. Eliminating the conference bye weekend (Oct 8-10) and scheduling a game there would provide one of the two extra games, but that would also kill the Shrum Bowl, which would be unfortunate. Even if the conference went that way, however, they'd still have to find a spot for an extra game. The playoffs are scheduled to start on November 6, and that can't be bumped any later without altering the entire CIS playoff schedule.
At the other end, the Canada West season is set to start September 3, which is alreay one of the earliest starts nationally. Last year, Canada West did play one regular-season game on August 29 (UBC-SFU) before starting up fully on September 4, so adding the last game on the last weekend in August might not be completely out of the question. Keep in mind that few students are around then, though, which would hurt attendance and game atmosphere. That weekend also traditionally sees out-of-conference exhibition games, which I would argue can help teams across CIS sports by exposing them to high levels of competition and different styles of play. If Canada West wanted to play 10 games but still keep those exhibitions going, they'd have to be bumped up to the second-to-last week in August, and that might be a difficult sell for university officials (more required of student-athletes, summer practices would probably have to start even earlier) and out-of-conference coaches (an exhibition game two weeks before your season starts might not be as helpful as the current practice of having one the week before, and it might also force you to start your own practices earlier).
On that note, the piece also mentions that "the Rams have been in touch with the Queen's Golden Gaels about a possible pre-season game." This would be interesting to see, as Queen's hasn't played a Canada West team in preseason competition in a while (they faced McGill in 2008 and U of T in 2009). However, the reigning Vanier Cup champions might be looking for a little more in an opponent than a Regina team that went 3-5 in the regular season last year and got knocked out in the first round of the Canada West playoffs. We'll see what happens there. On the schedule front, though, it would be nice to see balance, but it doesn't seem likely to happen without a radical consensus from Canada West coaches and administrators and possibly national changes as well.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Showing posts with label Canada West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada West. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
TWU downs Laval in a thriller
That has to be one of the most exciting volleyball games I've ever seen. Both teams came out slugging early, but Laval looked to have the upper hand when they won a close third set 25-23 to take a 2-1 lead. Trinity Western refused to quit, though, winning the last two sets to advance to the final. The final set, which ended 20-18 in favour of the Spartans, could have gone either way, but in the end, they did enough to hang on.
Steven Marshall had a tremendous night for the Spartans, finishing with 25 kills. He said the whole team took their game to a new level.
"It was amazing," he said. "It was the best game we’ve had this season. I think we played as a team, as a whole. We helped each other all game."
Trinity Western demonstrated a great deal of depth; Marshall and Rudy Verhoeff (11 kills, 10 blocks) were both huge in the Spartans' comeback, with other players like Marc Howatson (16 kills) and Josh Doornenbal (9 kills) coming up big when called upon. By contrast, Laval relied mostly on the efforts of star hitter Frederic Desbiens (22 kills), with some support from Karl De Grandpre (14 kills); both had solid games, but the rest of the team didn't contribute too terribly much, which may have caused some fatigue down the stretch. Marshall said depth has been a strength for Trinity Western all season.
"We’ve always had tons of guys coming in and helping out," he said. "It’s made a huge difference all season."
I'd imagine the Spartans' experience playing tough teams all year also helped with their resurgence. Marshall said they've played a lot of close games all year, which gave them confidence after they fell behind two sets to one.
"We always felt we were going to get it," he said. "We knew this was going five from the beginning"
Interestingly, this sets up yet another final between Canada West teams. Before last year, when Laval finished second, Canada West had swept the medals seven straight years. The conference has also won 37 of the 43 national championships, and the last 15 straight titles; that streak is safe with Trinity's victory.
As I suggested this afternoon, I don't think it's necessarily an inherent talent advantage that makes western teams so dominant these days; that used to be a larger part of it, but the increased numbers of athletic entrance scholarships in other provinces and the increased role of national recruiting have helped to diminish that.
