Initial announcement came in April 2023, but pushback from alumni and football community led to report from independent adviser and waiting for new strategic plan for athletic department
The decision to shut down football at SFU is finally final.
There was a pushback from alumni and the football community at large, and the school agreed to hold off on a final decision and bring in an independent adviser to look at the program and athletic department as whole. Athletic director Theresa Hanson and the school cut ties in August 2023, and the department went without an official leader until Luc Simard was hired as executive director of athletics and recreation this past August.
SFU held off on making things official with football until they finished this new strategic plan.
With the program sitting idle for two seasons, shutting it down for good was always the likely conclusion.
Football at SFU dates back to 1965, and the program has produced several CFL stars, including Lui Passaglia, Dave Cutler, Doug Brown and Sean Millington. The team has struggled mightily since moving to the NCAA, including going 4-63 over its final seven seasons.
Dilson Rassier, who oversees athletics as part of being SFU’s Provost and Vice-President Academic, was quoted in a school press release Wednesday as saying: “We recognize the program’s historic place in the province’s sporting history and are deeply proud of the football student-athletes who played with SFU over the years.”
The press release also stated that the adviser’s report “reinforced that SFU had no place to play in the NCAA and found no clear path for the program’s reinstatement,” and it also “warned that an application to play in USports would be costly with the outcome not guaranteed.”
USports is the governing body for Canadian university sport. SFU was playing football in the same Canada West loop as teams like the UBC Thunderbirds until they opted to move its athletic teams to the NCAA in 2010. SFU remains the lone Canadian member of the NCAA.
“In addition, like universities and colleges across the country, Simon Fraser University is facing an uncertain financial climate,” the press release continued. “While these challenges are recent — and do not impact the university’s decision on football — they do reinforce the need for stronger financial prudence across all aspects of the university including Athletics & Recreation.”
According to the press release, highlights of the new strategy “include a stronger commitment to recreation programs to benefit all SFU students and efforts to encourage the SFU community to experience varsity games as part of university life.”
@SteveEwen