The athletic directors at Ontario University Athletics (OUA) schools competing in football voted to limit the number of uniforms teams are allowed to have per season, as well as capping the number of student athletes who can attend training camp and be listed on the official roster.
Teams will now be limited to three uniforms and two helmets per season, and can only host a maximum of 110 student athletes at their annual August training camps.
Additionally, teams are now only allowed to list 90 student athletes on their official rosters.
The University of Guelph and the University of Western Ontario were the only two schools to vote against all three motions.
Of the 11 schools competing in OUA football, seven of them supported all three motions.
Carleton voted against limiting the number of uniforms to three, while supporting the remaining two motions.
“We believe that limiting the roster size can assist in the distribution of talent across the league, which in turn address the competitive parity issue identified, as well as save on costs such as training camp,” Carleton athletic director Jennifer Brenning said in an email.
“In terms of uniforms, we believe there should be institutional autonomy in spending operational budgets on jerseys and/or helmets.”
Currently, the Ravens’ football roster contains 85 players, meaning they would not be affected by the new ruling.
“We made the decision way back that the people we were going to bring to training camp would be the people that we’re going to carry through the year,” Ravens head coach Steve Sumarah said.
“I think that, unfortunately, some guys make decisions about schools and don’t actually look at rosters and realize ‘I’m not going to play there,’” Sumarah said.
“Coaches are now forced not to over-recruit, and that was the whole premise . . . to keep the numbers tighter so that people didn’t over-recruit.”
However, within the OUA, the Ravens are the team with the second-highest number of uniforms, with two helmet designs and four uniforms.
Guelph remains the front runner, with six helmet styles and six uniforms to chose from.
“At some point you just hope that it becomes an across-the-country type of situation, as opposed to just in the OUA, because it does adversely affect us,” Sumarah said. “It would be nice if everyone in the country did it, then it wouldn’t be so bad.”
In response to the rule change, sports columnist Morris Dalla Costa published an article in the London Free Press criticizing the OUA for its decision.
“It’s obvious the organization has decided that instead of encouraging all universities to attain excellence, they would seek through legislation to encourage all universities to settle for being average at best,” Dalla Costa wrote.
Dalla Costa further criticized the decision by saying it simply doesn’t make sense.
“They haven’t limited anything else, they haven’t limited the amount of money an alumni can give towards the building of a stadium, or they haven’t limited the amount of money a program can collect from their alumni,” Dalla Costa said in an interview with the Charlatan. “It just doesn’t make sense. There’s no progress in it.”
He also believes the OUA should spend more time building its own brand in order to attract football players.
“The bottom line is that if the product gets better, more people will want to play it, and more people will want to go to the school that improved their program,” Dalla Costa said.
“The OUA needs to keep their nose out of the individual schools’ business, they need to keep their nose out of how many uniforms Guelph has, how many players come to Western’s camp,” he said.
For Dalla Costa, it’s about attracting new talent.
“The OUA needs to build the OUA brand of football, they need to make it attractive so that money from sponsors comes into the OUA,” he said. “That’s what they need to do, instead of trying to regulate the good programs so that they all become mediocre.”
