By Curtis Wolff
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is introducing its own version of March Madness during next year’s men’s and women’s hockey and basketball championships.
All four of these national championship events will be held simultaneously from March 12–15, 2015. CIS broadcasting partner Sportsnet will provide over 20 hours of coverage on Semifinal Saturday and Championship Sunday.
“These are exciting times for our organization,” said Pierre Lafontaine, chief executive officer of CIS in a press release. “We truly believe these changes will help us take university sport in Canada to the next level and offer our student athletes and coaches the best platforms to showcase their outstanding talent.”
Participation in both the men’s and women’s hockey championships will expand from six to eight teams. This would have likely given the highly-ranked Dinos men’s team a berth in the University Cup had the new format been implemented this season. These events will adopt a straightforward knock-out format, replacing the current system in which each team is guaranteed to play two games.
The University of Calgary will be hosting the women’s hockey championships next year. The new format will be implemented for 2015 and 2016, and will then undergo a re-evaluation.