Far Away From Ten

The announcement was made on November 26, but I've been holding off on saying anything simply due to there being a lack of details on what's going to happen and when it will happen. However, the news is true: Simon Fraser University is rejoining U SPORTS and Canada West after spending the last fifteen years competing in the Division II level of the NCAA. There's a lot to be excited about when it comes to this news as the school will now review its options while reorganizing its athletics department to be better positioned for U SPORTS competition, but this site focuses on hockey-related matters so we need to dig into SFU's hockey programs to get a better sense of how this expansion will affect the Canada West conference.

The first thing to note is there is neither a men's nor women's hockey team currently supported by the Simon Fraser University Athletics Department. They do have both non-conference and BCIHL men's teams that compete, and it seems they operate independently outside of both U SPORTS and the NCAA. Don't let their non-affiliation with any league fool you - this Red Leafs men's team is pretty good.

The non-conference team does play against a number of NCAA teams throughout the season, and they currently sit with a 4-7-2 record this season with a shootout win and a shootout loss against UBC and a loss to Trinity Western. All those games were decided by a single goal, so it seems they can hang with two Canada West teams including the top-ranked team in the nation. We'll see if that continues.

In September, head coach Mark Coletta told sponsors and supporters, "We have a chance to have men's and women's hockey at the [NCAA] level. That's the goal, that's the vision. We need to make things bigger and better."

Coletta's not going to get that opportunity with SFU's decision at the end of November, but he certainly can't be ignorant of the marked improvement of the teams just down the highway from him. If he thinks that the Red Leafs had a chance in the NCAA to win a National Championship, the same result can be won in Canada. I can't say that all of the players currently on his roster will remain as part of the team, but the truth is that the conference gets immediately stronger if the Red Leafs can compete with both UBC and Trinity Western.

Here's the catch - there's no guarantee that men's hockey is added as a varsity sport at Simon Fraser University. The university's statement on the transition back to Canada West explicitly stated, "The university has no intention of adding additional varsity sports," meaning that men's and women's hockey aren't even on the radar at this point. In short, the immediate impact on Canada West men's and women's hockey is zero as neither conference will add a tenth team.

It should be noted, however, that SFU Provost and Vice-President Academic Dilson Rassier, who oversees the athletics and recreation deparrtment at SFU, told Postmedia in January, "We'll evaluate each specific case. If there is a way to have hockey — or any other sport — that is financially sustainable, self-sustaining and with new incomes for the university, we will consider it."

Before we jump down that rabbit hole, let's put all the cards on the table. Rassier said they'll evaluate each case moving forward based on financial requirements, and we know hockey is one of the most expensive sports for any Canada West school. Hockey, as he made clear, has to be financially sustainable for the university to even consider adding the sport to its varsity sports roster, so we might be years away from having hockey apply for varsity status based on how Red Leafs hockey moves forward at this point.

Secondly, if they add a men's team, they'll need to add a women's team unless they plan on offsetting the women's team with another men's sport. With the growth of women's hockey and the success of both Canada West teams in BC along with that new PWHL entity they have out in Vancouver, excluding women's hockey would be the most short-sighted thing SFU could do. As it stands right now, there is no Red Leafs women's team in existence, so they'd have to get that program off the ground in short order while being financial sustainable as well. There are infinite challenges in that plan.

With Simon Fraser University already facing a cash crunch like most other universities across the country, it doesn't appear that a men's or women's hockey team will be ready to play in Canada West as an SFU varsity sport in the near future. We already know that Canada West went to a divisional format as a cost-cutting measure for some schools, but the nine schools playing hockey aren't seeing massive savings in that plan. Adding a school who is already financially stretched thin to a conference that requires the most travel resulting in the highest costs for hockey programs might just be a non-starter.

I'm not saying that we'll never see the Red Leafs find their way into Canada West hockey. There were times where no one would have guessed Mount Royal University or Grant MacEwan University would be part of the conference, and there were likely many who never believed that Lethbridge nor Brandon would ever leave. Obviously, things can, have, and will continue to change in Canada West hockey as time marches forward, but the foreseeable future does not have Simon Fraser University involved simply due to the fact that they don't have varsity hockey teams nor has plans to add them.

While having ten-team hockey conferences in Canada West would be ideal - three BC teams out west, three teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and Alberta's four teams splitting the difference - the reality is that we're as far away from ten teams as we were before SFU made the decision to rejoin Canada West and U SPORTS. We may eventually get there one day, but having SFU back in the Canada West conference does nothing for the hockey picture as it stands.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!