Simon Fraser University, the first Canadian institution to be invited into the NCAA membership process, has accepted an invitation to become the 10th active member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

GNAC Commissioner Richard Hannan made the announcement during a recent news conference on the Simon Fraser campus in Burnaby, British Columbia. Simon Fraser’s membership is effective immediately, Hannan said, and its teams will begin competing in the conference in fall 2010.

“Simon Fraser provides us with another quality institution academically, athletically and geographically,” Hannan said. The GNAC currently includes member institutions in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

Simon Fraser was accepted into year one of the candidacy period in the Division II membership process. Schools are required to complete a two-year candidacy period, followed by a successful year of provisional membership, before being approved as active Division II members. Simon Fraser could become an active Division II member – and be eligible for conference and NCAA postseason play – by fall 2012.

Simon Fraser will compete in the GNAC in football, volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, softball, and golf. The only conference sport Simon Fraser does not sponsor is baseball.

Other GNAC members are Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks, Central Washington, Montana State-Billings, Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin’s, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon and Western Washington. Humboldt State and Dixie State are affiliate members in football.

“No one would dispute that the highest level of intercollegiate sport in North America is played at the NCAA, and that’s where we want to be,” Simon Fraser Athletics Director David Murphy told NCAA Champion magazine in January 2009. “We’re a Division II fit in philosophy, with our emphasis on student-athlete balance, facilities and level of athletics competition.”

“This (joining the GNAC and the NCAA) is a first for a Canadian university, and it reflects our long history of competing in U.S. varsity associations and conferences,” said Simon Fraser President Michael Stevenson. “It means a high level of competition and challenge for our athletes. As has always been the case, our primary concern is that our athletes succeed as students. The NCAA and GNAC have strong academic requirements, and we will maintain the high academic standards that SFU has always demanded from all of its teams.”