Introducing the 705 Challenge Cup

What do you do when you and your closest neighbouring institution play no less than 12 spirited and highly competitive competitions throughout the year?  You up the ante a little more!  The Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers have done just that with the creation of the 705 Challenge Cup.
The two northern universities have long been adversaries on the soccer pitch, competing yearly for the Riley Gallo Cup, named for the late son of Laurentian women’s soccer coach Rob Gallo, but with the addition of men’s and women’s basketball and hockey to both schools in recent years, the timing was right to build on the friendly Northern rivalry.

The 705 Challenge Cup will be comprised of all 12 regular season games between the Lakers and the Voyageurs in the sports of men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and soccer.  The soccer teams will still compete for the coveted ‘Riley Gallo Cup’ but those games will also be included in the overall scoring for the ‘705 Challenge Cup’.

The scoring each year for the new hardware will consist of the overall win-loss record between the two institutions.  In the event of a tie in the head-to-head record, plus-minus will be used as a tie-breaker.  One caveat to the plus-minus calculation will be dividing the point differential of the basketball games by 10.  This will ensure that, for example, a potential 20 point win by one team only counts as +/- 2 and does not skew the overall calculation.

The first games towards the 705 Challenge Cup took place on September 11 when Laurentian hosted Nipissing in women’s and men’s soccer, with the Voyageurs taking both games.  The final game in this year’s competition will be Friday, February 10 when the Lakers women’s and men’s basketball teams welcome the Voyageurs with tip-offs going at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively.