Hey all
I see that Simon Fraser is playing football against Humboldt St. - does Simon Fraser play usa football rules all the time or is this a one time thing?
Simon Frazer question
Moderator: Team Captains
-
mightybuck
- Legend
- Posts: 1437
- Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:28 pm
"The most competitive men love the most competitive game" Vince Lombardi
A true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else is walking out
A true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else is walking out
-
TheLionKing
- Hall of Famer
- Posts: 25103
- Joined: Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:13 pm
- Location: Vancouver
SFU plays in the NCAA Division 2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference. They play American rules.
-
Toppy Vann
- Hall of Famer
- Posts: 9793
- Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:56 pm
SFU from its opening in 1965 played in the USA originally NAIA but gradually there were few teams to play. Then they went back to play across Canada and a few years decided to apply to NCAA and got in as noted.
SFU was and is able to reach dozens of US universities near by in Wash, Oregon by bus whereas in Canada to play Calgary or Edmonton univs, like the CFL does you need to fly. High cost.
Years back when I played high school football 1962 -63 before SFU opened we played US rules as UBC who is in Canada playing was at that time playing schools in Washington and Oregon and it was apparently for that reason the Vancouver high schools played 11 man 4 down football.
In minor ball before that my league for all the years I played there was 3 down and 8 man. I was a huge believer in that for development was we would play 12 man teams in full exhibition games every year and we never lost. We'd beat them like a rented mule. We played 12 on D when their offense was out but 8 on offense and they'd use 8 on their D. Their basics were not as good as us - blocking, tackling, team play - even though when we played defense with 4 extras we'd still stop them even though 4 guys were just basically making it up and we had no time to prep for defending 12 as we had our own league to worry about. I saw a huge difference at high school with 11 men as guys not from minor ball missed assignments more frequently on our offense whereas in 8 man it'd stick out like a sore thumb when someone messed up.
SFU was and is able to reach dozens of US universities near by in Wash, Oregon by bus whereas in Canada to play Calgary or Edmonton univs, like the CFL does you need to fly. High cost.
Years back when I played high school football 1962 -63 before SFU opened we played US rules as UBC who is in Canada playing was at that time playing schools in Washington and Oregon and it was apparently for that reason the Vancouver high schools played 11 man 4 down football.
In minor ball before that my league for all the years I played there was 3 down and 8 man. I was a huge believer in that for development was we would play 12 man teams in full exhibition games every year and we never lost. We'd beat them like a rented mule. We played 12 on D when their offense was out but 8 on offense and they'd use 8 on their D. Their basics were not as good as us - blocking, tackling, team play - even though when we played defense with 4 extras we'd still stop them even though 4 guys were just basically making it up and we had no time to prep for defending 12 as we had our own league to worry about. I saw a huge difference at high school with 11 men as guys not from minor ball missed assignments more frequently on our offense whereas in 8 man it'd stick out like a sore thumb when someone messed up.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
The NCAA changed their rules a few years ago to allow non American schools in. SFU took advantage right away, due to the reasons already stated. There has been talk of other schools in Canada doing the same thing (UBC, U of A out west), but to date SFU is the only one to join.
Switching to NCAA does have some issues for CIS schools as their eligibilty rules are different (4 years rather then 5 is a big one) and I am not sure how Junior Football counts in NCAA, right now I believe in Canada you are allowed 2 years in Junior Football before it counts against your CIS eligibilty. Also in hockey, players can not play WHL and then play NCAA. Most of the top CIS teams are full of former Major Junior Players (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL), as they get 1 year tuition from their former league for every year they play Major Junior Hockey.
Switching to NCAA does have some issues for CIS schools as their eligibilty rules are different (4 years rather then 5 is a big one) and I am not sure how Junior Football counts in NCAA, right now I believe in Canada you are allowed 2 years in Junior Football before it counts against your CIS eligibilty. Also in hockey, players can not play WHL and then play NCAA. Most of the top CIS teams are full of former Major Junior Players (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL), as they get 1 year tuition from their former league for every year they play Major Junior Hockey.
-
Toppy Vann
- Hall of Famer
- Posts: 9793
- Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:56 pm
As a former governor of Simon Fraser (9 years) and also an alumni rep on a committee to save football at SFU I know a fair amount of the history of this (but not recent as to why the move back to the USA - other than possibly the high cost and time for travel across Canada.
Lorne Davies now retired Ath. Dir. and first SFU HC used to talk of Gordon Shrum's claim of getting to a Rose Bowl and of course once Shrum said it - it was out there for ever as he was a powerful impressive figure who was responsible for building SFU as an instant university and doing it quickly. He might have got it wrong to put it on the mountain and not in a more urban setting but he wanted to serve regions around and east of the campus and believed IIRC that if they build it there - the transportation would follow.
Lorne used to say how he had to tell the Chancellor what it would take to have got that far and SFU was from that.
Lorne also would say how many universities there were within 200 miles of SFU and other than UBC and U of Vic. (no football) there were none in Canada to compete with.
Ken Strand when President was not enamored with sports on campus and when budgets got tight he too was questioning high cost sports like football. But when fund raising started and he and later Presidents would go back east to meet potential major donors from industry they'd open the meeting with comments like "I don't know much about SFU but I sure know you got a fine football program." This was the reason it didn't get done like dinner. When George Pedersen was President the gov't cutbacks were really hard and football faced its darkest time but managed to get saved luckily.
The name of SFU was then stated repeatedly on CFL broadcasts (unlike today) with many outstanding players. Money cannot buy that free advertising and SFU did a study and valued the earned media coverage from sports and the numbers were very significant.
SFU guys in the CFL were across the league and doing well and no broadcast CFL game was without a mention of Lui or some other guy from Simon Fraser.
Lorne Davies now retired Ath. Dir. and first SFU HC used to talk of Gordon Shrum's claim of getting to a Rose Bowl and of course once Shrum said it - it was out there for ever as he was a powerful impressive figure who was responsible for building SFU as an instant university and doing it quickly. He might have got it wrong to put it on the mountain and not in a more urban setting but he wanted to serve regions around and east of the campus and believed IIRC that if they build it there - the transportation would follow.
Lorne used to say how he had to tell the Chancellor what it would take to have got that far and SFU was from that.
Lorne also would say how many universities there were within 200 miles of SFU and other than UBC and U of Vic. (no football) there were none in Canada to compete with.
Ken Strand when President was not enamored with sports on campus and when budgets got tight he too was questioning high cost sports like football. But when fund raising started and he and later Presidents would go back east to meet potential major donors from industry they'd open the meeting with comments like "I don't know much about SFU but I sure know you got a fine football program." This was the reason it didn't get done like dinner. When George Pedersen was President the gov't cutbacks were really hard and football faced its darkest time but managed to get saved luckily.
The name of SFU was then stated repeatedly on CFL broadcasts (unlike today) with many outstanding players. Money cannot buy that free advertising and SFU did a study and valued the earned media coverage from sports and the numbers were very significant.
SFU guys in the CFL were across the league and doing well and no broadcast CFL game was without a mention of Lui or some other guy from Simon Fraser.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy