Bishop’s Gaiters Football Team Moving to Atlantic Canada in 2017

Championship Contention and Costs Reasons For Move To Atlantic University Sport

SportsTristan D’Amours — Published December 15, 2016

“In order to achieve our definition of excellence we needed to reinvest in our program, and our football program most notably,” said Bishop’s Gaiters Athletics Director Joey Sabo over the phone.

According to Sabo, moving the team was an idea running through the Bishop’s hierarchy for some time. However, around the end of this year, serious discussions emerged.

After narrowing down options, talks among Bishop’s staff about the move to the AUS were held earlier this week. The university inquired about joining the league in 2017. News of the Gaiters joining the likes of Acadia and St. Francis-Xavier universities broke Thursday Dec. 15.

“I don’t think that in our plan is we’re going away to come back stronger. We’re making this commitment,” — Bishop’s Gaiters Atheltics Director, Joey Sabo

Championship contention was a big aspect of the decision to move to Atlantic Canada. After suffering a 1-7 record last season and having seen the playoffs only five times since 2002, the Gaiters were looking for a place where they would be in competing for a title regularly.

“We needed to provide for a student athlete the opportunity to compete for a championship at a conference level at least one every three or four years,” said Sabo. “Within the conference of the RSEQ that was not possible.”

The smallest football-playing school in Canada hopes that this new competition will bring more recruits to their team. Along with the search for a new head coach to replace Kevin Mackey, the Gaiters will use this new conference as a way to attract talent.

“Once we find that next head coach, if that works, I think that we will attract student athletes that were not interested in coming to Bishop’s,” said Sabo.

The Maple League Has Football Now

Bishop’s had relationships with three AUS universities before joining their football league. With Acadia, Mount Allison and St. Francis-Xavier, they form the Maple League of Universities—a group of small schools that have a liberal arts and science education focus.

The relationship helped the four smaller universities to know each other better, from the presidents all the way down to the students. With the move, the relation between the four universities will grow.

“I don’t think [the deans and presidents of the universities] ever thought that athletics was going to be a part of this,” said Sabo, adding that this is the first time the schools have integrated student services. “I think it’s one of those things that just happened.”

With the move planned for 2017, Bishop’s and Sabo are grateful that the RESQ wish for an eventual return to their football league. But Sabo remains convinced that this is the smartest thing to do for the football program.

“I don’t think that in our plan is we’re going away to come back stronger. We’re making this commitment,” said Sabo.

As for the health and status of his other programs, Sabo said that their basketball team did not appear to have issues when the reviews were sent to him. He says that the budget for basketball is comparable to other other teams in the RSEQ, giving it a good chance of staying in the conference.

The former Gaiters football player also mentioned that the men’s rugby team was in good health but cited women’s soccer and women’s rugby as “teams that we are going to address in the next couple of years.”