NCAA weighing membership expansion to Canadian schools
Posted 10/25/2006 8:23 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints &
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By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
The NCAA, which already has given its blessing to a football bowl in
Toronto, is weighing another step across the border - membership for
Canadian schools.
A committee of university presidents is expected to recommend in
January whether the NCAA should expand beyond the U.S. for the first time
and accept Canadian schools on a limited basis. Two have expressed interest:
the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and St. Clair College in
Windsor, Ontario.

Belmont University President Robert Fisher, who heads the NCAA panel,
is open to the move, saying it could cut travel costs and missed class time
for nearby U.S. schools. He insists Canadian exceptions would be modest.

"I can envision a situation where it would make sense," he says. "But
I don't envision that we would become the governing body for
student-athletes in Canada and Mexico or anywhere else. ... It would take
another kind of decision other than the one we're headed for for it to
become really prevalent."

Fisher, a member of the NCAA's highest-ranking board, the Executive
Committee, will brief that group when it meets in Indianapolis today.

Accepting Canadian schools would require a change in NCAA rules that
limit membership to those in "in the United States, its territories or
possessions." Unless expedited, final approval couldn't come before April
2008.

The issue first arose when Simon Fraser unsuccessfully sought NCAA
membership in 1998. The University of British Columbia, with 35,000
undergraduates that competes in the NAIA in baseball and six more of its 28
varsity sports, then inquired two years ago. Its officials traded visits
with NCAA representatives last year.

Athletic director Bob Philip says UBC is seeking a break from Canadian
scholarship restrictions. They permit schools to cover only athletes'
tuition; the NCAA allows room, board, books and tuition. Caliber of
competition is also an attraction. "I know the NCAA has its critics," Philip
says. "But if you have a university program and you're looking for the best
competition in the world, that's where it is."

St. Clair College, in Windsor, is primarily interested in a home for
its hockey team after the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association dropped the
sport.



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