U Sports football


U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports. Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athletic conferences, drawing from the four regional associations of U Sports: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec, and Atlantic University Sport. At the end of every season, the champions of each conference advance to semifinal bowl games; the winners of these meet in the Vanier Cup national championship.
The origins of North American football can be traced here, where the first documented game was played at University College at the University of Toronto in 1861. A number of U Sports programs have been in existence since the origins of the sport. It is from these Canadian universities that the game now known as Canadian football began. In 1874, McGill University challenged Harvard University to a series of games.
The Grey Cup, the championship trophy of the professional Canadian Football League since its founding in the 1950s, was originally contested by teams from the University of Toronto and Queen's University and other amateur teams since 1909. Many U Sports players have gone on to professional careers in the CFL and elsewhere; a number are drafted annually in the Canadian College Draft. In 2019, there were a record 208 U Sports alumni on CFL rosters, including at least one player from each of the 27 football programs.

Season structure

Regular season

The regular season is nine to ten weeks long, depending on the conference, and, as of 2019, opens on the weekend before the Labour Day weekend. Teams play eight regular season games and regular season games are in-conference with exhibition games being played between conferences. Throughout the season, there are featured homecoming and rivalry games in most regions. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the Hec Crighton Trophy is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player of U Sports football.

Playoffs

After the regular season, single elimination playoff games are held between the top teams in each conference to determine conference champions. In the Atlantic conference, the top three teams qualify for the playoffs with the first place team receiving a bye. In the Canada West and Quebec conferences, the top four teams qualify for the playoffs. In Ontario, the top six teams qualify with the top two teams receiving playoff byes to the next round. Because the OUA teams have conference playoffs that last three weeks instead of two, the first round of the post-season in the OUA occurs during the same week that each of the other three conferences are playing their last regular season games. Each conference has its own championship trophy; the Hardy Trophy in the West, the Yates Cup in Ontario, the Dunsmore Cup in Quebec and the Jewett Trophy in the Atlantic conference. The conference champions proceed to national semifinal bowl games: the Mitchell Bowl and the Uteck Bowl. The participant conferences of each bowl are determined several years in advance on a rotating basis.
on offence against the McMaster Marauders in the second quarter of the 47th Vanier Cup.

Vanier Cup

The winners of each bowl game meet in the Vanier Cup national championship, first established in 1965 and named in honour of Governor General Georges Vanier. The game was held in Toronto every year through 2003 when host conference bids were first accepted, yielding a move to Hamilton for 2004 and 2005, followed by Saskatoon in 2006. Quebec City, Vancouver, and Montreal have since hosted Vanier Cup games.

Expansion

There have been efforts at establishing new varsity football programs at institutions that currently do not have teams. A group of alumni from Carleton University in Ottawa successfully revived that school's program which returned in 2013. The team is a member of the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports, returning football to Carleton University after a 15-year absence.
Because the AUS is the smallest conference in U Sports, there has been talk of adding more teams there, as well. There has been interest expressed in starting a team at the Université de Moncton, due to the recent construction of Moncton Stadium. As of May 2011, the athletics department submitted a feasibility report to the school's president and are going to base a large part of their decision upon how the Uteck Bowl in 2011 is received by the fans in Moncton. Additionally, a club team league, the Atlantic Football League, features four universities in what some hope will lead to varsity teams featured at some of these schools.
Following their successful application to become full-members of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, the UBC Okanagan Heat are investigating the feasibility of starting their own football program, likely to be partnered with the existing CJFL's Okanagan Sun. UBCO would host the Sun in much the same way that the University of Regina was paired with the Prairie Football Conference's Regina Rams.
The University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières were also exploring the possibility of adding a football program with the launch planned for the 2017 season. The program would have been similar to Carleton University's in that there would be private funding from football alumni, but operated by shareholders. As of April 2015, $800,000 of the required $3 million had been raised in support of the varsity sport at UQTR. The capacity of the football stadium would then be increased from 2000 to 6270 seats. The UQTR Patriotes previously fielded a senior varsity team from 1971 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979.

