(07-15-2019 08:27 PM)gosports1 Wrote: Paging Davidst. could the Alaska schools join a Canadian league?
Such a move would first have to be approved by USports, the governing body of University Sports in Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the NCAA), and that would be no easy feat, given the still large (jet) distances between Canadian Universities and Alaska.
The biggest structural differences is college sports between Canada and the USA is that USports schools offer only limited athletic scholarships. These scholarships can cover a student's tuition and compulsory fees in all provinces except for Ontario, which has a cap of $4,500 awarded. To be eligible, all athletes need at least an 80-per-cent average for first year enrolment. In subsequent years, the minimum average drops to 70 per cent in Ontario and 65 per cent in the rest of Canada. Canadian University hockey is run on a fraction of NCAA budgets. It would be comparable to comparing the budget of an NCAA D-I program to an ACHA Club Hockey program.
The next biggest difference is that Canadian USports has five full years of playing eligibility while the NCAA allows 5 years to fit a four year maximum career of play.
In college hockey, the biggest difference is that USports allows former Canadian Major Junior (OHL, WHL and QMJHL) and former pro players to play, while the NCAA does not allow those players, considering them to be professionals. The Major Junior teams do pay a year's worth of Canadian University tuition for each year a player played major junior hockey (up to three years), but those payments don't not cover room, board and books.
In Canada, Major Junior players join USSports schools at age 19 or 20 when they are not signed by a pro league (NHL, AHL or ECHL) or if they do sign and eventually wash out of those pro leagues. The NCAA does not allow former pros to play college hockey.
In short, I don't see it happening.