Canada West Universities Athletic Association

The Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities 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. The CWUAA, which covers Western Canada, is one of four such bodies that are members of the country's governing body for university athletics, Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). The other three regional associations coordinating University level sports in Canada are Ontario University Athletics, Atlantic University Sport, and the Quebec Student Sports Federation.

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 Great Plains Athletic Conference) was absorbed into Canada West.

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.

Member schools

Institution	Team	City	Province	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Endowment	Division
University of British Columbia	Thunderbirds	Vancouver	BC	1908	Public	43,579	$1.01B	Pacific
Trinity Western University	Spartans	Langley	BC	1962	Private-Christian	2700	---	Pacific
University of Victoria	Vikes	Victoria	BC	1903	Public	19,500	$155.4M	Pacific
Simon Fraser University	Clan	Burnaby	BC	1965	Public	28,207	$176.9M	Pacific
University of the Fraser Valley	Cascades	Abbotsford	BC	1974	Public	21,500	---	Pacific
Thompson Rivers University	WolfPack	Kamloops	BC	1970	Public	13,072	---	Pacific
University of Calgary	Dinos	Calgary	AB	1966	Public	28,196	$444M	Central
University of Alberta	Golden Bears	Edmonton	AB	1908	Public	36,435	$751M	Central
University of Saskatchewan	Huskies	Saskatoon	SK	1907	Public	19,082	$136.7M	Central
University of Lethbridge	Pronghorns	Lethbridge	AB	1907	Public	8000+	$24.5M	Central
Brandon University	Bobcats	Brandon	MB	1890	Public	3383	---	Great Plains
University of Regina	Rams	Regina	SK	1911	Public	12,800	$25.9M	Great Plains
University of Winnipeg	Wesmen	Winnipeg	MB	1871	Public	9219	---	Great Plains
University of Manitoba	Bisons	Winnipeg	MB	1877	Public	27,599	$303M	Great Plains

Scholarships, UBC, Simon Fraser University, and the NAIA

In May 2005, UBC made a formal bid to join the NCAA. The NCAA has not yet made a decision on whether to admit UBC. See the UBC article for more details.

Simon Fraser (known as the SFU Clan) did not compete in CIAU/CIS 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. The status of the SFU programs in Canada West remain uncertain during the transition time.

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. The NCAA limits membership to schools based in the U.S.. Some Simon Fraser teams still compete in the U.S., and their men's wrestling program competes in both organizations.

UBC also has their men's baseball program compete in the NAIA.

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.

Facilities
Institution	Football Stadium	Seated Capacity	Basketball Arena	Seated Capacity	Hockey Arena	Seated Capacity	Soccer Stadium	Seated Capacity
UBC	Thunderbird Stadium	3500	UBC War Memorial Gymnasium	2222	Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre	1500	Thunderbird Stadium	3500
TWU	No Football	--	Langley Event Centre	2000	No Hockey @CIS Level	--	yes
Victoria	No Football	--	McKinnon Gym	--	No Hockey	--	Centennial Stadium	5000
Simon Fraser	Swangard Stadium	5288	SFU West Gym SFU Central Gym SFU East Gym	1500 1500 500	No Hockey at CIS level	--	Terry Fox Field
UFV	No Football	--	Envision Athletic Centre	1700	No Hockey	--	Bateman Park	1000
Thompson Rivers	No Football	--	T.C.C.	2200	No Hockey	--	Hillside Stadium	1060
Calgary	McMahon Stadium	35,650	Jack Simpson Gymnasium	2700	Father David Bauer Olympic Arena	1750	West Varsity Soccer Pitch	500
Alberta	Foote Field	3500	Universiade Pavilion	5500	Clare Drake Arena	3000	Foote Soccer Field	1500
Saskatchewan	Griffiths Stadium	4997	U of S PAC	2426	Rutherford Rink	700	yes
Lethbridge	No Football	--	1st Choice Savings Centre	2500	Nicholas Sheran Arena	1100	University Field
Brandon	No Football	--	Brandon University Gym	1000	No Hockey	--	No Soccer
Regina	Mosaic Stadium	28,800	UR CKHS	2000	Sherwood Twins Arena	1000	No Soccer
Winnipeg	No Football	--	Duckworth Centre	1780	No Hockey	--	No Soccer
Manitoba	University Stadium	5000	Investors Group Athletic Centre	3100	Max Bell Centre	1400	University Stadium

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

The University of Manitoba is deep in negotations with David Asper on a deal that will build a new 30,000 seat football stadium (expandable to 45,000) at the intersection of University Crescent and Chancellor Matheson Drive at the University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus. Asper will assume ownership of the community-owned Winnipeg Blue Bombers as part of the deal and the Bisons will play in this new stadium.

(Data mined from the CIS homepage's member directory and WorldStadiums.com. The members 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.

• University of Northern British Columbia
• University of British Columbia-Okanagan
• Capilano University
• Vancouver Island University

References

External links

• Canada West webpage
• CIS homepage