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CIS the official goal |
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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Sunday, 22 June 2008 |
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COLLEGES ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONUNBC NORTHERN TIMBERWOLVESCANADIAN INTERUNIVERSITY SPORT
On Saturday, the UNBC board of governors gave the athletics department unanimous approval to submit an application to the Canada West conference of the CIS. The earliest the teams could play in Canada West is 2010-11. Currently, the Pacific division of Canada West features the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, the University of the Fraser Valley, Trinity Western University and Thompson Rivers University.
“It’s good in light of all the recent happenings around the university that there’s a commitment there from the university to forge ahead,” said athletics and recreation coordinator Len McNamara, referring to the recent resignation of UNBC president Don Cozzetto and the job change of UNBC men’s head coach Zane Robison. “We’ll see what we can do in the next 12 months.
“The whole athletics department was elated with it,” McNamara added. “Not that we expected it wouldn’t go through, but each and every hurdle is a bit of an accomplishment.”
Cozzetto, whose resignation was announced June 6, was a major backer of the CIS proposal and it was unclear if the UNBC board of governors would vote to move forward with the bid in his absence. Robison, meanwhile, starts a new UNBC job on July 2. He will work in student recruitment and advising.
McNamara has until July 31 to get the application in the hands of Canada West officials. He said he’s aiming to have it submitted a week before the deadline.
“(I have to) knuckle under and actually get the application done, for a number of people to review it,” he said. “We certainly want to (refine) what we’re going to do to convince Canada West.
“We’re looking for letters of support and all those types of things. We’ve got a short period of time to get all that in place.”
Representatives from Canada West would visit UNBC between September and December. Then, during a February meeting, new applications would be discussed. Acceptance or rejection would be decided at a May meeting. If the Timberwolves teams are accepted, they would play one last season -- 2009-10 -- in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association and move into Canada West in the fall of 2010.
UNBC does have competition for CIS membership. Nanaimo’s Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina University College) and Kelowna’s UBC Okanagan are also shooting for spots in the CIS. Both schools may include basketball on their application forms.
“No one is really showing their hand,” McNamara said. “We won’t really know, I guess, until the applications are in.”
If UNBC’s effort to step into the CIS is not successful this time around, the window of opportunity will close for a long period of time. As it stands right now, the CIS will not accept applications again until 2012, and that would push UNBC’s potential first game in Canada West back to 2014.
For UNBC -- and possibly for VIU and UBC-O -- a wildcard in the chase for Canada West basketball membership is the fact that UBC may be on its way out of the league. McNamara said he has read a report that UBC will apply to Division 2 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association next summer.
UNBC’s CIS application will be for Canada West “affiliate membership,” a new category created for schools that want to enter the league with three or fewer teams. UNBC’s men’s and women’s soccer teams, which are heading into their second seasons in the BCCAA, will remain in the provincial college loop for now but could be part of an expansion effort into Canada West in the future.
“We see ourselves, initially, as only an affiliate member in men’s and women’s basketball,” McNamara said. “We’ll try to do the best we can in that, and then (we’ll determine) whether we want to carry forward soccer the next time, once we get our foot in the door, and even consider other sports.”
Other sports McNamara has mentioned as options for UNBC’s potential CIS future are hockey and volleyball.
Currently, the UNBC athletics department spends between $600,000 and $650,000 per year to keep its basketball and soccer teams operating in the BCCAA. If the basketball teams jump up to the CIS in 2010 and the soccer teams are still in the BCCAA at that time, McNamara estimates the price tag at $900,000 to $950,000.
The additional cost would be covered in various ways. First off, UNBC students would likely see an increase in their athletics fees.
“It’s currently at $45, the athletics fee, and in the next two years we hope to get that to $55,” McNamara said. “And then the university would increase their proportion and a big chunk is for us to raise that through increased sponsorship and advertising and ticket sales. And the Timberwolves Athletic Association has said that they can increase their contribution and make it happen as well.”
The TAA is a fundraising arm for UNBC athletics.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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