5 CDNs on Defense

I support the quota. If teams didn’t have to dress Canadian players, Canadian college ball would die off and grassroots support for the CFL would disappear. But we need to be realistic about how many quality national players are available to be starters. Drop the total number from 63 to 54 (7 starters to 6 per team) and you are making it considerably easier for teams to field quality starters, not just mouth-breathers who happen to be Canadian.

Hold on here… Winnipeg’s “nationals” issues is of their own making… the last regime there apparently didn’t take the Canadian Draft terribly serious… hence… guess what… they have few serviceable “nationals”. Funny… how most other teams don’t have that problem… in fact, our team is quite nicely set up with nationals…

My own impression is that overall, the average quality of Canadians in the league has increased over say the last 25 years and the gap compared to American CFL players has narrowed. Maybe this year, with Ottawa coming in, the gap has widened a bit, but that might be only temporary.

That is a stretch - I’ve heard that argument before but I don’t buy it nor have I seen any evidence to support it. In my opinion, CIS football could thrive on its own just as many other university sports currently thrive in this country without a CFL-type affiliation.
Similarly, I do not see any reason to believe that grass-roots support for three-down football would automatically disappear, especially since the quality of the players and the on-field product along with its entertainment value would be improved appreciably.

It depends what you mean by “quality” starters. By my definition, a “quality” starter is one who has proven himself and his talent and legitimately won the roster/starting position through open competition with all other available candidates for the position. As soon as you introduce a quota system and the resultant free passes, by definition, you are excluding better players and compromising the quality of rosters in general.