Proposed interconference consortium

In February 2015, businessman David Dube and Jim Mullin announced a proposal for a consortium known as the "Northern 8", which would organize interconference games between its member schools. Dube felt that this plan could help improve the prominence of CIS football on a national basis outside of the post-season, as it would allow a nationally televised package of regular season games to be sold to a major broadcaster. The Northern 8 would be structured as a non-profit corporation, and would subsidize production costs for its telecasts: profits would be distributed to non-member schools. It would start with 8 teams, but could expand to 10 in the future. The Canada West conference backed the proposal. The OUA, RSEQ and AUS showed concerns for the plan due to travel costs and its effects on standings and rejected the plan.

Teams

InstitutionTeamCityProvinceFirst seasonHead coachEnrollmentEndowmentFootball stadiumCapacityHardy TrophiesVanier Cups
University of British ColumbiaThunderbirdsVancouverBC1923Blake Nill49,166$1.3BThunderbird Stadium3,500164
University of CalgaryDinosCalgaryAB1964Wayne Harris Jr.30,900$790.6MMcMahon Stadium35,650185
University of AlbertaGolden BearsEdmontonAB1910Chris Morris39,312$1.0BFoote Field3,500183
University of SaskatchewanHuskiesSaskatoonSK1912Scott Flory21,168$214MGriffiths Stadium6,171203
University of ReginaRamsReginaSK1999Mark McConkey12,270$25.9MMosaic Stadium33,35010
University of ManitobaBisonsWinnipegMB1920Brian Dobie28,335$424MIG Field33,422123

InstitutionTeamCityProvinceFirst seasonHead coachEnrollmentEndowmentFootball stadiumCapacityYates CupsVanier Cups
University of WindsorLancersWindsorON1968Jean-Paul Circelli13,610$110.8MSouth Campus Stadium2,00010
University of Western OntarioMustangsLondonON1929Greg Marshall35,952$685MTD Stadium8,000327
University of WaterlooWarriorsWaterlooON1957Chris Bertoia31,362$311.2MWarrior Field5,20020
Wilfrid Laurier UniversityGolden HawksWaterlooON1961Michael Faulds20,151$71.6MUniversity Stadium6,00072
University of GuelphGryphonsGuelphON1950Ryan Sheahan27,048$308.9MAlumni Stadium4,10041
McMaster UniversityMaraudersHamiltonON1901Stefan Ptaszek29,411$609MRon Joyce Stadium6,00081
University of TorontoVarsity BluesTorontoON1877Greg Marshall73,185$1.88BVarsity Stadium5,000252
York UniversityLionsTorontoON1969Warren Craney55,000$439MYork Stadium2,50000
Queen's UniversityGaelsKingstonON1882Steve Snyder24,582$1.04BRichardson Stadium8,000234
University of OttawaGee-GeesOttawaON1881Marcel Bellefeuille42,587$233.9MGee-Gees Field4,15242
Carleton UniversityRavensOttawaON1945Steve Sumarah31,202$270.6MMNP Park3,50000

InstitutionTeamCityProvinceFirst seasonHead coachEnrollmentEndowmentFootball stadiumCapacityDunsmore CupsVanier Cups
Concordia UniversityStingersMontrealQC1974Brad Collinson38,809$136.7MConcordia Stadium4,00030
Université de MontréalCarabinsMontrealQC2002Marco Ladeluca55,540$276.5MCEPSUM5,10031
McGill UniversityMcGillMontrealQC1898Ronald Hilaire39,497$1.45BMolson Stadium23,42031
Université LavalRouge et OrQuebec CityQC1996Glen Constantin37,591$108.3MStade Telus12,8171510
Université de SherbrookeVert et OrSherbrookeQC1971Mathieu Lecompte35,000---Stade de l'Université de Sherbrooke3,35900

