Two B.C. universities are hoping to join a prestigious American sports league in the hope of keeping top Canadian athletic prospects at home.

Canadian universities can now apply to the high-profile National Collegiate Athletic Association in the U.S., and the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University say they are preparing applications already.

Bob Philip, the athletics director at UBC, said the school can provide more to its athletes if it joins the higher-profile league.

"A lot of times you see in the paper student athletes from high school are looking at the NCAA, and a lot of them are going there," said Philip.

"We just felt it was time that somebody stepped up in Canada and offered that opportunity to Canadian students."

The deadline for applications is June 1, and the earliest any Canadian school could start playing in the NCAA would be 2009.

The NCAA governs college and university athletics programs at most of the top schools across the U.S.

UBC and SFU would only be eligible to compete in the middle of three divisions of competition, but they would be able to apply for higher ranking in later years.

Currently UBC, SFU, the University of Victoria, and the University of Alberta already compete against U.S. schools in another sports organization called the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

But that organization does not have the same scholarships and television contracts that make the NCAA attractive to young athletes.