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NCAA weighing membership expansion to Canadian schools
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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