It’s authorities: football will not be going back to Simon Fraser University (SFU).
The Burnaby, B.C., college revealed Wednesday that football, stopped in 2023 after the Texas- based Lone Star Conference picked not to restore its association, will certainly not return.
“Over the past several years, the football landscape had changed significantly, and we no longer believed the program provided an exceptional experience for student-athletes,” the college stated in a declaration.
Dan Burritt talked with participants of Simon Fraser University’s Red Leafs football group after the college revealed it would certainly close the program down.
SFU assigned Bob Copeland, of McLaren Global Sports Solutions, to assess and check out choices for the football program.
In his record, Copeland verified the college had no alternative to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or the United States, which going back to U Sports– the sporting activity regulating body for colleges in Canada — would certainly be expensive without any warranties of a favorable end result.
In its declaration, SFU kept in mind that, like various other colleges, it is “facing an uncertain financial climate.”
While it stated economic difficulties did not affect the choice to finish the football program, it specified they “reinforce the need for stronger financial prudence across all aspects of the university, including Athletics and Recreation.”
SFU’s provost and vice-president, Dilson Rassier, included: “We recognize the program’s historic place in the province’s sporting history and are deeply proud of the football student-athletes who played with SFU over the years.”
The football program started in 1965, along with the beginning of the college’s sports division.
Dilson Rassier, the provost and vice-president of academics for the college, informed the CBC’s Amy Bell that the Burnaby college was reassessing its sporting activities approach heading right into 2025.
Rassier stated the choice to reduce the football program was not ignored.
“We do have to work with our reality and with the means that we have, and right now everybody knows that the universities across Canada are undergoing very difficult financial times,” he informed Amy Bell, visitor host of CBC’s On The Coast
“The mission of university is education. It’s not to develop professional athletes in any sport.”
“We’d be very happy if that happens, but that’s not the main mission of our university.”
