The University of Ottawa announced on Friday it won’t field a men’s hockey team in the 2015-16 season.
The decision to sit out the season was announced in the Friday press release, which said the university did not want to “field a less-than-competitive team.”
The program was suspended in June after allegations of sexual assault were made against two players on the Gee-Gees hockey team after a February trip to Thunder Bay. Guillaume Donovan, 24, and David Foucher, 25, were charged with sexual assault by Thunder Bay Police.
Earlier this week, 22 former players filed a class-action lawsuit against the University of Ottawa, and its president Allan Rock, for embroiling them in a “cloud of suspicion,” lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said in a press conference.
Many teams are already in the process of recruiting players, and the team would have a difficult time finding the 20 players needed, the press release said.
The university plans to have a team in place for the 2016-17 season, the release said.