Would like to add Simon Fraser for long term speculation.
SFU is D2 (GNAC) however hockey is in the BCIHL, which is a Div 2 league in BC for college hockey. The program is nowhere near the position to even think of joining D1 at the moment, but if they can find a generous donor, it could work in the long term.
The current rink, Bill Copeland, Sears 2k, which wouldn’t be the worst, but it definitely isn’t ideal. The only real positives it has is it’s location directly on the Trans-Canada highway, and near a rapid transit station, as well as being in fairly close proximity to SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus. Ideally, the team gets a new arena, however I think it would be more realistic for the clan to play in the Pacific Coliseum (17k), which isn’t too far from Campus, and has a highway connection, but lack of transit, or Rogers Arena (18k), which is certainly more accessible to most people in the region, and is a quality NHL barn.
Academically, I doubt the PAC-8/12 would add SFU, so I think there would have to be an additional West Coast conference, one that would almosr certainly be home to schools like UAA and UAF.
The Vancouver market (and to a lesser degree all of Canada), has to be an adavantage, but I really don’t know if it would be enough to justify D1 membership within the next 20 years.
Of course, if this was UBC we were talking about, they could be playing D1 within 10 years, but unfortunately the school wants to stick with USports, partially due to SFU’s lacklustre tenure in the NCAA so far.
