SFU football alumni seeking injunction to reinstate axed varsity team

One week after Simon Fraser University announced it was eliminating varsity football, team supporters say they will ask the courts to revive the 57-year-old program. 

The SFU Football Alumni Society will file an injunction against the Burnaby, B.C., school to reinstate its football program. The litigation is scheduled to be filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, with the society doing so on behalf of seven players on the team.

"There's a contract in place holding the university and student-athletes responsible through athletic scholarships," said SFU Football Alumni Society president Mark Bailey.

"The student-athletes have fulfilled their commitment to the university to represent and compete. We are essentially asking that the university follow through with the commitment they had with the contracts that were created through these athletic scholarships."

On April 4, school president Joy Johnson announced in a written statement that SFU was discontinuing its football program, effective immediately.

Johnson said the team would not play the upcoming 2023 season due to the "ongoing uncertainty" caused by the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference announcing it would drop SFU football beginning in 2024.

On the same day, SFU senior athletic director Theresa Hanson and vice-president and provost Wade Parkhouse met with players to deliver the news. Hanson told the team the decision to axe football was not financially motivated and called the process to join another conference "very complex." 

"The university made a very difficult decision and felt that it was in the best interest to announce it now," Hanson said to the players.

According to Bailey, alumni were "shocked" to hear the news because Johnson made no mention of it