Canada West Universities Athletic Association

History

The Canada West Universities Athletic Association was founded as the Western Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAA) in 1920, but regular competition between schools at the time were often unfeasible due to the high costs of travel and existing rivalries with American colleges.

In 1971, the WIAA was split into the Canada West Universities Athletic Association and the Great Plains Athletic Association, the latter consisting of schools primarily from Manitoba. In 1988, the GPAA (also known as the GPAC or Plains Athletic Conference) was absorbed into Canada West.

Recent membership changes

In 2005, Thompson Rivers University, based in Kamloops, BC began competition in the conference.

In 2006, the University College of the Fraser Valley, based in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, BC started competition in the conference. The school has since changed its name to the University of the Fraser Valley.

On Sept. 1, 2010, the University of British Columbia at Okanagan (UBC Okanagan) was accepted as a member and commenced play in four sports the fall 2011. Also on Sept. 1, 2010, Thompson Rivers and UFV became full members.

On May 4, 2011, Mount Royal University was granted membership, effective Sept. 1, 2011. After receiving approval from U Sports (known from June 2001 to October 2016 as Canadian Interuniversity Sport, or CIS) on June 21, 2012, the Cougars started competition in men's and women's basketball, hockey, soccer and volleyball in the 2012-13 season.

On Sept. 20, 2011, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) was granted membership, effective immediately. After receiving CIS approval on June 21, 2012, the Timberwolves started competition in men's and women's basketball and soccer in the 2012-13 season.

In May 2014, Grant MacEwan University earned probationary status in the Canada West and could earn full membership privileges in spring of 2016 with a successful probationary period. CIS voting for full membership would follow later in spring of 2016 at the national governing body's annual general meetings.

Facilities

Canadian athletic facilities are often listed by their "maximum capacity", which is often an estimate of their largest recorded crowd in the facility. These maximum capacities can and often do include standing room patrons and attendees seated on grass surrounding a playing field. Seated Capacity is the actual number of permanent seats, be they grandstands or permanently in use bleachers. This is why you will sometimes see larger capacities listed for these sites when searching for them on line. When capacity numbers have mismatched on source sites, unless the larger capacity could be confirmed as a seated capacity, the smaller capacity number has been listed here.

Please update with verified "seated capacities" only when the institutions release more accurate official seated capacities.

Thompson Rivers University only plays basketball and volleyball at the U Sports level. Soccer, badminton, and men's baseball are also played, but currently not at the U Sports level.

Trinity Western University added Canada West teams in swimming, cross country and track & field for the 2010-11 season. Winnipeg has added wrestling for the 2011-12 season. Winnipeg also added baseball (men's) and soccer (men's and women's) but are currently not at the U Sports level.

(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.

In 2012 the conference declared they would not take applications from new schools, as Canada West rejected a bid from Grant MacEwan University.

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 (known as the SFU Clan) 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.

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, cross country, golf, outdoor track and field and softball) compete in the NAIA.