The future of UNBC athletics is about to come into focus.
A decision on the school's application to the Canada West Universities Athletic Association will be made sometime between today and Thursday in Saskatoon, site of the CWUAA annual general meeting. UNBC is seeking league membership in basketball and soccer and will need approval from 10 of 13 voting Canada West athletics directors.
"I'm optimistic," said UNBC athletics director Jason Kerswill, who presented UNBC's case to the Canada West membership at a February meeting in Calgary. "I think we've put a good, strong application in place and responded to a lot of the feedback that was provided to us from our previous application. We'll wait by the phone and see the result."
Kerswill said he expects to be notified of a decision either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
UNBC's previous application was for Canada West inclusion in basketball only. After a one-year deferral by the CWUAA, the application was rejected last May. Rather than having to endure a four-year waiting period, UNBC was permitted to re-apply this year, and Kerswill sees the addition of soccer as key.
The current application would see the Northern Timberwolves basketball teams -- men's and women's -- begin play in Canada West in the fall of 2012. The soccer clubs, which are not as far along in their development, would join in 2014.
Right now, all the UNBC teams compete in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association, which is part of the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association. Canada West is a conference in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the highest post-secondary athletics league in the country.
If soccer is one plus for UNBC's Canada West membership quest, another is the fact the CWUAA may go to a Tier 1/Tier 2 structure for the 2012-13 season. The association has already approved the concept and has notified the CIS of its intentions. UNBC would seem to be a perfect fit for Tier 2, a level of competition that would place it on a more even footing with its opponents. Timberwolves teams would get the chance to grow and develop, rather than having to play against Canada West powers like the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta right away.
Kerswill said UNBC would be happy to enter Canada West on the Tier 2 rung.
"Definitely," he said. "There are a lot of like-minded institutions and athletic programs in what may become that second division of Canada West. You get a few of your newer athletic programs, and it would be a good opportunity for us to be competitive perhaps in a more timely fashion than if we were to battle your more traditional and powerful athletic programs."
Loralyn Murdoch, head coach of the UNBC women's basketball team, said she's "torn a little bit" between staying in the BCCAA and moving up to Canada West.
"It all depends what the [Canada West] structure looks like," she said. "We're at a very good point in our program right now where we're having a lot of success at our level, and what does that next level look like, and how long will it take us to [be competitive] there? I just hope that Prince George will be behind us if we have a few years of growing pains."
If UNBC's Canada West bid fails, Kerswill said an evaluation of the school's future athletics priorities would have to be made.
"I think what we'd have to do is really determine here as a university the direction that we want to take our varsity athletics program," he said. "There are two ways you can go -- one is to continue following the dream of Canada West and the other is to become the gold standard and one of the stronger programs in the BCCAA. Basketball, I feel confident that we're there, and our soccer programs are catching up quickly. There's a lot of room for us to grow within either the college model or the university model so we'll make that decision in the next couple weeks, depending on the outcome of the vote."
