U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national
sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at
colleges in Canada is the
Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association
The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for organized sports at the collegiate level in Canada. Its name in French is l'Association canadienne du sport collégial (ACSC).
National championships
CCAA me ...
(CCAA). Some institutions are members of both bodies for different sports.
Its name until October 20, 2016, was Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS; french: Sport interuniversitaire canadien, SIC, links=no).
On that date, the organization rebranded as "U Sports" in both
official languages.
The original Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) Central was founded in 1906 and existed until 1955, composed only of universities from
Ontario and
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. With the collapse of the CIAU Central in the mid-1950s, calls for a new, national governing body for university sport accelerated. Once the
Royal Military College of Canada became a degree granting institution, Major W. J. (Danny) McLeod, athletic director at the RMC directed the establishment of the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) in 1961. Major McLeod ran the CIAU from his office at RMC as the first CIAU Secretary-Treasurer. In the 1960s the CIAU functioned as a voluntary, autonomous, educational sport organization which represented by the various universities from coast to coast. In 1978, the Canadian Women's Interuniversity Athletic Union (CWIAU), which had formed in 1970, merged with the CIAU; the expanded CIAU reinforced its university focus by adjusting its name to the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union. It changed its name to Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) in June 2001 due to growing misconceptions about the name of the organization since the term "athletics" was associated with track and field and "union" with labour movements.
According to the organization, the name change to "U Sports" came about in part due to a desire for a brand that was "instantly recognizable and identical in both French and English."
[ The rebrand was accompanied by a new approach to presentation of Canadian University sports, its teams, and its players. The new, singular logo and name came with a new website to better present stories taking place throughout the athletics programs U Sports governs, bolstered by a new approach to social media.
]
Sanctioned sports
Source:
* Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
* Cross country
* Curling
* Field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
(women's only)
* Football (men's only)
* Ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
* Rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
(women's only)
* Soccer
* Swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
* Track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
* Volleyball
* Wrestling
2016 rebrand
On October 20, 2016, CIS announced that it would be changing its name to U Sports, accompanied by a new logo and approach to Canadian University sports. The name was chosen in part to better represent Canada as a bilingual nation with a united name as opposed to separate acronyms. The new name and look are also intended to increase the marketability of Canadian University sports.
Signifying a major shift in the presentation of Canadian University sports, U Sports aims to better engage with Canadian sports fans and present the athletes it governs. To do so, U Sports aims to promote the stories of its key athletes through a new approach to social media as well as a new website in order to "create a massive change in the way Canadians see university sports in the digital era".
Athletic funding
The U Sports member institutions offer athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United ...
s known as Athletic Financial Awards (AFA); subject to minimum academic requirements. The AFA's are capped and may not exceed the value of the tuition and compulsory fees for the student-athlete. Universities also may provide additional non-athletic awards including academic scholarships and needs-based grants for athletes in addition to this cap, provided the additional awards do not include athletic criteria. In 2008/2009 one in two U Sports athletes was receiving an athletic scholarship.
Increasingly, U Sports schools are offering booster-support programs, where alumni, parents and/or corporations can donate money to a targeted fund especially designed to off-set a student-athlete's tuition and living costs. The University of Windsor
, mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge
, established =
, academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada
, former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963)
, type = Public universi ...
has an ''Adopt-A-Lancer'' program, for example. U Sports has no regulations regarding how much each school can provide to teams through private support. The Université Laval
Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montm ...
's Rouge et Or football team, winner of seven of the last 12 Vanier Cups, is so successful with fund raising that the team trains in Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
during the spring.
Canadian Hockey League teams offer financial support for their graduates – who attend school within two years of playing major junior – who choose to play for a U Sports school after graduating from major junior hockey
Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...
based on a model where the league will give scholarships commensurate with the seasons they played in the CHL.
Hockey players who play in the CHL are ineligible for NCAA athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United ...
s, although many attend a CHL training camp: however, they can only stay a maximum of 48 hours, and can not dress in any games.
Championships
Source:
Members
There are 56 member universities in U Sports. These 56 member universities are currently organized into the four following regional associations. In some of these sports, these associations are sometimes referred to as ''conferences''.
