U Sports, the national governing body of university sports in Canada, has decided to cancel six of its national championships for the 2020 fall season including football’s national championship game, the Vanier Cup, according to a press release from the league on Monday afternoon.
The organization made the decision due to concerns regarding student-athlete health and safety as well as travel and health restrictions that are affecting parts of the country.
Lisette Johnson-Stapley, U Sports chief sports officer:
“U Sports has been working hard with the four conferences, our 56 member institutions and medical experts to examine the feasibility of delivering the fall national championships this season,. Taking into account the academic realities of university sport, we arrived at a point where a tough decision had to be made.”
Sports affected by the cancellations include women’s field hockey, men and women’s cross country running, women and men’s soccer, women’s rugby and football, which includes the Mitchell and Uteck bowls, as well as the Vanier Cup, which is the Canadian university football championship game.
There are 56 U Sports schools in Canada with nearly 20,000 student athletes competing. The schools are organized into four conferences — the Atlantic University Sport Conference (AUS), Canada West Conference (CW), Ontario University Athletics Conference (OUA) and the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).
All four conferences have also decided to cancel all of their team sports until Dec. 31, 2020.
Sources: Vincent Morello, rcinet.ca, CBC Sports