The University and College Baseball landscape in Canada is pretty complicated with large differences in season timing, institutional support, and varsity status depending mostly on geography. Although there have been some shifts in the landscape since it was written, A Beginner’s Guide to University Baseball In Canada written by George Rigakos of Carleton University, is very helpful in explaining the lay of the land.

A comprehensive list that ranks baseball programs across multiple levels for US University and College Baseball can be found at Massey Ratings. Unfortunately that sort of comparison has never really existed for Canadian programs.

The closest thing to a head to head comparison for Canadian programs would be Testing an RPI Ranking System for Canadian University Baseball also written by Rigakos, this time with Mitchell Thompson. Unfortunately, as Rigakos and Thompson pointed out in the article, RPI has it’s limitations, and their comparison only includes University teams in Eastern Canada.

With all of the dislocation going on south of the border, including cancelled seasons and extra years of eligibility for varsity athletes, I believe many Canadian baseball players have begun to question whether the US College route is the right choice for them right now. Given that backdrop, I decided to take a crack at a more comprehensive ranking of Canadian programs and starting researching it a few months ago. With the CCBC schedule starting in Alberta and BC tomorrow, I thought it would be a good time to share my findings.

Here is how I came up with the rankings:

1. The list includes most (but not all) teams associated Canadian Universities and Colleges regardless of the league they play in
   • 5 years of data was required but an exception was made for Fraser Valley given their recent success
2. Games against any University or College program in North America are included in the data
3. Programs are ranked for their results from 2015 through 2019
   • 2020 was a write-off and several programs may not play in 2021 either
4. The Overall Rankings are based on a formula that combines:
   • Weighted Strength of Schedule (WSOS)
     • Calculated by the weighted average strength of the leagues each of their opponents play in, ranked as follows:
       1. NCAA Division 1
       2. NCAA Division 2 and NAIA
       3. NCAA Division 3 and US Junior Colleges (all divisions)
       4. OUA
       5. CCBC, OCAA, and the former CCBA Northern Division
       6. ACBA (former CCBA Atlantic Division) and RSEQ
   • Average Number of Games Played
   • Win / Loss Percentage

The data was gathered through information that is publicly available on team and league websites. Gathering all of this data from many different sources took a lot of time but is only as accurate as the source information that is found on those websites. I certainly don’t think that this is a perfect formula to evaluate Canadian baseball programs, but I think it is a good approximation. It certainly incorporates more programs than any I have seen elsewhere and also attempts to make a comparison across the various leagues. Frankly I was surprised by some of the results that came from this analysis.

I have no doubt that there will be many situations where someone says, “That’s wrong. Program A is definitely better than Program B.” What I would say to that is, perhaps that is true in a head to head matchup this season, but that was never really what I was trying to compare. I am trying to provide a more holistic comparison over several years that hopefully helps some Canadian high school players and their families make more informed decisions.

With all that said, here is the list:

Team	Association	Overall Rank	WSOS Rank	AVG # of Games Rank	Win % Rank
University of British Columbia	NAIA	1	1	1	19
McGill University	IND	2	15	5	3
PBA / Lethbridge College	CCBC	3	5	2	15
St. Clair College	OCAA	4	16	7	2
Laurier University	OUA	5	13	8	4
Brock University	OUA	6	4	17	5
Thompson Rivers University	CCBC	7	13	3	23
Western University	OUA	8	3	19	8
Humber College	OCAA	9	16	9	7
Okanagan College	CCBC	10	20	6	14
University of Guelph	OUA	11	6	19	11
University of Toronto	OUA	12	11	12	18
Holland College	ACBA	13	29	30	1
University of Fraser Valley	CCBC	14	20	12	13
Douglas College	NWAC	15	2	10	33
Vancouver Island University	CCBC	16	11	4	32
Carleton University	OUA	17	16	13	20
Fanshawe College	OCAA	18	20	19	17
Durham College	OCAA	19	28	14	16
Concordia University	IND	20	20	13	21
University of New Brunswick	ACBA	21	30	19	10
Queen’s University	OUA	22	6	19	26
University of Waterloo	OUA	23	6	17	28
Édouard-Montpetit	RSEQ	24	30	35	6
McMaster University	OUA	25	6	30	30
Ryerson University	OUA	26	6	27	31
John Abbott	RSEQ	27	30	35	9
Lionel-Groulx	RSEQ	28	30	35	12
Acadia University	ACBA	29	30	19	22
University of Calgary	CCBC	30	20	10	34
Universite de Montreal	IND	30	27	32	25
Saint Marys University	ACBA	32	30	27	24
Seneca College	OCAA	33	20	19	35
Dalhousie University	ACBA	34	30	33	28
Ahuntsic	RSEQ	35	30	35	27
George Brown College	OCAA	36	20	27	37
University of Ottawa	OUA	37	16	32	38
St. Francis Xavier University	ACBA	38	30	34	36

I hope you find this list helpful.

In subsequent posts, I hope to provide some more details regarding the various leagues/divisions noted above and also some of the specific programs as well.