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Graham Brown becomes Canadian Interuniversity Sport CEO; Canada West hits TV paydirt

Manitoba Bisons Vanier Cup dreams dashed in loss to Carabins

Graham Brown knows from leading a national sports organization out of obscurity. True believers and cynics alike would say that makes him well-suited to helming Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

The new chief executive officer of CIS had to pull together stakeholders spread from coast to coast across his decade-plus with Rugby Canada. Now Brown is taking the reins of the overseer of university sports, which has reach into nearly every major city but is overshadowed in almost all of them.

"I see CIS as being already on an escalator," Brown, who replaces Pierre Lafontaine, who resigned early in the year after fewer than two years on the job, said at a news conference in Toronto on Thursday. "We have an opportunity to make sport at the CIS level relevant. The student-athlete will always be paramount, but we will create a higher level of awareness. The time is right.

"It's not going to happen overnight," added Brown, a former University of Windsor basketball and football player. "I know with Rugby Canada it took a lot of time to get to where all of the provinces understood their value propositions. I can assure you that if we could get rugby all on the same page, then there will be tremendous success in CIS. I'm going to have learn more about CIS, but I listen and pride myself on learning to understand where the challenges are."

Brown guided Rugby Canada to a fivefold increase in its annual budget and tenfold-plus increase in staff. That doesn't happen without being able to generate investment and attract sponsors.

"Graham is a builder," said Dr. Michael J. Mahon, who is chairman of the CIS board of directors and president of the University of Lethbridge. "He took over Rugby Canada in the early 2000s and transformed an organization with a budget of a little less than $3 million to, today, a little less than $15 million. He took the staff from three to 40 individuals. He has a led a transformation in terms of the competitiveness of our men's and women's programs at all levels, as well as the dynamic events across the country that rugby stages."

One can rhyme off CIS alumni who are taking on the world, even though Canadian universities generally don't offer full athletic scholarships. McGill grad Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is playing on the offensive line of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. Brown's fellow Windsor alum, Melissa Bishop, earned the women's 800-metre silver medal last month at the world track and field championships. Each of Canada's national basketball teams include Canadian-trained talents. Miah-Marie Langlois (Windsor as well) starts at point guard for the Rio-bound women's team while Aaron Doornekamp and Phil Scrubb (both of Carleton) are on the men's team. Many national-level rugby players hail from CIS.

Yet keeping a place in the sports media sandbox has been daunting. The flagship CIS sport, football, was largely off broadcast TV last season. Sportsnet chose to air only the national semifinal bowls and Vanier Cup. All four regional conferences — Atlantic University Sport, Canada West, Ontario University Athletics and Quebec's RSEQ — have built up online streaming networks for dedicated fans.

Canada West cashes in

 

One obvious remedy is for football to be a vessel for growing the brand. A proposal made earlier this year from the Northern 8 group, fronted by University of Saskatchewan booster David Dube and Vancouver broadcaster Jim Mullin, to create an interlocking football schedule involving top programs didn't come to fruition.

The N8 group has pushed on. On Thursday, it announced a partnership with Canada West and Shaw Global that will put one of the league's semifinal and its Hardy Cup championship game on over-the-air TV. Dube is hopeful that will keep the interlock talk alive.

"The great thing is, for Canadians across the country, they're going to have an opporunity to get two extra games," Dube said in a phone interview from Saskatoon. "You can go to your OUA or RSEQ playoff game, then watch great Canada West football from the comforts of your own home that has network-quality production, I don't think in any way, shape or form you're going to be disappointed in the production. At the end of the day, it's about the students and the fans and we need more fans. We do it great, but if you're not exposing ourselves and if you do that you're underselling your product, and we've been doing that for too long.

"I think it's a major first step in terms of growing the game nationally, but you need willing partners to do it," Dube added. "We're excited to be taking the first step, and you can be sure we can do it right to make sure we have a chance to take the second step."

The OUA, the only conference that has to create a football schedule for an odd number of teams, balked at participating in the interlock. Part of the Northern 8 proposal included creating a national schedule aimed at limiting the possibility of uncompetitive games. Sunday's OUA slate included 76-7 and 78-7 scores.

Brown, as one would anticipate for a new hire, didn't commit to line of thinking regarding interlocking play in football.

"Football is the sport that I'm passionate about," he said. "I'm also passionate about giving opportunities for programs to win. I don't think anybody likes to see programs lose by significant margins, in any sport. But the reality is that are conferences are set up and those decisions — albeit with involvement of CIS — they need to be driven by the regions. I really believe that the conferences need to lead that discussion."

One trace of Lafontaine's short reign that will remain intact is the Super Championship Weekend, where all four basketball and hockey single-elimination saw-offs will take place concurrently. Chief operating officer Drew Love indicated CIS had strong feedback about the switch.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @naitSAYger.