Greg Marshall maybe resigns as Western Mustangs head football coachbut don't confuse his departure with disappointment.
Despite the growing financial challenges in higher education, the 66-year-old believes university athletics in Canada is still on a strong footing.
“I think we’ll get through this,” Marshall said. “The funding (issue) has a lot to do with the changes and the lack of international students that we are now allowed to have on campus. It's impacting our community colleges, it's impacting the university, and the first thing that's going to be cut is ancillary services like athletics. We have to find ways to address that.”
In recent years, cuts to athletic departments across the country have become a looming threat. Last month, McGill University in Montreal made its most radical move yet, announcing 25 different sports will cease next year. due to concerns about financial sustainability.
While football was not among the sports affected, Marshall believes the loss of either program would be a blow to the university experience as a whole.
“There are different sports that have different levels of competition. We try to give our football players a great student-athlete experience. If we think the student-athlete experience is good, why don't we try to give it to as many students as possible?” – he said.
“I'm not saying you're going to fund every program the same. There are some programs that are going to need more funding, but if you can provide that to your football student-athletes, wouldn't that be good for athletics? And for Ultimate Frisbee and other sports so that as many students as possible who go to your university have a really good student-athlete experience? Some schools will say, 'Well, we're just going to focus on those sports,' then you're only limiting the experience to a few.”
McGill's announcement was met with concern that it could be a canary in the coal mine for other schools. In Ontario alone, nearly half of all universities have been operating at a deficit in recent years, including such renowned institutions as Waterloo, Queen's, Wilfrid Laurier and Guelph. As a result, they have all cut other aspects of university life, with athletics becoming an easy scapegoat if further cuts are needed.
Football remains the most famous sport at U Sports, but it also most expensive event for most schools. In 2023, Simon Fraser University of British Columbia. closed its NCAA football programcausing a national outcry. However, the fervor has since died down and the decision sets a dramatic precedent for any school tired of a lack of both playing and financial success.
Western is in a better position than most to avoid any cuts because it is a constant source of energy at a fairly financially stable school. However, much of the team's success still depends on external funding as they try to maintain the quality standards of other top programs.
“A big part of my job is fundraising. We need to find donors and support to keep our football program strong,” Marshall explained. “A school like Laval has kind of set the bar and changed collegiate sports to where you are more willing to hire coaches and be able to provide athletic awards to your student-athletes to compete with the best schools across the country.”
The costs of maintaining this arms race are only rising, and external factors could soon lead to increased costs for football programs across the country. After the Canadian Football League announced it would make sweeping changes to its field size starting in 2027. U Sports said it would engage stakeholders to decide whether to follow suit..
While the collegiate game does not have to mirror the professional game, moving the goalposts and shortening the field could ease logistical challenges for schools that use shared facilities. Marshall generally supports the new CFL rules, but acknowledges that implementing them may require schools that don't have professional roommates.
“One thing I will say is that in college sports it costs money to move goalposts, so it may take a while. They can sit back and wait and see how it plays out in the CFL before universities are willing to spend the money to move the goalposts back and change them,” he said.
“The change from 110 to 100 (yards) doesn't make any sense to me. 10 yards just isn't going to make that much of a difference on offense, and it's all going to increase costs because all of our fields, most of them, have lines built in. I didn't see much in that rule, but I really like a lot of the other rules.”
Marshall has coached collegiately since 1984, with the exception of a three-year stint with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He also won the Hec Crighton Trophy as a running back with Western during his playing days. He admires today's players, noting that these changes and challenges are happening at a time when U Sports athletes reach new heights on the field.
“I think there's been such a natural progression over 40 years. The training methods, the preparation, the way they're coached in minor football and high school football, we're just seeing better athletes,” he explained. “It's not that I don't think I was pretty good back in the day and that I can still play now, but the reality is that players are getting bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic and have a better understanding of the game. The game has evolved. It's definitely more complex and mental than it was 40 years ago.”
As a result, today's players demand more from their collegiate experience. South of the border, NCAA players can now profit from their name, image and likeness, and the introduction of the transfer portal has sparked an unprecedented player movement. Although U Sports is not as professionalized, recently the organization softened his own transfer policy to accommodate cultural changes in amateur athletics.
Some coaches have struggled to adapt to this generation of players, losing focus on students who better understand their value. Even when he leavesMarshall doesn't seem to harbor any such resentment and enjoys the relationships he's built with players from all eras.
“Yes, everyone has changed, but I don’t see much difference in our athletes compared to when I played,” he said. “They've changed, but they're still motivated. They're still academically motivated, athletically motivated. They want to do well.”
“The one common thing about coaching throughout my time is that I've gotten to coach and interact with some amazing young men. You see that transformation when they come in as 17 or 18 year old boys and they're a little nervous, they're a little scared, they're intimidated, and then see them grow and develop into young men. And then into fathers, husbands and all these other wonderful things, and go on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers and different career people. Sometimes it’s very useful.”
It is this development that makes the sport valuable, beyond the dollars that schools invest in their programs. Despite today's challenges, he sees the future of Canadian university athletics as strong as ever.
“I continue to believe that what we do with the expertise of our students playing varsity sports is absolutely beneficial,” Marshall said. “We're developing some really great people, exposing them to varsity volleyball, varsity football and varsity basketball, all those sports.”
