main Universities in Ulster, Queen's University, and the University of Ulster and St Mary's University College (a college of Queen's University). The stipulation of this was that University teams would have first choice for any player who is eligible to play for both the University team and the county team. The University teams have, naturally, emerged as among the weaker teams, but are by no means the 'whipping boys' of the competition, having beaten teams such as Antrim in 2007, and the added experience against playing teams of such a high standard is expected to be beneficial to the University teams in the principle Gaelic football competition for Irish universities, the Sigerson Cup. This initiative seems to be bearing fruit, given that the 2007 Sigerson Cup final was contested by Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and the University of Ulster. 2009 saw QUB become the first university side to reach the McKenna Cup final. 2007 Tyrone ineligibility dispute Tyrone caused controversy in 2007 when they fielded four players who had already been selected by University teams. The official rule is that Universities have first choice on players, so in effect, they were fielding ineligible players. Tyrone manager, Mickey Harte, claimed it was the players' own decision to choose to play for the county team over their University. Tyrone were docked two points as a punishment, but this did not affect their progression into the semi-final stage. Although Tyrone won the final, beating Donegal by 2-09 to 0-05, Tyrone were stripped of their title for fielding the ineligible University players in the match. The players had not been listed on the official team sheet, which was another breach of the rules. However, Tyrone's victory was reinstated upon appeal. 2013 withdrawal of Queen's Ahead of the 2013 competition, Queen's University Belfast withdrew in a controversy over their players being poached by other teams, though Ulster Council President Aogan Farrell had appealed for this practice to stop. County teams only In the 2020 competition, only county teams took part because of a fixture clash with the Sigerson Cup. The competition was cancelled in 2021. It was cancelled in 2022 as part of fixture revamps but then reinstated, again with only county teams. Roll of honour Broadcasting From 2007, the games were broadcast live on Irish language channel, TG4. The 2015 final between Tyrone and Cavan was shown live on BBC Sport NI's red button