GRADE-POINT ANECDOTES: Win and you’re in, Bobcats

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This article was published 11/02/2025 (270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you ask anyone on the Brandon University men’s volleyball team about playoff scenarios, you won’t get much of an answer.

They’ve been conditioned not to look past their next practice, let alone their upcoming weekend. It’s for the best — they control what they can control and let the rest happen.

But if you’re trying to plan your life for the next few weeks and need to know whether BU will have tickets to sell, you’ve come to the correct place.

I’ve nerded out and broken down the range of outcomes for the Bobcats based on how the last weekend of Canada West action goes.

For starters, the BU women’s volleyball and basketball teams have been eliminated despite playing some of their most competitive games in the last three years.

The men’s basketball team can still snag the last spot. Jump down the page for their scenario, which is much less complicated than the men’s volleyball one.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL SCENARIO OVERVIEW

Brandon’s range of outcomes is sixth place down to 11th — avoiding the first round because it has a bye or because it misses the playoffs entirely.

Here’s how the final weekend can change the current playoff picture.

First, it’s worth understanding the tiebreakers.

Record is king, but if two teams are tied, points is the first way to rank them. Teams earn three points for a 3-0 or 3-1 victory, but if a match goes 3-2, the winner receives two and loser snags one.

Last season, those points proved critical, with four teams tied for third at 16-8. Brandon had the fewest points of the four and had to visit Trinity Western as a result. BU lost its last game to TWU for the fifth post-season in a row.

Canada West added two teams to the bracket this year when it shortened the regular season by four matches. The top four teams host best-of-three quarterfinals, with fifth and sixth visiting fourth and third, respectively, on the final weekend of February.

Seventh hosts 10th and eighth entertains ninth in best-of-three play-in series next weekend.

The final four takes place at the highest remaining seed, but follows a fixed bracket, rather than re-seeding for the single-match semifinals and medal round.

This year, the top four cannot drop to fifth or lower but none of them have locked up their seed.

Winnipeg (15-3, 41 points) leads Alberta (14-4, 45 points), UBC (13-5, 40 points) and Saskatchewan (13-5, 38 points).

Trinity Western (11-7, 30 points) is fifth and will stay there unless it loses both to Sask and seventh-place UBC Okanagan (9-9, 26 points) sweeps Winnipeg on the road.

Manitoba (9-11, 29 points) is currently sixth and off this weekend.

BRANDON’S SITUATION

Brandon (8-10, 23 points) is in eighth but will finish sixth with two wins at 11th-place Thompson Rivers (6-12, 19 points) as well as two UBCO losses or a Heat split in which the Bobcats overcome the three-point deficit.

BU can’t pass the U of M with a split since it trails the Bisons by six points and would lose the tiebreaker.

So in short, two BU wins puts it either sixth or seventh, resting up next weekend or hosting 10th as the favourite in an exciting series at the Healthy Living Centre.

If Brandon splits in Kamloops, B.C., it finishes 9-11, behind Manitoba for sure and likely UBCO, unless it overcomes the Heat’s three-point lead.

To make matters worse, ninth-place Calgary (7-11, 24 points) visits MacEwan (1-17, two points) and should sweep the weekend to reach 30 points, bumping Brandon down to ninth at best. BU could fall to 10th if Fraser Valley (7-11, 20 points) sweeps UBC. That would mean no playoff matches at home with a difficult path to the final four.

Now for the worst-case scenario. If the Bobcats lose both to the WolfPack (6-12, 19 points) in four sets or fewer, they’ll fall to 10th at best, provided Calgary wins even one match at MacEwan.

And if UFV sweeps UBC — or splits with enough points — it too would surpass Brandon, knocking it down to 11th.

The Bobcats can clinch a playoff berth with a win or two five-set losses.

WHY IT MATTERS

In the end, the Bobcats’ ultimate goal for the year has been the U Sports championship that has eluded them since their Canada West debut 20 years ago.

They’ve worn the conference crown twice, as recently as 2019 when they edged the Spartans in the final on home court, then succumbed to them 3-0 in the national gold-medal match.

