Junior hockey players to maintain NCAA eligibility
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is considering a proposal that would allow hockey players with experience in major junior or even professional hockey to retain NCAA eligibility. The players could not be paid more than actual and necessary expenses involved in participating at those levels.
This is great news for young Canadian hockey players at the Triple A level. They could explore playing at home in the Canadian Hockey League while maintaining eligibility to play at major U.S. schools under scholarship.
A meeting in November will decide this once and for all. If approved, this new proposal would kick in on August 1, 2025.
PWHL schedule expands, starts earlier
The Professional Women’s Hockey League announced its opening will be Saturday, November 30, a month earlier than in its debut season last year. Each of the league’s six teams will play a 30-game regular season schedule, starting with the Toronto Sceptres hosting the Boston Fleet.
The regular season will end on May 3, 2025. Fourteen fixtures were listed without a venue to leave openings to play in larger venues and/or neutral sites.
Canadian university basketball championships to be played out west
The 2026 U SPORTS Men’s Basketball Final 8 championship will be held in Calgary and hosted by the University of Calgary Dinos. This will be the first time the event is held in Calgary since 1980. The Dinos last won the championship in 2018.
The Laval Rouge et Or won at home in 2024. The 2025 Final 8 will be held on the campus of the University of British Columbia, as will the Women’s Final 8. The defending women’s champions heading into this season are the Carleton Ravens.
US college basketball preseason rankings released
The Kansas Jayhawks begin the U.S. college basketball season ranked #1 in the preseason Associated Press poll. They lost in the 2nd round of March Madness last season but feature a lineup including First-team All-Big 12 Hunter Dickinson and two players from the transfer portal: AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo.
Alabama, who made it to their first Final Four last year are ranked number two, followed by Connecticut, who will look to become the first team since UCLA in 1973 to win a third straight championship.
Duke, with 17-year-old freshman forward Cooper Flagg expected to be the first pick in next year’s NBA Draft, are ranked 7th.
The defending champion South Carolina Gamecocks are ranked #1 in the AP women’s poll.
College basketball comes to Lethbridge
Four teams from “mid-major” conferences in American college basketball will play in the NCAA’s first hoops multi-team event in Alberta. The VisitLethbridge.com Arena – home of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes – will host the event from November 28-30.
The 6,000-seat arena will welcome the Kennesaw State Owls, Towson University Tigers, UC Irvine Anteaters and Kent State Golden Flashes. Each team will play one another once over the three days.
Slope season gets underway
The World Cup alpine skiing season starts October 26 in Soelden, Austria with American Mikaela Shiffrin only three wins away from 100 in her career. The circuit will hit Tremblant, Quebec with a women’s giant slalom event December 7 and 8.
Canada’s best hope in women’s alpine this year is 27-year-old Valerie Grenier from Ottawa. She finished 5th in giant slalom last season with a win at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She had previously won there in 2023 as well.
Forge finish first again in CPL
Forge FC, coached by Bobby Smyrniotis out of Scarborough, won the Canadian Premier League Shield as winners of the 2024 regular season. For the Forge, based in Hamilton, it’s only their second time finishing at the top of the table.
In the postseason, it’s a different story. They’ve played for the North Star Cup in all five of the league’s previous seasons, winning four times. Ironically, the only year they lost the championship was in 2021, the year they previously won the Shield.
Forge will look for a third straight title, and their first Canadian Soccer double, beginning with a home playoff game October 27 at Tim Hortons Field and the championship game slated for November 9.
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