The little advantages remain, though. Trinity plays in an incredibly competitive conference, where they went 11-7 in the regular season this year. Seven of the teams in the final Top 10, including Trinity, were from the West; they face six of those teams in league play, which has to help sharpen their edge. By contrast, Laval was ranked #1 in that top 10, but they were the lone Quebec entrant; their best league competition was probably the Montreal Carabins, who lost in three sets to Laval in their first match at nationals and in four sets to Queen's in their second match. The rest of the Quebec league was even further behind. That doesn't take anything away from Laval; they certainly proved that they deserved to be at nationals and probably deserved the #1 ranking they received heading in. It does perhaps go towards explaining how an 11-7 Canada West team can upset a dominant Quebec team; those little edges you pick up from facing top competition all year can make a significant difference.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Steven Marshall had a tremendous night for the Spartans, finishing with 25 kills. He said the whole team took their game to a new level.
"It was amazing," he said. "It was the best game we’ve had this season. I think we played as a team, as a whole. We helped each other all game."
Trinity Western demonstrated a great deal of depth; Marshall and Rudy Verhoeff (11 kills, 10 blocks) were both huge in the Spartans' comeback, with other players like Marc Howatson (16 kills) and Josh Doornenbal (9 kills) coming up big when called upon. By contrast, Laval relied mostly on the efforts of star hitter Frederic Desbiens (22 kills), with some support from Karl De Grandpre (14 kills); both had solid games, but the rest of the team didn't contribute too terribly much, which may have caused some fatigue down the stretch. Marshall said depth has been a strength for Trinity Western all season.
"We’ve always had tons of guys coming in and helping out," he said. "It’s made a huge difference all season."
I'd imagine the Spartans' experience playing tough teams all year also helped with their resurgence. Marshall said they've played a lot of close games all year, which gave them confidence after they fell behind two sets to one.
"We always felt we were going to get it," he said. "We knew this was going five from the beginning"
Interestingly, this sets up yet another final between Canada West teams. Before last year, when Laval finished second, Canada West had swept the medals seven straight years. The conference has also won 37 of the 43 national championships, and the last 15 straight titles; that streak is safe with Trinity's victory.
As I suggested this afternoon, I don't think it's necessarily an inherent talent advantage that makes western teams so dominant these days; that used to be a larger part of it, but the increased numbers of athletic entrance scholarships in other provinces and the increased role of national recruiting have helped to diminish that.
The little advantages remain, though. Trinity plays in an incredibly competitive conference, where they went 11-7 in the regular season this year. Seven of the teams in the final Top 10, including Trinity, were from the West; they face six of those teams in league play, which has to help sharpen their edge. By contrast, Laval was ranked #1 in that top 10, but they were the lone Quebec entrant; their best league competition was probably the Montreal Carabins, who lost in three sets to Laval in their first match at nationals and in four sets to Queen's in their second match. The rest of the Quebec league was even further behind. That doesn't take anything away from Laval; they certainly proved that they deserved to be at nationals and probably deserved the #1 ranking they received heading in. It does perhaps go towards explaining how an 11-7 Canada West team can upset a dominant Quebec team; those little edges you pick up from facing top competition all year can make a significant difference.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Conferences, small edges and Canada West
Earlier this week, I wrote a long piece about how the increased availability of athletic entrance scholarships and the increased focus on national recruiting has started to help schools outside of Canada West start to catch up in sports traditionally dominated by western teams. Canada West does still have some edges in scholarships, infrastructure and coaches, but I think the gap is beginning to close a bit.
However, you wouldn't know it from this weekend's CIS volleyball national championships. As I wrote in a feature for the Queen's Journal back in 2008, men's volleyball has been solidly dominated by Canada West since its inception, with the conference claiming the last 15 straight national titles and 37 of the 43 championships that have been held. That pattern hasn't shown any signs of changing so far; there are four Canada West teams here, making up half the field; No. 2 Alberta, No. 4 Trinity Western, No. 6 Calgary and No. 7 Thompson Rivers. Three of the four won their opening games; the only one to lose was Thompson Rivers, who played against Alberta, and they bounced back with a three-set thumping of Dalhousie this afternoon.
