News and Notes

Gamblers vs RoughRiders game rescheduled.

It's Not Always Easy.

Michigan hockey freshman shines on first line.

Bucs' Ticket Manager Gets The Call.

A Sharp Trade.

Olson Back on Track.

Stephens Passing the Torch in Fayetteville.

Florida's young guns listening to voices of experience.

Making His Own Mark.

Fun on the run.

Scorpions' Reeder a speeder on the ice.

Two from Herd heading to WJC.

Former Stampede goalie traded to Kingston.

Richard Bachman named WCHA rookie of the month for November.

CCHA Alumnus of the Week: Joe Corvo.

CCHA Players of the Week include: Dan VeNard (Green Bay) and Jerry Kuhn (Sioux City).

Mike Spillane named Defensive Player of the Week for Hockey East.

Topher Scott named a finalist for Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

Aaron Bogosian earns weekly honors in ECAC.

Something different, not USHL related, but could be intriguing to someone out there.


This story comes from the Cedar Rapids Gazette. I should have posted it sooner, but kept putting it off, but here it is now.

Canadian colleges consider joining NCAA

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The possibility of joining the NCAA for the first time has Canadian colleges looking south of the border with mixed emotions.
Schools such as the University of
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
British Columbia and Simon Fraser University see the full scholarships that would come with NCAA membership as a boon to Canadian residents who currently come to the U.S. to pursue their athletics dreams.
Other schools and officials in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the country’s governing body for athletics, see a ploy for publicity that will end up with the schools being unable to compete financially and returning to their roots.
The process of finding out who’s right will likely begin in January, when Division II is expected to approve a 10-year pilot program that would allow a limited number of international schools — most expected to be Canadian — to become NCAA members.
Six Canadian schools have discussed NCAA membership and four have shown interest. Only UBC, SFU and the University of Alberta in Edmonton have gone public about their interest, with UBC and SFU primed to become NCAA members as early as 2009. The move to allow schools outside the U.S. the right to apply for NCAA membership for the first time came about from a chance meeting a few years ago between UBC Athletics Director Bob Philip and NCAA vice president Bernard Franklin at a conference for athletic administrators.
Noticing Franklin worked for the NCAA, Philip asked if he could sit in on panel discussion. Afterward, he pulled Franklin aside and popped the question: ‘‘Could there ever be a circumstance where UBC could compete athletically in the NCAA?’’
Turns out the answer is yes.
‘‘We still have some unanswered questions,’’ Franklin said. ‘‘But the value of having international members of the NCAA outweighs them.’’
The NCAA believes it will benefit from the cultural experience of athletes traveling internationally, and adding schools to help buoy a fluctuating membership base in Division II. ‘‘There aren’t a lot of schools left in the United States to add that are big schools,’’ Philip said. ‘‘You don’t have a school out there that has 45,000 students that’s not playing but wants to join.
‘‘But you do in Canada.’’
Until now, NCAA bylaws have limited membership to U.S. schools and those schools in a territory controlled by the U.S. The NCAA has long cast an eye northward, but never pursued a potential expansion.
‘‘When the whole question arose at the association level about international members, the whole structure said ‘Wow what a great thing,’ ’’ said Chuck Ambrose, president of Pfeiffer University and chair of the NCAA Division II President’s Council. ‘‘This is a chance to take the NCAA international and perhaps help address some needs those Canadian institutions have.’’
The pilot program will most likely be at the Division II level, with a few sports — like hockey or men’s volleyball — competing in Division I.