InstitutionTeamCityProvinceFirst seasonHead coachEnrollmentEndowmentFootball stadiumCapacityJewett TrophiesVanier Cups
Bishop's UniversityGaitersSherbrookeQC1884Chérif Nicolas1,817$32.5MCoulter Field2,20000
Mount Allison UniversityMountiesSackvilleNB1955Peter Fraser2,694$110MMacAulay Field2,50060
Acadia UniversityAxemenWolfvilleNS1957Jeff Cummins4,358$96MRaymond Field3,000152
Saint Mary's UniversityHuskiesHalifaxNS1956James Colzie III7,586$52.9MHuskies Stadium4,000243
Saint Francis Xavier UniversityX-MenAntigonishNS1954Gary Waterman5,158$100MOland Stadium4,000131

Awards and the annual All-Canadian Team

There are post-season awards for on-the-field excellence. The players deemed to be the best at each position are named to the annual All-Canadian Football Team as first or second team players.
Additionally there are a number of individual awards for categories like "best defensive player".

Professional advancement

U Sports players in the CFL

Many players from U Sports football have become professional athletes with most of them playing in the Canadian Football League. Opening Day of the 2015 CFL season saw a record 199 U Sports football players on rosters around the League. The most recent CFL season, 2019, featured 208 former U Sports football players on CFL teams' rosters on opening day.

CFL Draft

The following is a list of recent numbers from the CFL Draft, which is an annual eight-round event with a current maximum of 74 players drafted. From 1997 to 2012 the CFL Draft had six rounds of selections and from 2013 to 2015 it had seven rounds. From 2002 to 2005, the CFL had nine teams, then reverted to eight teams from 2006 to 2013, and then was back to its current number of nine teams in 2014. The high-water mark of 59 players from the U Sports drafted was recorded in the 2014 CFL Draft, which was the most since 1978.
PositionSchool
200553335Miguel RobedeDELaval Rouge et Or
200650265Jay PottingerLBMcMaster Marauders
200747315Chris BaumanWRRegina Rams
200848334Dylan BarkerDBSaskatchewan Huskies
200948387Simeon RottierOTAlberta Golden Bears
201047364Shomari WilliamsLBQueen's Gaels
201147344Henoc MuambaLBSt. Francis Xavier X-Men
201245243Ben HeenanOLSaskatchewan Huskies
201360444Linden GaydoshDTCalgary Dinos
201465598Pierre LavertuOLLaval Rouge et Or
201562447Sukh ChunghOLCalgary Dinos
201670534Philippe GagnonOLLaval Rouge et Or
201771566Daniel VandervoortWRMcMaster Marauders
201869564Mark KorteOLAlberta Golden Bears
201973522Jesse GibbonOLWaterloo Warriors
202073574Coulter WoodmanseyOLGuelph Gryphons

U Sports players in the NFL

As of 2019, U Sports had produced 36 players who have earned a spot on an NFL roster :
There have been 12 U Sports players drafted into the National Football League with David Onyemata being the most recent.
YearRoundPickNFL TeamPlayerPositionSchool
19768234Washington RedskinsBrian FryerWRAlberta Golden Bears
197911280Baltimore ColtsJohn PriestnerLBWestern Mustangs
198212333Cincinnati BengalsDan FeradayQBToronto Varsity Blues
1986123Los Angeles RamsMike SchadOGQueen's Golden Gaels
19929239Phoenix CardinalsTyrone WilliamsWRWestern Mustangs
19957237San Diego ChargersMark MontreuilCBConcordia Stingers
1998232Indianapolis ColtsJerome PathonWRAcadia Axemen
20017241Jacksonville JaguarsRandy ChevrierDEMcGill Redmen
20094113San Diego ChargersVaughn MartinDEWestern Mustangs
2012389New Orleans SaintsAkiem HicksDERegina Rams
20146200Kansas City ChiefsLaurent Duvernay-TardifOTMcGill Redmen
20164120New Orleans SaintsDavid OnyemataDLManitoba Bisons