The Queen's - Trinity Western game was supposed to be close; that's what you'd expect from a four-versus-five game. It wasn't, though; the Gaels had their moments, but the Spartans won in straight sets. When I spoke to Queen's players and coaches after the game for my recap piece for the Journal, I got some very interesting comments. Consider this one from libero Alex Oneid, who said Trinity Western's speed was one of the main things that threw the Gaels off.
"Their rate of play was pretty similar to ours," Oneid said. "This year, even some of the better teams in the OUA had a slower pace. We came here and we basically saw us, with a little more game experience."
Head coach Brenda Willis offered some thoughts along the same theme.
“I’m not sure things went wrong so much as they went right for Trinity Western," she said. "The tempo of thie offence is something we don’t face in Ontario. We also don’t face that level of serving very much, and I don’t think we passed well enough to run the offence we’re capable of running. They face other teams at that tempo, at that level of serving all the time and we don’t."
Willis said the difference between the teams wasn't so much physical talent as experience against good competition.
"Physically, we matched up very well," she said. "I don’t think we’re too small or too slow. We need to be a little more skilled perhaps and a little more in sync."
Willis said the nationals are a learning experience for the Gaels, with a chance to play some high-calibre teams. She said they have the physical talent to compete with western teams, but they need to work on the small elements of the game against elite competition if they're going to become more precise.
"The biggest thing for us is to go through this tournament learning and getting better so we can go home and realize there’s no big gap, it’s just about getting better in all the areas; faster offence, a little more aggressive defence," she said. "It’s just the little things."
I talked about the importance of regular-season competition a bit in my piece on Dalhousie last night, but I thinks it deserves some more coverage. Queen's doesn't have Dalhousie's problem of not facing high-level teams all year during the regular season, as there are some very good teams in Ontario, including McMaster, Western and Guelph. However, for every match against those teams, they have one against weaker teams like RMC (0-20 this year) or York (4-16). It's tough to learn much from those games, and it's easy to pick up bad habits in them.
Canada West has its own stragglers, like Regina (0-18 this year) and UBC (4-14), but those programs have been good at times, and they're far more the exception than the rule. It's pretty close at the top of Canada West; Thompson Rivers finished sixth during the regular season with a 10-8 mark, but they've done very well at the nationals so far. By contrast, Ontario features less elite teams and many more middling teams. Moreover, the other top-level Ontario teams all have the same problem of playing down to their competition, not being refined by it, so they're not as elite as they might be if they played in a tougher league. This suggests that in CIS sports, it might not be enough just to build your own program into a powerhouse if your league remains at a lower level.
In some ways, this difference might particularly show up in volleyball, where there are so many little changes in serving, passing and attacking styles that can make a big difference. If you're not exposed to the different styles of top teams throughout the season, it's much more difficult to quickly figure out a way to counter them at nationals. There are exhibition tournaments and such that can help with this, and the good programs do make an effort to expose their players to as much competition as possible, but that doesn't make up for a regular season of night-in and night-out battles.
There will be an interesting test of this idea in the 6 p.m. (Pacific) game tonight, with top-ranked Laval taking on No. 4 Trinity Western. Laval is an excellent team and a very physically skilled one. They've also had success at the national level; they finished second in last year's championships, breaking Canada West's streak of seven straight medal sweeps. However, they play in a much weaker league than the Spartans, who were tested night in and night out. Laval will be favoured, and there's a good chance they'll win, but if Trinity does pull off the upset, I'd venture that the strength of their schedule might be part of the reason why.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
However, you wouldn't know it from this weekend's CIS volleyball national championships. As I wrote in a feature for the Queen's Journal back in 2008, men's volleyball has been solidly dominated by Canada West since its inception, with the conference claiming the last 15 straight national titles and 37 of the 43 championships that have been held. That pattern hasn't shown any signs of changing so far; there are four Canada West teams here, making up half the field; No. 2 Alberta, No. 4 Trinity Western, No. 6 Calgary and No. 7 Thompson Rivers. Three of the four won their opening games; the only one to lose was Thompson Rivers, who played against Alberta, and they bounced back with a three-set thumping of Dalhousie this afternoon.
