U Sports drops first-year grade requirements for participation, scholarships

Canada's governing body of varsity sports is changing its policies to allow students entering universities to be eligible to participate in sports and receive athletic scholarships regardless of their grades.

U Sports said in a statement Thursday that enrolling student-athletes will be able to play and receive scholarships as long as they have been accepted to a member university and enrolled in degree-granting courses.

The changes will come into force for the 2024-25 season.

Currently, student-athletes to have an 80 per cent average in their final year of high school or CEGEP to be eligible for an entering athletic scholarship and a 60 per cent average to be allowed to play varsity sports in their first year.

"These changes intend to remove systemic barriers impacting a student-athlete's ability to participate in U Sports and receive funding assistance for pursuing their education," U Sports CEO Pierre Arsenault said in a press release.

"Our focus is to make university studies and sports participation more accessible. For current entering student-athletes, participation in U Sports depends on their high school or CEGEP grades. Therefore, we chose to align participation and scholarship qualification with admission to an institution."

Also, beginning in the 2024-25 U Sports institutions will be required to give a minimum of 45 per cent of their total athletic scholarship units to athletes on men's teams and a minimum of 45 per cent to athletes on women's teams.

An athletic scholarship unit equals 100 per cent of tuition and mandatory fees for any student-athlete during an academic year.