UPDATE: RSEQ Decides on Stingers-Carabins Game Cancellation

Neither the Stingers or Carabins Will Receive Wins or Losses as a Result

SportsHarrison-Milo Rahajason — Published October 5, 2017

Both the Stingers and Carabins will have played one fewer game than the rest of the league by time the season ends. The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec, in that case, will not consider wins head-to-head between teams, but will only consider every team’s win percentage, said a statement.

Only in the event of a tie in win percentage between two teams at the end of the regular season will the head-to-head difference between them be considered.

This decision is without precedent. In 2006, the Saint-Francis Xavier University X-Men cancelled a game they were scheduled to play against the McGill Redmen because some of their players and coaches had symptoms of the Norwalk Virus. As a result, they forfeited the game, giving the Redmen a win.

Stingers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Connell called the RSEQ’s ruling “ridiculous,” and emphasized that his team was ready to play.

“I don’t really know how a decision like this was made so quickly,” said Connell. “I don’t really understand what’s going on and how this happened.”

To further Concordia’s frustrations, they were only informed of the cancellation during their Wednesday night practice.

“We had a league meeting this year, and it was brought up that numerous Quebec companies clean locker rooms and disinfect locker rooms,” said Connell. “Players can go into the locker rooms within ten minutes of the room being disinfected. So for them to need a 48-hour quarantine, to me, is not needed.”

Another thing that the Concordia coaching staff noticed was that the Carabins rugby team will be playing a game against the Stingers on Friday evening, which has not been cancelled.

The press release mentions that the Stingers were offered to have the game postponed to Monday night, but refused. There were a few reasons behind Concordia’s decision, Connell says.

“They asked us if we can play Monday, but we said, why can’t we play Thursday or Friday?” said Connell. “They wanted Monday, and we refused because our roster differs big time from theirs. A lot of our kids come from the states and all over Canada and our kids have planned trips to go home, planned flights to go home, planned trains to go home for Thanksgiving.”

“This is going to be their last break in the last month [of the season],” he continued.

Connell also mentioned that Concordia’s medical staff and physiotherapists have commitments with the Stingers’ basketball teams on Monday, making a game that day even less feasible.

Concordia will now have some extra time to prepare for their game against the McGill Redmen, next Saturday at Percival Molson Stadium.