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Huge Benefit for Student Athletes if NCAA Comes to Canada
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By Jamie Uyeyama
It's a scary four letters for many Canadian institutions - NCAA.
To those that are afraid, those letters stand for business, money, and change. For student athletes in Canada it stands for opportunity, scholarships, and growth.
That is exactly why all student athletes in Canada should be excited about the possibility of the NCAA accepting Canadian schools into their organization.
Previously, the NCAA had been reluctant to accept any Canadian school into their ranks, but interest shown by a few Canadian schools (led by the University of British Columbia) encouraged them to allow application to join Division II for the 2009-2010 athletic season with the chance to compete in one men's and women's sport at the Division I level.
One wonders why this did not happen sooner. Why do the best athletes have to leave this country in order to get the best athletic opportunities?
They go down south because they can get full scholarships, work with top strength and conditioning coaches, and play in great facilities. This is what the NCAA can bring to Canada and Bob Philip, the athletic director at UBC, sees it the same way.
He wants to be able to offer the same types of things that are drawing student athletes away from Canada and keep the best athletes in this country. At least a few other schools have expressed the same kind of interest and that is extremely exciting to student athletes and sports fans everywhere.
Who wouldn't be excited about our best athletes staying in Canada? The talk has been that the one sport that UBC would compete in Division I is hockey. Imagine if Canadians that played hockey in the NCAA (Paul Kariya, Jonathan Toews, and Dany Heatley, to name a few) stayed home to play their college hockey.
Students would come out in droves to see these future NHL stars play. Full scholarships for hockey in Canada might even convince some star players to spurn regional leagues and instead compete in the Frozen Four for a hometown school.
There is no doubt there would be obstacles to overcome for the NCAA to be successful in Canada. There would have to be a significant increase in sponsorship and fundraising for athletics to compete with an increase in salaries for coaches, improvements in facilities, and most importantly more scholarships.
But if certain schools are willing to make that commitment, then the benefits for student athletes could be massive. It is my personal experience as a NCAA athlete that leads me to believe this.
Coming out of high school, I was recruited and offered scholarships to play football at schools in Canada, but when I was given the opportunity to take a full scholarship to an NCAA school, I graciously accepted.
I wanted to stay home, but the schools recruiting me did not have the ability to offer me a chance to go to school for free. After some time south of the border, I eventually ended up transferring back home to finish my athletic career because that is where I always wanted to be.
Now, student athletes might have the opportunity to choose to stay home and receive the same type of scholarships that are available in the U.S.
That's a choice I would've gladly made.
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