U Sports men's ice hockey championship

1963–1971

When the tournament was inaugurated in 1963, the only teams invited were conference champions. At the time, not every conference held a postseason tournament, nor was every conference champion invited. The only participating teams were the champions of the four leagues thought of to be playing senior college hockey. Not all teams were satisfied with this arrangement. The OIAA applies for its champion to receive an entry into the 1964 tournament but their application was denied. In protest, the conference immediately dissolved and forced the CIAU committee to reconsider over the summer.^[5] At the same time, Toronto, declined their invitation in 1964.^[6] The very next season, with the OIAA now included in the tournament field, all four teams that qualified for the QOAA tournament announced that they would not accept an invitation to the 1965 University Cup.

While these disagreements could have dealt a debilitating blow to the tournament, all parties were eventually able to come to an agreement by 1966. The champions of the five conferences would now be invited to participate with the conferences that reached the final the previous season automatically being placed in the semifinals. Unfortunately, this new arrangement meant that whichever team lost the quarterfinal round would only play a single game. Previously, thanks to the consolation match, all teams were guaranteed at least two matches. In order to address this minor wrinkle, a consolation bracket was introduced in 1967. For several years afterwards, teams that lost in either the quarterfinal or semifinal rounds would play one another to determine the final three places in the tournament. This format remained largely intact for the next several years until a large conference realignment took place in 1971.

1971–1975

The early 1970s saw three leagues in the middle of the country dissolve with all associated teams resorted into two provincial conferences for Ontario and Quebec. As a result, the tournament entrants were reduced back to four teams and allowed the University Cup to eliminate both the quarterfinal round and the consolation bracket in 1972. However, one year later, the WCIAU was split in two as a way to help the western teams cut down on operating costs.^[7] An arrangement was made with the two new conferences (Canada West and GPAC) to allow the champions of both leagues entry into the University Cup, however, rather than play individual league championships, the two would send their regular season champions to the tournament site to play a quarterfinal match during the same time that the other three conference were holding their respective playoffs. This de facto conference championship was only held between the two western leagues. Additionally, instead of bringing the consolation bracket back, both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were converted into best of three series, guaranteeing that all participating teams would play at least two games.^[8] This format was used only for three seasons with a slight modification in 1975; that season saw the championship round being a best-of-three for the

1976

In 1976, the University Cup format was radically altered. First, the team that agreed to serve as host (Toronto) was given an automatic qualifier for the first time. Because this could result in one conference having six teams participate for the first time, the CIAU decided to invite two teams from each of the five conference. This resulted in the largest field that tournament had ever seen (as of 2024). The secondary teams were selected based upon their performance in the respective conference tournaments. The two finalists from four of the leagues would automatically qualify four the tournament while, for the host team, if they were to win their tournament the final bid would go to the runner-up otherwise it would go to their conference champion. The qualifying teams were then sorted into three separate groups: East, West and Host. The conference that served as host (OUAA) would have both of their qualifiers advanced to the semifinal round while the remaining eight teams were placed into regional semifinal brackets. Due to the expanded nature of the tournament, the regional rounds were held at the home venue of one of the qualifying teams.

One team from each region (East and West) would advance to the semifinal round, however, seeding was not determined ahead of time. Instead, the bracket was arranged so that the East and West champion would play one of the two host conference teams in a semifinal first round. The winners of the first round game would then advance to the second round of the semifinals and play the losing team of the opposite first round match. It was only the winners of the semifinal second round that would advance to the championship game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this convoluted format survived for only one tournament.

1977–1985

While many of the advents of the 1976 tournament were discarded, one was retained; the tournament host would continue to receive an automatic berth until 1987. With the field now set at six teams, the format was changed to a round-robin style. The participants were sorted into two three-team groups. Within each group, the teams would play one another once and the team with the best record would advance to the final. Ties were allowed in pool play, however, in case there was a tie in the standings, the team with the better goal differential would be advanced. This format remained unchanged until 1984, when the round-robin was dropped in favor of a quarterfinal round.

For two tournaments in the mid-80s, the conference that served as host would have both of its qualifying teams advance to the semifinals (much as they had in 1976). However, instead of a regional bracket, the remaining league champions were placed into East and West quarterfinals. The quarterfinal rounds were best-of-three while the semifinals were two-game total goal series.

1986–1987

The collapse of the GPAC in 1985 resulted in a reduction of senior conferences down to four. Because the tournament host was still being offered an automatic bid, this left the field at 5 entrants. Instead of using one of the previous formats, the University Cup was expanded to seven teams. The qualifying schools were selected by one of three ways: The Host (Alberta) was seeded first and received a bye into the semifinal round. The champions of the four leagues were then sorted two through five based upon their overall records and placed in the quarterfinals accordingly. The final two wild-card spots would then go to the runners-up from the AUAA and OUAA and arranged so that there would not be intra-conference matches in the quarterfinal round. The QUAA was the only conference not to receive a second bye due to the fact that the league had been pared down to just five schools at the time.

