Canada West Universities Athletic Association

Canada West (formally the Canada West Universities Athletic Association or CWUAA) is a regional membership association for universities in Western Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases about those programs and events to the public and the media. This is similar to what would be called a college athletic conference in the United States. Canada West is one of four such bodies that are members of the country's governing body for university athletics, U Sports. The other three regional associations coordinating university-level sports in Canada are Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Atlantic University Sport (AUS), and the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).

Canada West Universities Athletic Association

Formerly	Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (1919–19xx) Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association (19xx–1972)
Conference	U Sports
Founded	1972 (1972)
Sports fielded	12 men's: 9 women's: 11
No. of teams	17
Region	Western Canada
Official website	canadawest.org

History

The Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WCIAU — later renamed Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association) was formed in 1919–20 as the first recognized western-based post-secondary athletic organization in Canada, with the University of Manitoba winning the first-ever league championship, a men's hockey title, in 1920.

In the spring of 1972, the WCIAA was split into the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) and the Great Plains Athletic Association (GPAA - later renamed the Great Plains Athletic Conference).

CWUAA consisted of schools spanning from Victoria to Saskatoon (Victoria, British Columbia, Calgary, Alberta, Lethbridge and Saskatchewan), while GPAA's member institutions stretched from Regina to Thunder Bay (Regina, Brandon, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Lakehead).

Membership changes

In 1985–86, Canada West offered playing privileges to men's hockey teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with other sports following over the years, culminating with the 2001-02 merger of basketball.

Since 1999, 11 additional schools have joined the Canada West's six charter members. Trinity Western joined in 1999–00 and, in 2000–01, all schools from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) except for Brandon were provided full membership in Canada West (Manitoba, Regina and Winnipeg). Brandon joined as an associate member at the time, until full membership was granted in 2005.

Simon Fraser joined Canada West in 2000, followed by Thompson Rivers in 2005 and Fraser Valley in 2006.

Simon Fraser withdrew from the conference as a member after the 2009–10 season, following this, Simon Fraser officially became the first Canadian university to join the NCAA in the 2011–12 season.while both Thompson Rivers and Fraser Valley were awarded full membership in 2010 and, at the same time, UBC Okanagan received probationary membership.

In 2011, Mount Royal University and the University of Northern British Columbia were voted in as probationary members and began active competing in 2012–13.

In 2013, UBC Okanagan was awarded full membership, while Mount Royal University and the University of Northern British Columbia were awarded full membership in 2014.

Full membership was granted to MacEwan University in the spring of 2015, after the Edmonton-based university fulfilled their probationary membership requirements and was accepted by Canada West membership as the conference's 17th member.

Member schools

Current members

Winnipeg

Alberta

Brandon

UBC
Okanagan

Calgary

Lethbridge

MacEwan

Mount Royal

Thompson
Rivers

UNBC

Regina

Saskatchewan

Victoria

Lower
Mainland

Winnipeg schools:
Manitoba
Winnipeg

Lower Mainland schools:
UFV
TWU
UBC

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Locations of the Canada West member institutions

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Endowment	Joined	Division
University of Alberta	Golden Bears (men's) Pandas (women's)	Edmonton, Alberta	1908	Public	36,435	$1.2B	1971-72	Prairie
Brandon University	Bobcats	Brandon, Manitoba	1890	Public	3,383	---	1999-2000	Prairie
University of British Columbia	Thunderbirds	Vancouver, British Columbia	1908	Public	43,579	$1.01B	1971-72	Pacific
University of British Columbia Okanagan	Heat	Kelowna, British Columbia	2005	Public	8,307	---	2010-11	Pacific
University of Calgary	Dinos	Calgary, Alberta	1966	Public	28,196	$952M	1971-72	Pacific
University of the Fraser Valley	Cascades	Abbotsford, British Columbia	1974	Public	21,500	---	2006-07	Pacific
University of Lethbridge	Pronghorns	Lethbridge, Alberta	1967	Public	8,000+	$24.5M	1971-72	Prairie
University of Manitoba	Bisons	Winnipeg, Manitoba	1877	Public	27,599	$303M	2001-02	Prairie
MacEwan University	Griffins	Edmonton, Alberta	1971	Public	19,606	---	2013-14	Prairie
Mount Royal University	Cougars	Calgary, Alberta	1910	Public	14,175	---	2001-02	Pacific
University of Northern British Columbia	Timberwolves	Prince George, British Columbia	1990	Public	4,183	$78.5M	2011-12	Pacific
University of Regina	Rams (football only) Cougars	Regina, Saskatchewan	1911	Public	12,800	$25.9M	2001-02	Prairie
University of Saskatchewan	Huskies	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	1907	Public	19,082	$136.7M	1971-72	Prairie
Thompson Rivers University	WolfPack	Kamloops, British Columbia	1970	Public	13,072	---	2005-06	Pacific
Trinity Western University	Spartans	Langley, British Columbia	1962	Private/Christian	2,700	---	1999-2000	Pacific
University of Victoria	Vikes	Victoria, British Columbia	1903	Public	19,500	$155.4M	1971-72	Pacific
University of Winnipeg	Wesmen	Winnipeg, Manitoba	1871	Public	9,219	---	2001-02	Prairie

Former member

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Endowment	Joined	Left	Current conference
Simon Fraser University	Red Leafs	Burnaby, British Columbia	1965	Public	35,604	$209M	2000-01	2009-10	Great Northwest (GNAC)

