Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association
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[edit] History
Known as the CIBA, the Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association was founded in 1995 when regional baseball leagues in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia came together. The first unofficial tournament (to bring together these four leagues for the first time) was played in Montreal in the fall of 1995. (Before this time, college teams would play each other in exhibition games only}.
A formal organization was started in 1996 with four conferences (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario East and Ontario West). 21 teams competed in a 16 game schedule with playoffs.
Today baseball is played at the varsity level with nearly 30 teams competing. The CIBA runs three conferences spread over 4 provinces. The league is student-organized and includes teams from Canadian universities and colleges.
[edit] Current Status
Western Canada has a spring ball program, while Eastern Canada has an autumn ball program (running from September to October). Teams in the winter/spring program play from February to April.
The CIBA has tried to bring both programs together, but weather and economic difficulties have proved difficult to overcome.
[edit] Conferences
Teams in the Atlantic Conference are from schools in Halifax, Sydney, Fredericton, Moncton and Antigonish.
Teams in the Northern Conference include three from Montreal, two from Ottawa and one from Trois-Rivieres.
Teams in the Ontario Conference come from Kingston, Toronto, Oshawa and Windsor.
[edit] Championship series
The teams from all three conferences also are ranked at the National Level, against all other teams in the CIBA. The championship is played in a series consisting of two pools, with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs, where the first palce team plays the fourth place, and the second and third place teams meet in the semi-finals. One pool consists of the champions from each of the Atlantic, Northern and Ontario conferences, the other pool consits of the host team, and two wildcard teams.
[edit] Champions
- 1996: Dalhousie University
- 1997: McMaster University
- 1998: Brock University
- 1999: Brock University
- 2000: Université Laval
- 2001: Université Laval
- 2002: Université Laval
- 2003: University of New Brunswick
- 2004: Queen's University
- 2005: Cape Breton University
- 2006: McGill University
- 2007: University of New Brunswick
- 2008: University of New Brunswick
Sources: CIBA website, [1] University of Ottawa Gee-Gees website [2] McMaster University website [3] Baseball Canada [4]