The Queen's - Trinity Western game was supposed to be close; that's what you'd expect from a four-versus-five game. It wasn't, though; the Gaels had their moments, but the Spartans won in straight sets. When I spoke to Queen's players and coaches after the game for my recap piece for the Journal, I got some very interesting comments. Consider this one from libero Alex Oneid, who said Trinity Western's speed was one of the main things that threw the Gaels off.
"Their rate of play was pretty similar to ours," Oneid said. "This year, even some of the better teams in the OUA had a slower pace. We came here and we basically saw us, with a little more game experience."
Head coach Brenda Willis offered some thoughts along the same theme.
“I’m not sure things went wrong so much as they went right for Trinity Western," she said. "The tempo of thie offence is something we don’t face in Ontario. We also don’t face that level of serving very much, and I don’t think we passed well enough to run the offence we’re capable of running. They face other teams at that tempo, at that level of serving all the time and we don’t."
Willis said the difference between the teams wasn't so much physical talent as experience against good competition.
"Physically, we matched up very well," she said. "I don’t think we’re too small or too slow. We need to be a little more skilled perhaps and a little more in sync."
Willis said the nationals are a learning experience for the Gaels, with a chance to play some high-calibre teams. She said they have the physical talent to compete with western teams, but they need to work on the small elements of the game against elite competition if they're going to become more precise.
"The biggest thing for us is to go through this tournament learning and getting better so we can go home and realize there’s no big gap, it’s just about getting better in all the areas; faster offence, a little more aggressive defence," she said. "It’s just the little things."
I talked about the importance of regular-season competition a bit in my piece on Dalhousie last night, but I thinks it deserves some more coverage. Queen's doesn't have Dalhousie's problem of not facing high-level teams all year during the regular season, as there are some very good teams in Ontario, including McMaster, Western and Guelph. However, for every match against those teams, they have one against weaker teams like RMC (0-20 this year) or York (4-16). It's tough to learn much from those games, and it's easy to pick up bad habits in them.
Canada West has its own stragglers, like Regina (0-18 this year) and UBC (4-14), but those programs have been good at times, and they're far more the exception than the rule. It's pretty close at the top of Canada West; Thompson Rivers finished sixth during the regular season with a 10-8 mark, but they've done very well at the nationals so far. By contrast, Ontario features less elite teams and many more middling teams. Moreover, the other top-level Ontario teams all have the same problem of playing down to their competition, not being refined by it, so they're not as elite as they might be if they played in a tougher league. This suggests that in CIS sports, it might not be enough just to build your own program into a powerhouse if your league remains at a lower level.
In some ways, this difference might particularly show up in volleyball, where there are so many little changes in serving, passing and attacking styles that can make a big difference. If you're not exposed to the different styles of top teams throughout the season, it's much more difficult to quickly figure out a way to counter them at nationals. There are exhibition tournaments and such that can help with this, and the good programs do make an effort to expose their players to as much competition as possible, but that doesn't make up for a regular season of night-in and night-out battles.
There will be an interesting test of this idea in the 6 p.m. (Pacific) game tonight, with top-ranked Laval taking on No. 4 Trinity Western. Laval is an excellent team and a very physically skilled one. They've also had success at the national level; they finished second in last year's championships, breaking Canada West's streak of seven straight medal sweeps. However, they play in a much weaker league than the Spartans, who were tested night in and night out. Laval will be favoured, and there's a good chance they'll win, but if Trinity does pull off the upset, I'd venture that the strength of their schedule might be part of the reason why.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Saturday, February 13, 2010
CIS: The end of a streak
Maybe the SFU Clan had the Olympics on their mind this afternoon, as they fell 63-61 [Mike Tucker, UVic Sports Information] on the road to the sixth-ranked University of Victoria Vikes in their final league game. It would be all too easy to see the Vikes' upset of the top-ranked Clan as some sort of game-changing moment for CIS women's basketball, but there's more to it than that. The Clan had won 49 straight games, or 54 if you count the playoffs, so it's certainly noteworthy that someone finally found a way to beat them. In truth, though, this probably just shows that Canada West is about more than just SFU.
