The University of St. Boniface has formally announced its return to basketball for the 2021-22 Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) for both men's and women's basketball season. The men's program was slated to tip off for the now pandemic-cancelled 2020-21 MCAC season and will now join the women's program as they tip off next season. This will mark the return of the university to basketball for the first time since 2008-09 for the men's program and 2005-06 for the women.
USB Athletic Director Eric Lemoine commented, 'It's been quite a while since we've had basketball at the MCAC level. Since I took over athletics at Université de Saint-Boniface in 2016, I've wanted to get the teams going, but we needed to establish our recruiting and programming for our other MCAC sports beforehand."
The MCAC's Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) probation ends this coming year and should become full members and have access to CCAA nationals in 2021-22 for the sports of soccer and volleyball. Adding basketball at USB is part of the sport growth plan at the MCAC level. This will be an important step in the growth of MCAC basketball, which could eventually be added to CCAA sport participation.