*Atlantic University Sport
Atlantic University Sport (AUS; french: Sport universitaire de l'Atlantique) is a regional membership association for universities in Atlantic Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and pr ...
(AUS)
* Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CW)
*Ontario University Athletics
Ontario University Athletics (OUA; french: Sports universitaires de l'Ontario) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providin ...
(OUA)
* Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ)
;Notes
Basketball
As of the 2019–2020 U Sports season, 48 of the 56 member institutions have both men's and women's basketball teams. In sports with heavy university participation, like basketball, some of the conferences have had divisions. The OUA previously had four divisions from 2014–15 to 2016–17, but reduced them back to two for the 2017–18 season. With the addition of Ontario Tech for the 2019–20 season, OUA moved to three six-team divisions. Canada West had two divisions, but reverted to a one conference format for the 2016–17 season with 17 teams. The AUS conference has eight teams while the RSEQ conference has five.
The U Sports men's and women's basketball teams are organized in the following way:
Football
27 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019 U Sports football season
The 2019 U Sports football season began on August 23, 2019 with the Concordia Stingers hosting the Montreal Carabins in Montreal, Quebec. The Atlantic University Sport conference started play the following day and the Ontario University Athletic ...
. As of the 2017–18 academic year, the two U Sports members in Sherbrooke compete in separate leagues in football only. Bishop's football moved from RSEQ to AUS, and Sherbrooke remains in RSEQ football.
Men's ice hockey
35 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019–20 Men's Ice Hockey season.
Women's ice hockey
34 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019–20 Women's Ice Hockey season. The Bishop's Gaiters
The Bishop's Gaiters is the men's and women's athletic teams that represent Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The name Gaiter is a nickname used to refer to garments worn over the shoe and lower pants leg, worn by Anglican bishops ...
will join the RSEQ and start play in 2020–21 and the Trinity Western Spartans and MacEwan Griffins The MacEwan Griffins are the athletic teams that represent MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In Canadian intercollegiate competition, teams compete in U Sports. USPORTS associations oversee the Canada West Universities Athletic Associ ...
will join Canada West.
Men's soccer
48 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019 Men's soccer season.
Women's soccer
53 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019 Women's soccer season.
Men's volleyball
30 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019–20 Men's volleyball season. After Memorial disbanded their team following the 2016–17 season, two teams competed in the AUS with three competing in the RSEQ, before Dalhousie and UNB moved to the RSEQ with the AUS dropping men's volleyball as a varsity sport.
Women's volleyball
39 of the 56 member schools participated in the 2019–20 Women's volleyball season. Six teams compete in the AUS and six in the RSEQ. Another 14 compete in the OUA, split between an East and a West division, and the Canada West conference has 13 women's volleyball teams.
See also
* National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
(NCAA), the American equivalent of U Sports.
* List of colleges in Canada
* List of universities in Canada
Universities in Canada are established and operate under provincial and territorial government charters, except in one case directed by First Nations bands and in another by federal legislation. Most public universities in the country are memb ...
* Athletics Canada
Athletics Canada or AC (french: Athlétisme Canada) is the national governing body of athletics in Canada, which includes track and field, cross-country running, road running, and race walking.
Athletics Canada is involved in many aspects of the ...
* Canada Basketball
Canada Basketball (CB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in Canada.[ ...](_blank)
* College basketball
* Canadian Soccer Association
* College soccer
College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United K ...
* Football Canada
Football Canada is the governing body for amateur gridiron football in Canada headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Football Canada focuses primarily its own Canadian form of the sport, and is currently the world's only national governing body for ...
* College football
* Hockey Canada
* College hockey
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...
* Royal Canadian Golf Association
* Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association
The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for organized sports at the collegiate level in Canada. Its name in French is l'Association canadienne du sport collégial (ACSC).
National championships
CCAA me ...
* International University Sports Federation
* Universiade
The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and " Olympiad".
The Universiade is referred ...
Notes and references
*
External links
*
{{U Sports volleyball
1906 establishments in Canada
College and university associations and consortia in Canada
Sports governing bodies in Canada
College sports governing bodies in Canada
Sports organizations established in 1906
Student sports governing bodies