The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association was formally established in July of 1973 to provide a national sports governing body for the various regional collegiate athletic conferences, of which there were then six and are now five: The British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association (formerly the Totem Conference); the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAA); the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA); the Federation des Association Sportives Collegiales du Quebec (FSQC); and the Atlantic Colleges Athletic Association (ACAA), as well as the now-defunct Manitoba Athletic Association.
In 1971, interprovincial competition was initiated when college conferences in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba formed the 4-West championships for competition in seven sports. In 1972, Quebec and Ontario initiated similar provincial competitions. The following year the CCAA was formally established. It began conducting a national championship in the 1974-75 campaign.
John Cruickshank notes in his master’s thesis that “since its founding in June, 1973, the CCAA has struggled with many problems: limited independent financing, its members divergent philosophies of education and sport, competitive imbalance from conference to conference, lack of central leadership and organization, and lack of long-range planning and policy development.”
The CCAA was, in many respects, the product of the unparalleled expansion of post-secondary education programs across Canada in the 1960s. In June-1972, Don Stouffer of Calgary’s Mount Royal College convened a meeting in Quebec City with Wayne Halliwell from Dawson College; Al Hoffman and Jack Costello from St. Clair College in Windsor; and Bud Fraser from Sport Canada. They agreed to form an Ad Hoc Steering Committee on the Formation of a National Association to Promote College Athletics. “Stouffer called for the first meeting of the steering committee to take place at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Oct 16 and 17-1972 in conjunction with the annual convention of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, an organization formed to promote professional development activities among Canadian colleges. Some 14 college representatives from B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec attended the steering committee hearing. A series of motions were passed that gave the association its name, the CCAA, as well as its first political structure– four regions and 3 committees– membership, constitution and government liaison. There was great optimism at the meeting that national championships would soon occur.”
Because the West had organized competitions to determine a 4-West champion, they were accorded but a single voice, and the CCAA was created on the basis of regions: Four-West; Ontario Quebec; and Atlantic (Newfoundland; P.E.I.; Nova Scotia; and New Brunswick) with each being allotted four votes. (Mal Stelck of Castlegar’s Selkirk College abstained on the vote to create four regions). At the time, the Atlantic had but 3 non-university colleges, yet was given 4 CCAA votes. Only the Nova Scotia Colleges Conference was organized. Ontario had 27 member institutions, and got 4 votes. Quebec had 50 members and 4 votes. The West had 27 colleges and got 4 votes.
The CCAA received federal recognition and funding in early 1973. At the start, it suffered a raft of problems stemming from the vast educational differences of the member institutions. Some were university transfer programs. Others granted degrees. Some had 3-4-year programs. Others were junior colleges. Some leagues had 2 members, while others had 20. Some schools had enrolments over 5000, while others had enrolments under 200.
The consequences of the CCAA’s constitutional imbalance were enormous when the organization got around to organizing national championships, commencing with basketball in 1974-75. The Nova Scotia CC, with but 3 schools, automatically was entitled to send its champ to the nationals. But the four western conferences had to play-off with one another to send a single representative.
The West objected strenuously but with only 4 votes, lacked the numbers in the CCAA assemblies to change the structure of championships.
At the CCAA annual general meeting in 1976, in Burnaby, a motion was defeated to give each province one vote in CCAA business.
In 1977, a similar motion defeated but another was carried allowing for representation by provincial champions in national tournament draws. The association appointed an ad hoc committee with a mandate “to present a complete report on a provincial representative format for the national championship tournaments and submit it to the CCAA executive as soon as possible.” A survey, presented to members at the 6th annual AGM in Sydney, N.S. in 1978, indicated that member schools preferred a 6-team wildcard draw.
At that 1978 gathering, members also approved a motion adopting a new voting structure, based on the concept of representation by population. Each province was given one representative and then delegates according to the number of member colleges within their conference who’d paid their annual CCAA membership fees. 0-9 colleges = 0 delegates; 10-19 colleges = 1 delegate; 20-304 colleges – 2 delegates; 30 and over – 3 delegates. “The concomitant restructuring of competitive representation to national championships, however, had to await Sport Canada’s approval of additional funds to finance the travel of seven provincial champions rather than four. That approval was received in 1979 and was in effect for the 1980 championships.”
But CCAA past president Don Stouffer was concerned about the competitiveness of the Prairie, Manitoba and Nova Scotia conferences. Given that representation by province would allow the one college from P.E.I. to demand an entry, he proposed that representation by province be amended to become “representation by bona fide college athletic conference.” He proposed a motion to that effect, prompting an 18-month debate.
At the June/79 CCAA meeting, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan expressed concern that such a regime would void their automatic entry into national championships. The Nova Scotia champion was getting an automatic entry into national draws as “no team from a college in Newfoundland, PEI, or New Brunswick did challenge the Nova Scotia College Conference winner’s right to direct access to national championships.” No representative of the Manitoba Conference attended the gathering.
Stouffer’s motion hit the floor seconded by president Al Hoffman. It was amended by a Quebec proposal that read “that representation to the CCAA national championship shall be from bona fide college athletic conferences rather than from individual provinces.” The motion was carried. It was supported the by FASCQ because they’d just “initiated an elite college league concept in Quebec, and the amendment was consistent with their competitive philosophy.”
Immediately thereafter, there was a motion from the floor declaring the NSAC, FASCQ, OCAA, PAC, ACAC and Totem conferences as bona fide conferences. It too was carried. In one fell swoop, Manitoba was eliminated from CCAA championships, while the CCAA adopted a position that was essentially inconsistent with its 1978 policy to introduce representation by province. Post hoc, the AGM asked the constitution and bylaws committee to define the notion of a “bona fide” conference. National vice-president Don Stelck was so incensed by the developments that he resigned, although he later reconsidered his position.
The Manitoba Conference (which was comprised of two teams, Red River and Assiniboine, and did not play a regular season) was furious. The provincial government, through the Manitoba Department of Education, questioned the CCAA’s right to make decision. Stouffer steadfastly argued that Manitoba schools were not competitive and did not deserve an automatic berth. As a consequence, no Manitoba representative was allowed into the 1980 draw.
At the Kelowna B.C. gathering in 1980, Stelck presented criteria for inclusion, i.e., a definition of what constituted a bona fide conference. It had to have an approved constitutions & bylaws; a “written expression of commitment to the development of sport”; a minimum number of members; and “establishing reporting-communicating relationships with appropriate college administrators”; provide professional athletic personnel employed full-time by the college whose duties include the organization and administration of athletic programs; and must provide a competitive framework for determining its best athletic representatives in sports conducted.”; and be incorporated. The criteria were approved and Manitoba was re-instated as a bona fide conference in 1981. But it only had 2 schools competing in basketball, so it was decided that its champion had to “play in” against the wildcard selection to the national tournament. By contrast, Nova Scotia had only 3 eligible members at the time yet was given an automatic berth. The latter expanded when Mount St. Vincent and the University of King’s College accepted as CCAA members in 1981. Quebec had 50 members, of which only 31 were CCAA members as only teams that were toiling at the AAA CEGEP level were deemed eligible for the CCAA nationals.
The controversy dissipated in June-1981 when the play-in game was eliminated and the Manitoba champ given an automatic berth into the national tourney.