PRSPECTVES: Canadian University cuts 25 varsity sports teams 🚨
+ Bishop's leaves the AUS, Penny Oleksiak facing suspension, speed skating and more ➡️
McGill University has announced significant cuts to its varsity programming following an extensive internal and external review of its athletic department. McGill will be cutting 25 varsity teams and clubs across 15 sports, while keeping 19 teams across 13 sports. These numbers represent a nearly 60% decrease in varsity programming for the Montreal-based university.
The announcement came last Thursday, just a few weeks prior to the Dec. 1 deadline, when the RSEQ requires each university to declare its plans for each varsity team for the following year.
Teams being cancelled include:
Track and field (men’s and women’s)
Volleyball (men’s)
Field hockey (women’s)
Rugby (women’s)
Baseball (men’s)
Lacrosse (women’s)
Badminton (men’s and women’s)
Fencing (men’s and women’s)
Figure skating (men’s and women’s)
Golf (men’s and women’s)
Tennis (men’s and women’s)
Nordic ski (men’s and women’s)
Sailing (men’s and women’s)
Logger sports (men’s and women’s)
Squash (men’s and women’s)
Among these teams is the storied track and field program, which has been part of McGill athletics for over 125 years and produced the university’s first-ever Olympian, Percival Molson, who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympic Games in St. Louis.
Teams not being canceled include:
Artistic swimming (co-ed)
Basketball (men’s and women’s)
Cheerleading (co-ed)
Cross-country (men’s and women’s)
Flag football (women’s)
Football (men’s)
Hockey (men’s and women’s)
Lacrosse (men’s)
Rowing (men’s and women’s)
Rugby (men’s)
Soccer (men’s and women’s)
Swimming (men’s and women’s)
Volleyball (women’s)
Why the cuts? As mentioned earlier, this decision is based on an audit conducted by McGill’s internal audit unit in 2024 and an independent external review completed in 2025. The evaluations concluded that the current structure of the athletic department was no longer sustainable, citing facility space, budget constraints, and staffing capacity as key indicators that would affect the long-term sustainability of McGill Athletics.
Teams were assessed based on multiple factors, including competitive viability, recruitment, resource requirements, and alignment with the RSEQ sport model. Using this criterion, the McGill Athletics and Recreation Sports Program Review Committee determined which teams would continue competing and which teams wouldn’t.
The numbers: In early February, McGill projected a $15 million deficit for the 2025 fiscal year (ending April 30th). This deficit could grow to $194 million by 2028 if no changes were made. In the same month, McGill launched the Horizon McGill initiative, an institution-wide effort to address the university’s “unsustainable budget trajectory.” The first phase of the initiative includes a $45 million budget correction for the 2025–26 fiscal year, along with an additional $30 million in corrections over the following two fiscal years. This leaves many McGill student-athletes affected by the varsity program cuts feeling they are bearing the brunt of financial difficulties that extend beyond the university’s athletic department.
The response: In response to the varsity programming cuts, McGill student-athletes have already launched petitions to reinstate multiple programs scheduled to be cut.
To help the McGill athletics community, click the links and sign the petitions below ⬇️
Reinstate McGill's varsity track & field team.
Reinstate McGill's varsity baseball team.
Reinstate the McGill Varsity Field Hockey Team.
Reinstate McGill Nordic Ski Team.
These changes are set to take effect at the start of the 2026/27 season.
Bishop’s Gaiters football program is headed back to the RSEQ 🏈
After eight seasons in the AUS, the Bishop’s Gaiters football program is officially returning to compete in the RSEQ, as announced in a press release by the university this past Monday.
This is a result of the four other football programs within the AUS (Acadian, Mount Allison, STFX, and SMU) not being able to sustain the funding needed to compete against Bishop’s on the road, with trips to and from Lennoxville taking up to four days.
It’s simple - AUS teams just couldn’t keep up financially.
Canadian Olympian Penny Oleksiak receives a two-year suspension for an anti-doping violation
Canada’s most decorated female Olympian, Penny Oleksiak, has accepted a two-year suspension from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Quick rundown: The suspension is not due to any involvement with banned substances on the part of Oleksiak, but rather a “whereabouts failure”.
Whereabouts failure: As part of the WADA’s drug testing program, athletes are required to provide a daily 60-minute testing window 90 days in advance, regardless of their whereabouts. Failure to comply with these guidelines results in a filing failure. Any athlete who is subject to a combination of three filing failures or missed tests within a 12-month period will suffer a two-year suspension.
Oleksiak’s suspension stems from three filing failures between October 2024 and June 2025. She was accused of the violation in July, prior to the World Aquatics Championship, which eventually led her to withdraw from the event.
All of Oleksiak’s results past the date of June 16th have been disqualified. The Toronto native’s suspension will take effect retroactively on July 15th, 2025, and end on July 14th, 2027.
Canada speed skating recap ⛸
It was another impressive week for the Ice Maples as they racked up 11 total medals across two different events — seven medals in the third stop of the ISU Short Track World Tour in Gdansk, Poland, and four medals in the second leg of the ISU Speed Skating World Cup on home turf in Calgary.
ISU Speed Skating World Cup results
🥇 Ivanie Blondin — women’s mass start
🥈 Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann, Valerie Maltais — women’s team pursuit
🥉 Valerie Maltais — women’s 3000m
🥉 Ted-Jan Bloemen — men’s 5000m
ISU Short Track World Tour results
🥇 William Dandjinou — men’s 500m
🥇 William Dandjinou — men’s 1500m
🥈 Courtney Sarault — women’s 1000m
🥉 Courtney Sarault — women’s 1000m
🥉 Steven Dubois — men’s 500m
🥉 Steven Dubois — men’s 1000m
🥉 Steven Dubois, William Dandjinou, Courtney Sarault, Danaé Blais — mixed team relay 2000m
After their seven medals this past weekend, the Ice Maples are now ranked No. 1 in the world rankings heading into the next short track event in Dordrecht, Netherlands, accumulating 4,355 points, with William Dandjinou and Courtney Sarault as the top-ranked male and female.
PWHL expansion teams face off in the opening night of the 2025/26 season 🏒
The Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes took center ice this past Friday as part of the opening-night doubleheader of the 2025-26 PWHL season at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
The Goldeneyes took home the first game of the season in dramatic fashion, with Abby Boreen scoring in the 1st minute of overtime
This game not only marked the first games in franchise history for both of these organizations, but also set a new PWHL record. With the sold-out crowd on Friday, the Goldeneyes set a new attendance record for most fans at a team’s home arena, with 14,958.
Quick Hits
🏈 The Montreal Carabins defeated the Saskatchewan Huskies 30-16, capturing the 60th Vanier Cup this past Saturday in Regina. This marks their third Vanier Cup title and their second in the past three years. It’s also the fourth consecutive season that a team from the RSEQ has won the Vanier Cup
🏐 UBC defeated Trinity Western University 3-2 this past Friday evening, evening out the season series at 1-1. The two teams are heavy favourites to face off against each other in Canada West and potentially the national final.
⛸ Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are back! The Canadian duo took home silver at the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy 2025 event in Helsinki, Finland, this past weekend. Gilles and Poirier posted a score of 202.11, finishing second on the podium while also qualifying for the ISU Grand Prix Final in December.
🎿 Calgary native Abigail Strate captured silver in the women’s large hill competition in the season’s first event of the World Ski Jump circuit on Saturday in Lillehammer, Norway. Strate landed jumps of 129 and 131 metres, amassing a score of 259.7 points.
🎿 Quebec City’s Olivia Asselin won silver in the women’s World Cup slopestyle skiing event in Stubai, Austria, this past Saturday. Asselin posted a score of 76.71 points, clinching silver in the first women’s slopestyle skiing World Cup event of the 2025-26 season.