The Northern 8 is a proposal from the mid 2010s. There’s plenty of details here, but in summary, the goal was to create a televised Game of the Week for USport (then CIS), featuring the top 8 teams from each division, with annual promotion and relegation (like soccer leagues in Europe).
The first attempt failed - Ontario was opposed to the idea, and the Atlantic had no interest. A later proposal between Quebec and the West playing some interlocking games fell through when Quebec didn’t want to work with an English broadcaster.
What’s your take?
For or against? Just to save you the trouble of reading through the questions…
Relegation: How strict should relegation be? Should the bottom two Northern 8 teams be relegated, and top 2 U Sport teams promoted? Or just take the top-8 ranked teams? With the former, it guarantees consistent change, while the latter ensures the top 8 teams form the Northern 8, but the change could fluctuate wildly, from no change to 6 of 8 teams dropping down.
Delegation: The initial proposal was for Quebec and the West to have 2 designated spots each, and 4 spots for Ontario. The Atlantic would get one spot the following year, presumably reducing Ontario to 3 spots. Should there be regional delegations to ensure geographic diversity and regional interest, or remove designated spots in favor of the top 8, regardless of location?
Number of Teams: With 8 teams, if each team plays each other once, some teams would play 4 home games, while others would play 3. This could be balanced by playing 6 of 7 opponents once, or 6 teams once and 1 team twice, in a 6 or 8 game schedule. But the best way to determine how teams measure up is by watching them play each other, so an ideal schedule would have each team play each other once. So changing the number of teams to 7 or 9 might make for a more balanced schedule, playing 3 or 4 home and away games, respectively.
Premier League or In-Season Tournament: The original proposal was that the conferences would work together to schedule regular games to accommodate Northern 8 games. Northern 8 teams would play a full regular season against other Northern 8 teams, and non-Northern 8 teams from their own conference. It’s a bit like an in-season tournament: the Northern 8 champion is the Northern 8 team with the best record against each other at the end of the regular season, so there’s no impact on the conference playoff format. The other alternative is to have the Northern 8 act as a Premier league, playing only against each other.
Obviously each university would have their own opinions on this: travel, tradition, logistics, etc. Just seeing what people think about this.
U sports needs to get to a 10 game reg season for betterment of developing players.
Ontario blocked it due to travel costs and their effects on the standings.
The concept is good but you have to deal with university presidents that are set in their ways by making money off foreign students who pay 4x the tuition instead of investing in the university (lining their own pockets).
For the original concept, yes. But a Premier League scenario would produce 3-4 games per week. One of the problems with U Sport football now is the disparity in quality between top teams. Showcasing the best might increase interest by offering a better product.
If I could wave a magic wand and get everything I wanted in life I’d see a heavy emphasis on geography. In BC at the high school level triple A and Double A play in the same division.
I would have American schools mixed in with Canadian schools. Schools like UBC would play American rules when visiting their cities. American schools would play Canadian rules when they came up to Canada during the regular season.
Ideally, you’d have co-operation with the CFL with scheduling games so the American school could be guests of the CFL team. This would promote Canadian football in general. Most Americans think we only play hockey.
You would break the records down to 5 levels. Top tier would be NCAA schools like the Washington Huskies. It’s highly doubtful any Canadian teams would reach the first 3 levels but I’m not opposed to allowing them to try. You would figure out which level the bulk of the Canadian teams were in and that level would be the “Vanier” level.
If a Canadian team qualified for American playoffs they would play American rules regardless of venues. If an American university qualified for the Vanier level they would play full Canadian rules in Canada and modified Canadian rules at home.
Here is my Northwestern Conference
Division 1
UBC
University of Washington
University of Puget Sound
Pacific lutheran university
Central Washington University
Division 2
Portland state University
Lewis & Clark College
George Fox University
Pacific University
Willamette University
Linfield University
Division 3
Western Oregon University
Oregon state university
University of Oregon
Southern Oregon
Eastern Oregon University
Division 4
Eastern Washington University
University of Idaho
Whitworth university
Washington State University
University of Calgary
More games does not equate to more interest … from schools or viewers … I expect if there was money to be made TSN or Sportsnet would have already done it.