For those of you engaged in higher education or responsible for education brand building you might have noticed that Canadian institution, Simon Fraser University, became the first institution outside of the United States of America to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association. NCAA is a governing entity for USA college sport, and from my chair seems to have been quite conservative in the past. So for me this is an interesting development.

The connection between SMU and the NCAA brings up several brand questions for me. First of all will this arrangement lead to other institutions outside of the USA applying for and being accepted into the NCAA group? If more schools are accepted, could this lead to international collegiate sport? You probably know that most colleges and universities outside of North America do not participate in athletics at the collegiate level. That is one reason why there are so many USA college student athletes from abroad and so many young professionals abroad. I would love to see college sport be more international.

I think Simon Fraser and the NCAA just added progressive to their brand attributes, and will now be better positioned to recruit and retain brand champions. How do you think the current situation enhances or dilutes the SMU and NCAA brands?