Notes

Facilities

Facilities

Institution	Football Stadium	Seated Capacity	Basketball/Volleyball Gym	Seated Capacity	Hockey Arena	Seated Capacity	Soccer Field	Seated Capacity
Alberta	Foote Field	3,500	Saville Community Sports Centre	2,600	Clare Drake Arena	3,000	Foote Soccer Field	1,500
Brandon	Non-football school		Healthy Living Centre	1,000	Non-hockey school		HLC Field	500
UBC	Thunderbird Stadium	3,441	War Memorial Gymnasium	2,222	Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre	7,200	Thunderbird Stadium	3,500
UBC Okanagan	Non-football school		UBC Okanagan Campus Gym	1,000	Non-hockey school		Nonis Sports Field	500
Calgary	McMahon Stadium	35,650	Jack Simpson Gymnasium	2,700	Father David Bauer Olympic Arena	1,750	West Varsity Soccer Pitch	500
Fraser Valley	Non-football school		Envision Athletic Centre	1,700	Non-hockey school		MRC Sports Complex	500
Lethbridge			1st Choice Savings Centre (Basketball only)	2,500			University Field	2,000
MacEwan			Christenson Family Centre for Sport and Wellness	2,000	Downtown Community Arena	1,000	Jasper Place Bowl	1,000
Manitoba	IG Field	33,500	Investors Group Athletic Centre	3,100	Max Bell Centre	1,400	Turf East Field (Women's only)	300
Mount Royal	Non-football school		Kenyon Court	1,940	Flames Community Arenas	500	Mount Royal Fields	500
UNBC			Charles Jago Northern Sports Centre (Basketball only)	2,000	Non-hockey school		NCSSL Field	1,800
Regina	Mosaic Stadium	33,000	UR CKHS (Basketball/Women's Volleyball only)	2,000	The Co-operators Centre	1,000	Leibel Field (Women's only)	500
Saskatchewan	Griffiths Stadium	6,171	PAC	2,426	Merlis Belsher Place	2,700	Field 7 in PotashCorp Park	400
Thompson Rivers	Non-football school		Tournament Capital Centre	2,200	Non-hockey school		Hillside Stadium	1,060
Trinity Western			Langley Events Centre	2,000	Langley Events Centre	5,300	Chase Office Field	500
Victoria			CARSA Performance Gym (Basketball only)	2,100	Non-hockey school		Centennial Stadium	5,000
Winnipeg			Duckworth Centre	1,780			Winnipeg Soccer Complex / St. Vital. (Women's only)	2000 / 500

(Data mined from the U Sports homepage's member directory and WorldStadiums.com. The member directory numbers seem to be ballpark figures in some cases.)

Future expansion

The media has reported that the following institutions are building their athletic programs for potential admission into the association.

• Capilano University
• Vancouver Island University

In 2012 the conference declared they would not take applications from new schools, as Canada West approved a bid from Grant MacEwan University (Now rebranded as MacEwan University) in 2013.

Scholarships, UBC, Simon Fraser University, and the NAIA

In May 2005, UBC made a formal bid to join the NCAA, but decided in April 2011 to remain a part of Canada West Athletics. See the UBC article for more details.

Simon Fraser University (then known as the SFU Clan before changing to the Red Leafs in 2022) did not compete in what is now known as U Sports until 2002, after a failed attempt to join the U.S. NCAA. On July 10, 2009, the NCAA accepted SFU's bid to join NCAA Division II in the 2011–2012 season. Canada West proceeded as a 13-team, 14 member conference for 2010–11, with the inclusion of UBC-Okanagan as a non-competing, probationary member for 2010–11, in time to begin competition (pending summer 2011 CIS approval) for the 2011–12 season. In May 2011 Mount Royal was awarded Canada West membership, effective Sept. 2011, with competition to begin in the 2012–13 season. In May 2013 MacEwan (Formally Grant MacEwan) approved as a 17th Canada West member starting in the 2013–2014 season.

From its inception in 1965, Simon Fraser competed in the NAIA to allow "full ride" scholarships. Canadian schools did not allow any form of scholarships until the late 1980s. SFU was forced to leave the NAIA in many sports due to schools in the Northwest US shifting to the NCAA. Until 2009, the NCAA limited membership to schools based in the U.S. Some Simon Fraser teams still competed in the U.S. before the school moved to the NCAA, and their men's wrestling program competed in the then-CIS and the NAIA. UBC has several of its programs (baseball, golf, outdoor track and field and softball) compete in the NAIA.

Canada West TV

On August 24, 2011, the association announced the launch of Canadawest.tv as the official home of web-based broadcasting for all 14 Canada West member institutions during the 2011–12 season and beyond. On May 10, 2017, Canada West announced a multi-year deal with Surrey, BC based streaming company, Yare Media, to develop a re-vamped service for the 2017–18 season. In 2017, a dramatic 59-yard field goal kick by Niko DiFonte with two seconds on the clock lifted the Calgary Dinos over the UBC Thunderbirds to win the 81st Hardy Cup football championship in November. Immediately, the footage circulated across mainstream media. Not only did the clip of the record-breaking kick get coverage on television networks and social media channels across North America – including Sportsnet, TSN, CBC, ESPN, NFL.com and USA Today – but it also showcased the streaming quality of the new-look Canada West TV.

In January 2018, Canada West announced record viewing numbers for the new service. On June 8, 2020, the conference announced cancellation of fall sports and no events were featured on Canadawest.tv. Throughout the remainder of 2020 the conference would announce a series of cancellations. The conference announced the resumption of Canadawest.tv streaming on Aug 3, 2021. The 2021–2022 season marked the tenth year of Canada West TV service and the first year with streaming partner Visaic after its acquisition of Yare Media in 2020.

Awards

Main article: Canada West University Hockey Awards

External links

• Official website
• Canadawest.tv