Canada's version of March Madness tips off this week

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Next week, many sports fans across North America will begin their annual dalliance with U.S. college basketball when the NCAA men's and women's brackets tip off. But Canada's answer to March Madness happens first as Vancouver hosts the U Sports Final 8 tournaments this Thursday through Sunday.

It's the first time the men's and women's tourneys will be held in the same place, creating a "basketball festival" that's "similar to a March Madness," in the words of UBC athletic director Kavie Toor.

Truthfully, the Canadian university championships are dwarfed by their 68-team American counterparts, which attract millions of viewers and generate billions of dollars in TV rights fees and gambling activity. But the Final 8s are quality tournaments in their own right, using the same single-elimination format that creates so much excitement in the States. Plus, they're a Canadian product — not a bad selling point at this particular moment in Canada-U.S. relations.

Here's more about the men's and women's Final 8s, which you can watch live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.

Men's

A couple of teams are conspicuously absent. One is the Carleton Ravens, who won an incredible 17 national titles in 20 seasons before missing the Final 8 last year. They failed to qualify again after going 15-7 and losing to Queen's in the second round of the Ontario playoffs.

Also out of the picture is reigning champion Laval, which won the title last year in Quebec City with an all-time Cinderella run. The Rouge et Or were only invited to that tournament because they were hosting it — they went 6-10 in the