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New CIS recruiting rules show changing times, but are they a step forward?
Canadian Interuniversity Sport football has transformed substantially over the last two decades, but the recruiting rules haven't. That's about to change, though. The organization has brought in a new set of recruiting rules that take effect Jan. 1, prohibiting some recent behaviours from well-heeled teams such as taking recruits to professional sporting events, providing them apparel, and allowing alumni to specifically hire star recruits for off-field jobs. However, these rules will still be self-enforced by member institutions rather than a central compliance office like the NCAA has. Moreover, while modernizing these rules make some sense, it may not be a completely beneficial move.The key question is if these rules are a net positive, or if they'll hurt CIS relative to other leagues and prevent Canadian schools from landing the top Canadian talents.
What exactly are these new rules, and where do they come from? Well, the CIS recruiting rules hadn't been updated in decades, and the recruitment of former Penn State quarterback Michael O'Connor to UBC this past offseason (where he led the Thunderbirds to their first Vanier Cup since 1997 this November) particularly sparked a push for change. As Allan Maki and David Ebner wrote in The Globe and Mail in early December, O'Connor's recruitment included practices that weren't prohibited under the old system, but raised some hackles:
Mr. O’Connor’s arrival from the United States has not been without controversy, and has put a spotlight on recruitment policies for university sports that are considered vague and inadequate. At issue is the wooing by UBC, its coach, and a key alumni backer of Mr. O’Connor last winter, which included a trip to an NFL playoff game in Seattle and dinner with Warren Moon, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback.
No official complaints have been filed and few are willing to comment publicly about the recruitment of Mr. O’Connor, although the issue has been discussed extensively in the small world of Canadian university football. Many are worried about the effects of the rise of alumni money in football and the need to strengthen Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s recruitment rules.
Although critics have said the recruiting effort went beyond the usual wooing of top prospects, none of the rules of the governing body of university sports were broken, those involved say. “We paid our own way, very expensive,” said John O’Connor, Michael’s father and a retired Ottawa police officer. “Mike isn’t getting any more than he’s entitled to under the rules.”
Since alumni money has begun to bolster about a half-dozen football programs, and these universities have come to dominate on the field.
That last sentence really gets at the heart of the issue here; CIS football has become an unequal playing field, with some programs receiving massive funding from alumni, businesses and donors and many others not. But, clamping down on that isn't necessarily all positive either. As with the ongoing CFL coaching controversies, it's important to remember that Canadian university football isn't a closed ecosystem; it's competing with the much more powerful and resourceful NCAA for players, and tons of top Canadians choose that route (including O'Connor initially). O'Connor's recruitment (which, again, doesn't appear to have violated any of the existing rules) marked a watershed moment for CIS; this league hasn't landed many four-star NCAA recruits in recent years, especially at quarterback. Preventing top schools from providing further benefits may help let some others in the pack get closer to them (but let's be real; the York and Waterloo programs of the world aren't going to be on a level with Laval, Western and UBC any time soon regardless of recruiting restrictions), but it may also hurt CIS schools' ability to get the very top guys.
Some of this again comes down to contrasting visions of what Canadian university football should be. Consider the attempt to bring in a national interlock for top teams this past offseason, which was endorsed by Canada West but shot down by the other conferences. That's something that absolutely would have benefited the top teams, providing them with more high-profile games and more national TV exposure, and it would have helped them compete against the NCAA for recruits. Some of the reasons it didn't happen were a short timeframe and different conferences' own agendas, but there was also a desire to maintain perceived parity; again, though, that perceived parity is really an illusion, as CIS has plenty of perennial powerhouses and basement-dwellers. (Some basement-dwellers can rise to the top, as UBC did this year, but they often need big-time investments to do so.)
Cracking down on some recruiting practices may even things a little bit, but it's not going to make CIS football competitive across the board, and it may be pulling the top programs back to the pack (and behind the NCAA). By contrast, if CIS embraced private money to a greater degree, let its brightest stars shine, and encouraged others to invest to keep up with them, it might be able to make far more of an inroads in the Canadian sporting landscape. It's notable that the reports of the next two Vanier Cups being held in Hamilton really haven't received much attention
These new restrictions certainly aren't a crisis, or something that will break the back of top programs; it's notable that many of the top coaches had a hand in developing them, including UBC's Blake Nill, Laval's Glen Constantin, and Western's Greg Marshall. By that same token, the calls for a central compliance system rather than self-enforcement seem overstated; the top programs' coaches not only agreed to this, but developed this, so it's unlikely they'd break it, and even if they do, in an age of plenty of intrepid reporters and tweeters, it's unlikely they could keep it secret. Some of these restrictions do make some sense, too; in particular, cracking down on alumni hiring athletes based on their athletic skills alone has some merit.
From this corner, the much bigger question is if these restrictions will help or hurt CIS. Nill said in early December he couldn't have recruited O'Connor the way he did under these new rules. Maybe O'Connor still comes to Canada without a trip to Seattle and a visit with Warren Moon, but it seems less likely. The griping about him that's produced these changes may produce a bit more of an equal playing field, but it's griping about the best, most in-demand talent that any CIS school has landed in decades. If other schools had decided to join this approach, CIS might be landing more players of O'Connor's calibre, especially as this looser approach is a contrast to the restrictive NCAA. The newer rules are closer to what the NCAA does, and while they may make things a little more even between Canadian schools, they're not necessarily going to let CIS land the top Canadian talents out there. O'Connor's arrival in Canada may have caused these changes, and they may ensure that the next O'Connor stays south of the border.
