<h2>What about the Canada Bowl?</h2>
There’s a new enthusiasm for football at all levels across Canada these days and it all started about 5 years ago when the CFL got their act together by signing a major TV deal with TSN and when Canadian players like Tim Biakabatuka and Jesse Palmer cracked high profile positions at Major U.S. Colleges like Michigan and Florida.
In fact, the biggest success story this part of the 49th parallel is the University Football program the Laval Rouge and Or (Red & Gold) have established and have every other Canadian University re-examining their Football programs. Since they’ve established a Football program in their University 6 years ago, the “Rouge and Or” have won 3 National Championships and have done it with some major business corporation help behind them. The business community in that region realized by investing in a team sport like football, it would produce a stronger program for the school and a great networking system for their businesses.
Although Canada has a strong Hockey country reputation, there’s a good possibility Football could be the sport of choice in the future, as it’s believed more kids are picking up a football these days rather then a hockey stick. In fact, there’s more Sports Networks like RDS in Quebec who are broadcasting University football as part of their Saturday schedule and the talent level is attracting allot of attention from scouts down south.
With Bowl season upon us in the United States, this is a great time to get the wheels in motion and the awareness started to get our Canadian University Football Programs involved in their own Bowl games and invite teams from down south as opponents.
Since this would be something relatively new, it would be a major event to have the Canadian University Champion facing off against a non-Bowl eligible team and you could call it the Canada Bowl. For example, if you take the 2004 Canadian University Champions Laval Rouge et Or and pit them against a team like Kansas State, Nebraska or Colorado State who are not in a bowl game this season, it could be a great opportunity for CFL and NFL scouts for each league to observe players from both teams for their leagues. Plus, it would be great exposure for American teams to see a bit of Canadian hospitality and the CFL could take this opportunity to sale their game to American players who might not make the NFL.
Furthermore, since there are 3 dome stadiums in Canada, you can rotate the games each year at such venues like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. I’m sure major Corporations like Air Canada, Scotiabank, BMO, or even Rona would love an opportunity to sponsor such an event.
As for the rules, you could use the American rules one year and the Canadian rules another. Plus, this would give the Canadian Universities some great incentives for their kids to compete during the season, as the winner of the Vanier Cup will host the Canada Bowl.
Not only would this be a major sporting event in Canada each holiday season, but it would be a great marketing tool for the University Football players. As, it would give each Canadian University Football program an incentive to improve their programs and a great challenge to face off against American College players each year and this would be a great measuring stick for the Canadian programs to see how they are doing.
See you at the Canada Bowl next season!
Ron Raymond
There’s a new enthusiasm for football at all levels across Canada these days and it all started about 5 years ago when the CFL got their act together by signing a major TV deal with TSN and when Canadian players like Tim Biakabatuka and Jesse Palmer cracked high profile positions at Major U.S. Colleges like Michigan and Florida.
In fact, the biggest success story this part of the 49th parallel is the University Football program the Laval Rouge and Or (Red & Gold) have established and have every other Canadian University re-examining their Football programs. Since they’ve established a Football program in their University 6 years ago, the “Rouge and Or” have won 3 National Championships and have done it with some major business corporation help behind them. The business community in that region realized by investing in a team sport like football, it would produce a stronger program for the school and a great networking system for their businesses.
Although Canada has a strong Hockey country reputation, there’s a good possibility Football could be the sport of choice in the future, as it’s believed more kids are picking up a football these days rather then a hockey stick. In fact, there’s more Sports Networks like RDS in Quebec who are broadcasting University football as part of their Saturday schedule and the talent level is attracting allot of attention from scouts down south.
With Bowl season upon us in the United States, this is a great time to get the wheels in motion and the awareness started to get our Canadian University Football Programs involved in their own Bowl games and invite teams from down south as opponents.
Since this would be something relatively new, it would be a major event to have the Canadian University Champion facing off against a non-Bowl eligible team and you could call it the Canada Bowl. For example, if you take the 2004 Canadian University Champions Laval Rouge et Or and pit them against a team like Kansas State, Nebraska or Colorado State who are not in a bowl game this season, it could be a great opportunity for CFL and NFL scouts for each league to observe players from both teams for their leagues. Plus, it would be great exposure for American teams to see a bit of Canadian hospitality and the CFL could take this opportunity to sale their game to American players who might not make the NFL.
Furthermore, since there are 3 dome stadiums in Canada, you can rotate the games each year at such venues like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. I’m sure major Corporations like Air Canada, Scotiabank, BMO, or even Rona would love an opportunity to sponsor such an event.
As for the rules, you could use the American rules one year and the Canadian rules another. Plus, this would give the Canadian Universities some great incentives for their kids to compete during the season, as the winner of the Vanier Cup will host the Canada Bowl.
Not only would this be a major sporting event in Canada each holiday season, but it would be a great marketing tool for the University Football players. As, it would give each Canadian University Football program an incentive to improve their programs and a great challenge to face off against American College players each year and this would be a great measuring stick for the Canadian programs to see how they are doing.
See you at the Canada Bowl next season!
Ron Raymond
