June 29, 2026: SCHEDULING DEBACLE CONTINUES
The CW released its hockey schedules last week and there are some anomalies. I was hoping that there would be an announcement of some sort to explain things, but not yet.
To start the discussion, here’s the schedule:
Oct 09-10 at U.B.C.
Oct 16-17 Saskatchewan
Oct 23-24 at Alberta
Oct 30-31 Trinity Western
Nov 06 at Regina
Nov 07 Regina (at Virden)
Nov 12-13 at Calgary *
Nov 20-21 at Saskatchewan
Dec 04-05 U.B.C.
Jan 08-09 at Trinity Western
Jan 15-16 at Regina
Jan 22-23 Saskatchewan
Jan 29-30 MacEwan
Feb 05-06 at Mount Royal
Feb 19-20 Regina
* indicates the weekend is played on a Thursday/Friday basis
Remember, this is the last of a three year failed experiment in divisional alignments. In year one, the Calgary-based teams played in a division with the BC-based teams and the Edmonton-based teams were grouped with the Man/Sask teams. In year two, the Edmonton and Calgary teams changed spots. This year, all of Alberta forms the new “Division A” and the BC and Man/Sask teams form the new “Division B”.
Also, the women’s schedule and the men’s schedule are the exact inverse of each other, i.e. when the men are at UBC, the women host UBC the same weekend.
The Man/Sask teams play each other three series (six games each), and play the BC teams twice (4 games each). They play the Alberta teams once each (two games).
The oddity is that Regina and Manitoba have one home and three away series against the Alberta teams, while Sask has three home and one away series. Problem #1 – created by the CW.
Then comes the Nov 6-7 weekend. The women’s team have an “away” weekend in Regina that week, and the men’s team was supposed to be at home. Instead, both teams are at Regina on Nov 6th, and then play Regina in Virden on Nov 7th. The latter is dubbed the “Birdtail Sioux Game”. There is no reasoning for moving the men’s game on Nov 6th from Winnipeg to Regina. In any event, the Bisons have no home games in the month of November.
Trechelle Bunn, the Chief of the band, used to play for the Bison women. There is no indication as to how much money Bunn or the band is paying the Bison men’s team for their added costs (travel, rooms, meals), time on the road, and the imbalance of home and away games on their schedule. (In Manitoba, Chiefs seldom pay for stuff.) Problem #2 – created by the U of M’s Athletic Department.
In any event, the Bisons have 12 home games, 15 away games, and one neutral site game in the regular season.
To quote Ricky Ricardo, they got some ‘splainin to do.
Links:
➤ U of M: Schedule/Results
OTHER TEAMS
Only two sides released a story to go along with the schedule release, namely MacEwan and Mount Royal. Those are linked. MacEwan also has a story regarding the hiring of a strength & conditioning specialist, also linked. Everybody else just had a link to their new schedule/results page (except for Holy Trinity). Alberta, MacEwan, Mount Royal, Regina, and Saskatchewan included exhibition schedules. Manitoba, Calgary, and UBC have posted regular season only for now.