When do you run this? Or do you?

As SoSueMe pointed out, it isn't necessarily a bad question about what kind of football our colleges up here do play. A lot of Canadian high schools have wrestled with playing Canadian or American rules - in case of scholarships, I guess, and most end up with some kind of bastardized mix of the rules as described for the Ontario Varsity League.

In this part of Ontario, and also a lot of places, they give the junior varsity teams four downs to manage the ball, then switch to three in senior. I think both have 12 players per side and all the other anomalies of Canadian football. Personally, I think that's a stupid way to go about things since you should teach players the strategy they'll use in varsity ball right from the get-go. We also have other stupid rules too though, like if you try running the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff or punt, but don't go far,they give you the 20 anyway. Weird high school stuff.

On another note, where are those mighty Carleton Ravens I'm still bitter that they don't realize you can have a basketball program and a football program and make both successful. They killed football with underspending and made it a scapegoat.

 

My eldest son plays CIS football and his brother will be joining him shortly--I won't say which school but it's in the Atlantic Conference.

Laval is the national powerhouse. Because it's a privately run programme--they have a budget that's about 10 times that of most of the schools--they're going to be odds on Vanier Cup favorite for a number of years.

They average around 20,000 to all of their games and since Quebec City doesn't have a major pro sports team since the Nordiques left, this is the place to be.

It's also astonishing how popular football is in Quebec--and I'm talking grassroots youth football right up to the university game. Almost every player on Laval is French speaking.