They’ll be willing to forget a sub-.500 regular season and quick ousting from the playoffs if they can just ride a raucous Healthy Living Centre crowd to triumphs on March 21, 22 and 23.

But boy will the opener be easier if they can get hot over the next couple of weeks.

Three Canada West teams will join the Bobcats in Brandon if they don’t medal, along with three Ontario teams and the RSEQ — Quebec and Maritimes division — champion.

The seeding committee must respect order of finish in conference play, and teams from the same conference cannot meet in the quarterfinals. Since the RSEQ leader Sherbrooke is ranked third in Canada and all but a lock to win the league, the Vert et Or claiming the title will actually leave the committee without any decisions.

It’d be Canada West gold against Ontario bronze, vice versa, the two silver medalists and the powerhouse Sherbrooke against Brandon, with all signs pointing to disappointment for the hosts.

However, if BU medals, the open spot goes to the RSEQ and that team will surely be the lowest seed.

The run Brandon has to make to crack the top three would include massive wins against nationally ranked teams, meaning it should vault up the rankings and probably pass the third-best team in Ontario.

The CW winner would play the RSEQ runner-up, while Sherbrooke would draw the OUA bronze medallist. Second in CW would draw second in Ontario, while CW’s third team would face the OUA champion.

In those matches, I’m picking the team from the clear-cut, most dominant conference every time.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The formula for the BU men’s hoopsters is much simpler.

As long as Regina doesn’t sweep Calgary, Brandon must sweep the Saskatchewan Huskies at home this weekend to snag the seventh and final Prairie Division spot, which is the No. 12 seed in the Canada West bracket.

BU (5-13) is tied with the U of S, one game back of Regina (6-12) for seventh.

The Cougars visit the Dinos (14-4), who are tied for first with Winnipeg and Manitoba.

Only the top two get a bye for the first round and home-court advantage for the first round — as the No. 2 and 4 seeds — while the odd one out gets ranked sixth and will travel to UBC to face Alberta (8-10) or Mount Royal (10-8), with the winner taking on the Thunderbirds (13-5).

That means Calgary won’t hold back starters or its level of intensity and will probably win at least one game.

If Regina wins one, it finishes 7-13, tying either Brandon or Saskatchewan, should one win both this weekend.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head results. Sask would take that after sweeping Regina last weekend.

The Bobcats split the Cougars back in November, meaning we go to the second tiebreaker — record versus common opponents.

Since two of Regina’s victories were against UNBC, who BU didn’t play — instead taking on Winnipeg and Manitoba an extra game each — the Cougars are 3-11 while the Bobcats are 4-12 against common opponents. BU would win the tiebreaker with a sweep.

The other interesting situation is Regina loses twice while BU and the U of S split, leaving all of them 6-14.

Unfortunately for Brandon and Regina, Saskatchewan would be 3-1 in games between the three teams, leapfrogging both for the last spot.

So BU needs two wins and at least one U of R loss this weekend to get into the No. 5-12 game, likely against Trinity Western (10-8) at one of Manitoba, Winnipeg and Calgary, who will await the winner for the quarterfinals.

It’s a fixed bracket, so the following weekend’s semifinals feature the winner of 1-vs.-4 and 2-vs.-3, with the higher seeds hosting single games.

The final and third-place game — only played if necessary to determine a wildcard team for nationals — are one week later, again hosted by the higher seed.

AC VOLLEYBALL

The Assiniboine College Cougars volleyball teams have long secured playoff spots in the new Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference volleyball post-season format.

Only three of the four teams qualified, and the Cougars nearly earned the right to host single-match semifinals.

However, both the men’s and women’s teams fell just shy of the No. 2 Canadian Mennonite University Blazers and visit them on Saturday for trips to the best-of-three final series the following weekend.

The men play at 2 p.m., with the women following at 4 o’clock.

CMU is the final host, with the top-seed Providence Pilots resting up to face the winners on Feb. 21 and 22 (and 23 if necessary).

Since the Pilots men are hosting Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association nationals this year, both finalists get spots in the eight-team event set for March 5-8. The MCAC women’s winner heads to Durham College in Oshawa, Ont., for nationals the same weekend.

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