For the 1987 tournament, the format reverted to a round-robin arrangement. Still with four conference champions, the tournament offered one wild-card spot to the runner-up of the OUAA tournament. This was done primarily due to the fact that the OUAA was by far the largest conference. However, this format lasted just one season before the OUAA absorbed QUAA, leaving just three active senior collegiate leagues.^[9]

1988–1997

1988 began a new era for the tournament. Toronto agreed to serve as tournament host for ten years. This allowed the CIAU to eliminate the automatic qualifier for the host team as an incentive. The tournament field was reduced to four entrants: Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec and West. The Atlantic and West spots would go to the AUAA and Canada West champions respectively. The OUAA would receive both the Ontario and Quebec bids which would go to the two tournament finalists. This format remained in place for the entire time that Toronto served as host. In later years, the championship game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens.^[10]

1998–2014

Starting in 1998, the CIS changed the format of the University Cup tournament to a six-team/two-pool tournament that would be hosted by a CIS member institution/team rather than in Toronto at Varsity Arena. The host would automatically be included in the tournament leaving five spots for regional representatives. The three conference champions and OUA Queen's Cup Runner-up would automatically be included with the fifth spot as a rotating 'wild-card' team. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies won the bid to host the first three (3) tournaments: 1998, 1999 and 2000.

The wild-card selection was initially chosen based on a static rotation through each conference starting with the AUS in 1998 followed by the OUA and CW, repeating on a tri-year cycle. Due to the random nature of the host bidding process, some tournaments saw more local teams then expected when the host advanced as a conference champion. It was possible for CW or AUS hosts to have 3 teams from their conference or 4 teams in the case of an OUA host who was also a champion. To reduce the local bias, the rotation selection rule was changed prior to the 2009 season - the wild-card would now only come from a non-host conference while maintaining the rotation. In 2009 the OUA was the host conference (Lakehead University) and should have also been the original wild-card conference, instead the AUS provided the wild-card. This rule remained in effect until the format changed in 2015 to 8 teams.

2015–present

Starting in 2015, the tournament expanded from six to eight teams and moved from a two-pool format to a single-elimination competition (quarter-finals, semifinals and gold-medal final plus a bronze-medal game).

The eight teams competing include the four regional conference champions: AUS, Canada West, OUA West and OUA East (where the three men's hockey teams from the RSEQ compete). The remaining four teams are: the host, the Canada West runner-up, the AUS runner-up and the OUA 3rd-place finisher (bronze medalist). The 'natural' conference champions are seeded 1–3; AUS, CW and OUA Queen's Cup Champion (in ranked order). The OUA Queen's Cup Finalist is always seed No. 4. The remaining teams are seeded 5–7, all based on the pre-tournament Top 10 Ranking Poll with the expectation that the host is likely 8th.^[11]

A joint bid from St. Francis Xavier University and Saint Mary's University was selected to host the first two events using this format; 2015 (St. FX as the host) and 2016 (SMU as the host). U Sports evaluated those two events and continues to use this tournament format.

By team

By team's province

The only province missing from this list, Newfoundland and Labrador, has only one U Sports member, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Memorial dropped their varsity men's hockey team after the 1981–82 season.

By city

More information City, Hosted ...

Tournament locations by city

City	Hosted	Most recent
Toronto, Ontario	15	2024
Edmonton, Alberta	7	2006
Fredericton, New Brunswick	6	2018
Moncton, New Brunswick	5	2008
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	5	2014
Halifax, Nova Scotia	3[a]	2020
Calgary, Alberta	2	1981
Kingston, Ontario	2	1964
Montreal, Quebec	2	1979
Sudbury, Ontario	2	1971
Thunder Bay, Ontario	2	2010
Waterloo, Ontario	2	2002
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island	2[b]	2023
Lethbridge, Alberta	1	2019
Regina, Saskatchewan	1	1980
Sherbrooke, Quebec	1	1972
Trois-Rivières, Quebec	1	1984
Winnipeg, Manitoba	1	1965
Wolfville, Nova Scotia	1	2022
Total for 19 Cities	61	2024

Close

By province

More information Province, Hosted ...

Tournament locations by province

Province	Hosted	Most recent
Ontario	23	2024
New Brunswick	11	2018
Alberta	10	2019
Saskatchewan	6	2014
Quebec	4	1984
Nova Scotia	4	2022
Manitoba	1	1965
Prince Edward Island	2	2023
Total for 8 Provinces	61	2024

Close

British Columbia is the only province to have a team play in the championship final (UBC Thunderbirds were runners-up in the original 1963 competition, nothing else since then), but to never host the championships. The other province missing from this list, Newfoundland and Labrador, had not yet hosted yet when it withdrew from varsity men's hockey after the 1981–82 season.