Since the World Health Organization's pandemic declaration a year ago this month, governing bodies for post-secondary sport have had ample time to correct known errors and enhance historical info on their websites. Not much has changed in the interim even though the data becomes a lasting legacy.

Inaccuracies abound on the CCAA website. As for team information, members that never participated in a particular national championship are listed as participants, placements are incorrect and vacated podium finishes are not identified for starters. Frequently, event results appear multiple times when teams faced each other only once, are missing or are incorrect. As for individual information, misspellings and erroneous award data appear across the spectrum.

Inconsistencies on the CCAA website are also cause for concern. Award recipients are listed for some championships and are absent for others. Award recipients are listed for some sports and are absent for others.

Like the CCAA website, conference websites are not always a source of truth. The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference has a long history of posting inaccurate information online encompassing records, award recipients and statistics.  Instead of taking ownership of data problems and solving them, conference leadership is often content to point fingers elsewhere. An ongoing debacle dates back to the fall of 2019 with incorrect men's hockey standings on the conference's website. For over a year, a poorly-worded statement on the men's hockey standings page has indicated that website developers are working on the issue which is attributed to the statistics provider.

The failure of governing bodies to address the aforementioned items in a timely manner is to the detriment of sponsors, member institutions and, most importantly, participants. It can be challenging to continue athletic pursuits after college. The sorry state of online content does not make it any easier.

It's time for immediate change – changes in focus regarding historical and statistical information as well as changes in personnel within the offices of governing bodies for post-secondary sport beginning at the top.

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