Choice words from Guelph AD

Guelph athletic director Tom Kendall was, um, rather candid with Greg Layson today over the CIS-vs.-NCAA debate.
"Aside from the want of "full ride scholarships," Kendall thinks there are other reasons UBC and SFU want out of the CIS.

"Maybe it's because UBC and SFU simply can't compete in the high-profile sports in the CIS. They're crappy at football, they're crappy at basketball and they're crappy at hockey," he said. "In Division II, maybe they'll be able to compete."
-- Big Man on Campus
Please do go over for the full remarks from Kendall and Gryphons men's hoops coach Chris O'Rourke. (Kendall isn't exactly parroting the CIS party line.)

The overarching argument, what is so much better about being a NCAA Division 2 school as opposed to being a CIS school that makes it worth it to take this step, is pretty solid. It was also clever for Kendall to frame it as a lock-stock-and-barrel issue where the schools "can't have it both ways" by keeping a few teams in Canada.

Look, it's complicated. This is on one level about the NCAA trying to get its meathooks into what it sees as an underdeveloped market (which it is). On another, it might be a smoke screen to try and force some changes in how the CIS operates in order to reverse the "brawn drain" flowing South.

Either way, it's plenty entertaining.

(Yes, I am aware it's an exaggeration to say Simon Fraser and UBC are "crappy" at some sports, but does everyone always have to be so literal?)




Related:
U of G AD Tom Kendall Sounds Off (Greg Layson, Guelph Mercury's Big Man on Campus)
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