The University of the Fraser Valley is launching a challenge of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association’s controversial basketball division realignment.
Vice-president of students Jody Gordon – who oversees the Cascades athletic department – confirmed to The News this week that the Abbotsford institution has determined a course of action. But she declined to expand further on the details, including which governing body UFV is appealing to, because they are “not permitted to speak publicly about it.”
UFV was spurred to action after recently learning that Canada West plans to extend its unbalanced basketball divisional format from one season to two.
The radical realignment, initially approved at Canada West’s 2013 annual general meeting, is set to take effect for the coming 2014-15 season.
The conference’s basketball teams will be grouped in two divisions, one with 11 teams and one with six, which would not interlock until the post-season.
UFV is in the so-called Explorer Division with five other relative newcomers to the league – Thompson Rivers, MacEwan University, Mount Royal, University of Northern B.C. and UBC-Okanagan.
The Pioneer Division includes Canada West veterans Alberta, Brandon, Calgary, Lethbridge, Manitoba, Regina, Saskatchewan, Trinity Western, UBC, Victoria and Winnipeg.
UFV’s concern is that the divisions appear tiered, with traditional powerhouses on one side and newcomers on the other.
Additionally, the convoluted 10-team playoff format appears advantageous to the larger division, while limiting post-season access to the smaller group.
UFV had originally hoped to endure the new divisional structure for one season and work to get something more equitable in place for 2015-16. But in an interview with The News last week, Gordon said that a draft of the 2014-15 Canada West basketball schedules circulated to institutions on April 30 contained a note indicating that this was Year 1 of a two-year scheduling model.
UFV hosted the 2014 Canada West AGM May 6-8 at Harrison, but scheduling was not on the agenda.
“Learning that the intent here is that this (alignment) will carry on for another year is difficult for us to accept,” said Gordon, who called it “a very disappointing outcome.
“We can’t afford to sit on this much longer, obviously,” she added. “(The AGM) was confirmation for us that there is no attempt to move away from how they’ve set this particular schedule up. Our fear is that this will not only continue in basketball, but we’ll be seeing it in other sports down the road as well.”
Of particular concern to UFV is the playoff format.
Next season, seven of the 11 Pioneer teams (64 per cent) will qualify for the post-season, along with just three of six Explorer teams (50 per cent). The Explorer teams will be seeded second, fifth and eighth out of 10, regardless of their records or national ranking.
The only way for an Explorer team to earn the No. 1 seed would be to win the Canada West title and then finish atop the division the following season. In the event of an Explorer team winning the conference, the second-place Explorer team’s playoff seeding the following year would also improve from No. 5 to No. 4, and a fourth squad from the smaller division would qualify as the No. 10 seed, replacing the seventh Pioneer team.
But winning the Canada West championship would be a tall order for the Explorers, beginning with the simple math that they’ve got just a 3-in-10 shot at it currently.
Additionally, none of the six programs have ever won the conference title in men’s or women’s basketball, though UFV has come close in recent years.
The Cascades women, in their fourth straight trip to the Canada West Final Four, took silver this past season, falling to the Saskatchewan Huskies in the final – though they did bounce back to beat the Huskies in the bronze medal game at nationals. The UFV men have been to three straight conference Final Fours, coming second in 2012.
As to the potential impact of the realignment, Gordon alluded to an article in the Kamloops This Week newspaper in March covering departures from the Thompson Rivers men’s basketball team. Two players – Canada West first team all-star Ta’Quan Zimmerman and Troy Grant – said that weakened conference competition was among their reasons for leaving the program.
“Given the story out of Kamloops, where you’ve had players very strongly indicate that they don’t want to play in what they see as a second-tier league, we have the same concerns – that this is going to impact on our students’ experience, on recruitment, and on retention,” Gordon said, adding that the Cascades have had no such departures.
UFV will not be seeking formal support from other Canada West programs, Explorer or otherwise, in its appeal.
“We need to focus on what’s important to us,” Gordon said. “If other schools within the Explorer want to somehow join in whatever that challenge is, we obviously wouldn’t say no to it. But right now, it’s focused on UFV.”
The News left messages for Canada West president Ian Reade, the athletic director at the University of Alberta, but did not hear back by press deadline.
