Will the CIS ever enforce a fiscal fair-play policy or is inequality the new normal?
In today’s ever-polarizing Canadian economic climate, the divide between society’s haves and have-nots continues to grow. The age-old aphorism of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is becoming more of an irrefutable fact of life than a quirky rhetorical truism.
In the realm of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), where a lack of tangible funding regulations allows for schools who already benefit from preferential private-funding structures unabated by any financial fair play policies (cough cough Laval), are seeing their lofty influx of private (and sometimes overt public) ‘donation’ pay off in astounding ways.
Anyone who follows Canadian college athletics is well aware of the Laval evil empire: a French university tasked with recruiting in a majority English country, with a modest endowment but an extravagant athletics budget. That has been the basic formula for the Rouge et Or’s athletic supremacy. Now throw in a deep roster of alumni and boosters ready and willing to see their alma-mater profit from their sizable charitable donations for an equally self-serving tax-exemption. With friends like these…
Canadian college athletics is facing a disparaging inequality that is ruining the quality of athletic competition. The CIS’s lack of regulatory oversight is directly contributing to the current misanthropic state of affairs. In the current interuniversity climate; it’s become commonplace to see McMaster Football bulldoze a lowly York Lions team 67-10 or Laval hang 64-0 on Saint Francis Xavier. These blowouts are all well and good because the CIS doesn’t care, and the boosters are getting a sweet return on their tax-protected investment. Schools have complained for years, but after Laval rattled off its latest exploit of four Vanier cups in seven years, schools like the University of British Columbia, University of Calgary and Université de Montréal realized, “hey, our alumni have deep pockets too.” If you can’t beat them, join ‘em, and for those who can’t afford to get a seat at the high rollers table, head for the penny slots cause the CIS casino has no time or oversight for chump change.