As the most recent Top 10 rankings show, the conference is absolutely stacked in women's basketball. They have No.1 SFU, No.2 Regina, No.4 Saskatchewan, No.6 Victoria, No.8 Alberta and No.10 UBC, six out of the ten slots. Back in 2008, I wrote a piece for the Queen's Journal about the West's dominance in men's volleyball. What I wasn't able to include for space reasons is that they've been just as dominant in women's basketball, and for similar reasons (earlier introduction of athletic scholarships and earlier investment in facilities).
Canada West teams have won the last 18 national championships since Laurentian's back-to-back wins in 1990 and 1991. In fact, since the first national championship in 1972, there have only been nine championships won by non-Canada West teams, seven by Laurentian and two by Bishop's. It's not like it's been one absolutely dominant team, either; starting with the 2000 championship, Regina has one title, Victoria has two, UBC has three and SFU has four. That shows there's a long tradition of outstanding basketball in the conference, and it means it's not that surprising that someone finally knocked the Clan off.
The win also shows the progress the Vikes have been making, and suggests they'll be a tough team to face in postseason play. Kayla Dysktra had a huge game for UVic, scoring 18 points and adding 13 boards, while Debbie Yeboah dumped in 21 points, including 15 in the second half and the final buzzer-beater. The Vikes didn't get discouraged after being held to four points in the second quarter, which suggests they're a resilient bunch. They'll have their hands full against No. 4 Saskatchewan in the playoffs, but counting them out wouldn't be a wise move.
Don't go writing off SFU just yet, though. They lost to the No.6 team, on the road, in a game that was meaningless for their playoff position, on an improbable buzzer-beater. That's quite a collection of circumstances, and it's one that may not be repeatable. Moreover, their streak is made even more impressive by the quality opposition it's come against. The Clan have been incredibly dominant for the past two years; I watched them lay a smackdown on a very good UBC team just two weeks ago, and a single loss doesn't mean that incredible team has disappeared. Moreover, they'll be still looking to exit CIS competition with a bang. Sure, they're no longer invincible, but that doesn't make them any less of a juggernaut.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
As the most recent Top 10 rankings show, the conference is absolutely stacked in women's basketball. They have No.1 SFU, No.2 Regina, No.4 Saskatchewan, No.6 Victoria, No.8 Alberta and No.10 UBC, six out of the ten slots. Back in 2008, I wrote a piece for the Queen's Journal about the West's dominance in men's volleyball. What I wasn't able to include for space reasons is that they've been just as dominant in women's basketball, and for similar reasons (earlier introduction of athletic scholarships and earlier investment in facilities).
Canada West teams have won the last 18 national championships since Laurentian's back-to-back wins in 1990 and 1991. In fact, since the first national championship in 1972, there have only been nine championships won by non-Canada West teams, seven by Laurentian and two by Bishop's. It's not like it's been one absolutely dominant team, either; starting with the 2000 championship, Regina has one title, Victoria has two, UBC has three and SFU has four. That shows there's a long tradition of outstanding basketball in the conference, and it means it's not that surprising that someone finally knocked the Clan off.
The win also shows the progress the Vikes have been making, and suggests they'll be a tough team to face in postseason play. Kayla Dysktra had a huge game for UVic, scoring 18 points and adding 13 boards, while Debbie Yeboah dumped in 21 points, including 15 in the second half and the final buzzer-beater. The Vikes didn't get discouraged after being held to four points in the second quarter, which suggests they're a resilient bunch. They'll have their hands full against No. 4 Saskatchewan in the playoffs, but counting them out wouldn't be a wise move.
Don't go writing off SFU just yet, though. They lost to the No.6 team, on the road, in a game that was meaningless for their playoff position, on an improbable buzzer-beater. That's quite a collection of circumstances, and it's one that may not be repeatable. Moreover, their streak is made even more impressive by the quality opposition it's come against. The Clan have been incredibly dominant for the past two years; I watched them lay a smackdown on a very good UBC team just two weeks ago, and a single loss doesn't mean that incredible team has disappeared. Moreover, they'll be still looking to exit CIS competition with a bang. Sure, they're no longer invincible, but that doesn't make them any less of a juggernaut.
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Friday, September 18, 2009
What does SFU probation mean?
A very interesting story came out yesterday that hasn't received a ton of coverage to date. Vancouver radio station CKNW reported that Simon Fraser University's athletic program has been placed on probation by Canada West for the 2009-10 season. Unlike NCAA probation, this move won't affect SFU teams and their quest for regional and national titles. However, it does remove SFU's vote on conference decisions. More importantly, it leaves them in limbo for next season (2010-11), the year before they're scheduled to join the NCAA's Division II (for the 2012 year).
Sandy Slavin, the president of Canada West and the director of athletics at the University of Lethbridge, told CKNW the decision was made thanks to SFU's plan to join the NCAA.
"We don't believe they have a vested interest in our business any more and they shouldn't be voting," she said.
She said they decided to avoid measures that would penalize SFU's teams this year, though.
"At this point, doing anything that would affect Simon Fraser's ability to fully compete in '09-10, we felt was very unfair to the student athletes," she said.
This seems pretty logical. SFU doesn't seem to have a vested interest in the future of Canada West beyond the 2010-11 season. When the original decision to join the NCAA was made, there was some speculation about splitting SFU's teams between the NCAA and CIS (as they currently do with CIS and the NAIA), but that seems to have withered; CKNW's piece says "Beginning with the 2011-12 season, all of the SFU varsity teams will compete in the NCAA's Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference." Thus, if they're not going to have teams in CIS competition beyond 2011, it would seem to make sense to exclude them from voting on CIS decisions. It also appears logical to avoid competitive sanctions for this year; teams are already in action, athletes have chosen their schools and schedules have been set. Taking away SFU's ability to compete would have appeared a merely vindictive move, and one that would have hurt CIS.
Nothing's been decided on the eligibility of SFU's teams for next season, though, and that could be a very interesting debate. Would Canada West be willing to boot a prominent university like SFU from competition? If Canada West decides to kick them out, would they be able to join the NCAA early? What would happen to their teams and athletes? There are plenty of questions, but for now, the best answer comes from what SFU athletic director David Murphy told CKNW:
"Next year is rather up in the air right now."
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
Sandy Slavin, the president of Canada West and the director of athletics at the University of Lethbridge, told CKNW the decision was made thanks to SFU's plan to join the NCAA.
"We don't believe they have a vested interest in our business any more and they shouldn't be voting," she said.
She said they decided to avoid measures that would penalize SFU's teams this year, though.
"At this point, doing anything that would affect Simon Fraser's ability to fully compete in '09-10, we felt was very unfair to the student athletes," she said.
This seems pretty logical. SFU doesn't seem to have a vested interest in the future of Canada West beyond the 2010-11 season. When the original decision to join the NCAA was made, there was some speculation about splitting SFU's teams between the NCAA and CIS (as they currently do with CIS and the NAIA), but that seems to have withered; CKNW's piece says "Beginning with the 2011-12 season, all of the SFU varsity teams will compete in the NCAA's Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference." Thus, if they're not going to have teams in CIS competition beyond 2011, it would seem to make sense to exclude them from voting on CIS decisions. It also appears logical to avoid competitive sanctions for this year; teams are already in action, athletes have chosen their schools and schedules have been set. Taking away SFU's ability to compete would have appeared a merely vindictive move, and one that would have hurt CIS.
Nothing's been decided on the eligibility of SFU's teams for next season, though, and that could be a very interesting debate. Would Canada West be willing to boot a prominent university like SFU from competition? If Canada West decides to kick them out, would they be able to join the NCAA early? What would happen to their teams and athletes? There are plenty of questions, but for now, the best answer comes from what SFU athletic director David Murphy told CKNW:
"Next year is rather up in the air right now."
[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]
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