Over the last five years, there has been a not insignificant contraction in the number of universities competing in field hockey in Canada. It got to the point where, during the pandemic, the number of teams competing for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship was just nine.
Yup, nine.
In response, two governing bodies of the sport in Canada — Field Hockey Canada and U Sports — have joined up to change the nature and the eligibility requirements for the national championship for women’s field hockey.
The change makes the U Sports national title tournament an invitational championship that does not require conference approval , but teams must meet standards including a minimum roster and minimum number of games.
This allows universities in Atlantic Canada, which includes club sides in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, to qualify for the national final. Published reports say that only the University of Prince Edward Island meets that criteria, having made its declaration on May 15th. The PEI Panthers remain in the Atlantic University league, which has won the league the last two years.
This would be the equivalent of USA Field Hockey and the NCAA repurposing collegiate field hockey to allow club sides like Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, the University at Buffalo, or Virginia Tech to compete in the national championship tournament against established varsity teams.
Don’t laugh. I have heard rumblings about the NCAA possibly allowing the administration of one or more national tournaments to pass into private hands and be run by professional organizations. In addition, the recent move to allow universities to more than double the number of full scholarships on field hockey could lead to a two-tiered system in Division I, one with full scholarships, and the other tier with those with fewer or no scholarships.
I have the feeling people are going to be looking over the border to see what the future of American collegiate field hockey may look like.