Issue #31 Vol. 35, September 8th, 2009
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Sports

Success for the Clan, but don’t expect Douglas to follow

Simon Fraser University (SFU) made history in July when they became the first school outside of the United States to gain acceptance into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Now, SFU was accepted as a second division school into the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC), so don’t have any visions of Final Four or Bowl game glory just yet. Still though, just being allowed into the best university/college loop in the world at any level is a major achievement.

After a lengthy two-year process, SFU and all 19 of their sports teams were granted admission into the NCAA beginning in 2011-2012. They’ll compete regularly against various squads from nine other GNAC schools: Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks, Central Washington, Montana State Billings, Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin’s, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon and Western Washington. There are also a few schools that compete in the GNAC for football only.

It’s still unclear as to where all the dominoes will fall, but there is a very real possibility that SFU may be able to field a hockey team in division 1. The NCAA regulations permit a certain number of division 1 sports to be played by division 2 schools, and hockey would be SFU’s best bet in that regard. It would be difficult for them to compete in any other sport at that high of a level.

As for any other Canadian institutions, don’t bank on NCAA membership for them any time soon. The NCAA will look at the SFU experiment extremely closely before even considering any other schools north of the 49th, and unfortunately, Douglas College isn’t even on the radar of making the short list of schools that would be considered.

Currently, Douglas College plays out of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges.