2025 USports Recruiting

[hockeyinsiderusports]

Degree programs are the most important. Most students in Canada pick their degree program, and then the school they would prefer to attend (yes, I know, a lot of students don't know what they want to study, but they have to apply to degree programs, unlike in the States where they can pick their "major" after they are accepted/enrolled).

The majority of male hockey players in the AUS are taking Business/Commerce followed by Kinesiology/Kinetics. Unlike in the 1980's, "easy" programs like Liberal Arts are in the minority. There are probably more male hockey players studying Engineering than English in the AUS.

I don't know if this is the case in the other conferences, but student-athletes in the AUS for the most part are focusing on using their CHL education money to get degrees that will get them careers after hockey.

So hockey schools who don't have those in-demand degree programs are going to falter with recruiting (hello, St. Thomas). Similarly, if a recruit wants to take Business, but doesn't have to grades to get into selective/competitive programs like McGill or Western, well, he's going to go to another school.

tl;dr I don't believe "better academic schools" are necessarily going to benefit in recruiting.

They can always do King College and still play at Western if they like or Woodsworth College play for Toronto

 

[dm8895]

I don’t think it’s that they will all of a sudden get the best players but the more you cut off the top of a pool of hockey players , chess players, whoever , more people will fall into a skill level, so if you take away the top 25% of USports recruits , more players will fall into that next group of players including academic focused players . I don’t think it’s that it helps them recruit , it’s that the playing field will be more balanced.
Their are far more low end CHL and high end Jr.A players kicking around than 60 point CHL players.