OTTAWA, ON – When two members of the College Sports Information Directors of America walked into the offices of the
Canadian Interuniversity Sport on August 15, history was made in a very historic city.
CoSIDA has now visited the headquarters of three major governing bodies of collegiate athletics in North America, with the CIS visit joining previous meetings at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (
NAIA) in Kansas City and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (
NCAA) in Indianapolis.
Indeed, CoSIDA’s outreach continues, and continues to be productive for all parties.
Executive Director Doug Vance and I made the trip to this remarkable Canadian capital to meet with Pierre LaFontaine, the Chief Executive Officer of CIS, and Michel Belanger, the Manager of Communications and Media Relations. I was fortunate in recent years to attend CIS meetings in Mont Tremblant, Quebec and just last year, Toronto. Our objective this year was to learn what is happening with CIS and the membership, as well as provide them opportunities for their membership to engage even more with CoSIDA.
Michel talked about the main focus with the CIS staff this fall, the Vanier Cup. This is the 50th anniversary of the nation’s collegiate football championship game, which will be held in Montreal for the first time. A total of 17 teams from the four CIS conferences will compete in the playoffs with the two finalists competing for the title on November 29 at Percival-Molson Memorial Stadium.
Michel also spoke about the variety of sports communications professionals at the 56 CIS institutions as well as staffing, internet services, and relations with national television networks like TSN.
Other visits included a lunch with Michel and his assistant, Jason Ilacqua, along with University of Ottawa SID Jennifer Elliot. During our time we scheduled meetings with a variety of staff at CIS. We visited with Gord Grace and Kyle Milks (marketing and sponsorships) and Sheila-Ann Newton and Tom Huisman (event operations and development). It was insightful and impressive.
We closed our meetings with a presentation to Pierre and Michel.The hope is to have CIS work with the institutions to drive more members to the CoSIDA Convention. With the added panels available for these SIDs to attend marketing, compliance and other athletic areas at the NACDA sessions, the CIS members will truly benefit in a well-rounded opportunity. They would also be able to be even better educated with the Capital One Academic All-America® program by meeting with the AAA committee. The NAIA is a model with their meeting day held a day prior to CoSIDA, and perhaps CIS could provide the same opportunity.
I truly appreciate Pierre and Michel for their time and support, as well as their appreciation of our visit. I thank Doug for making the quick two-day trip from Kansas and for providing insight and thoughts to the CIS staff.
Yes….NCAA…NAIA….and now CIS. CoSIDA is a 356 day organization and is proud to have met with national collegiate leaders over the years, including the late Myles Brand and current NCAA President Mark Emmert, NAIA Executive Director Jim Carr and Pierre Lafontaine.