Watching ESPN College Gameday this morning which is being broadcast from the relatively "tiny" FCS Powerhouse North Dakota State University. The mentioned notable alumni playing or have played in the NFL.
So it got me thinking ... What schools produce the most CFL Players? Or maybe the reverse, where are CFL GM's/Scouts finding their players? Obviously the ratio comes into play here, so I broke it out between CIS schools & ones south of the border.
Anyways, I found it to be quite interesting ... For example, look at Saint Mary's in Canada & Troy in the US ...
Here are the #'s. (Based upon current "Active Rosters" as of September 16th)
CIS Schools (All Listed)
Calgary 19
Saint Mary's 14
Saskatchewan 13
Laval 12
Western 11
Simon Fraser 10
Bishop's 9
McMaster 9
Regina 7
Sherbrooke 7
Concordia 6
Manitoba 6
Acadia 5
Montréal 5
St. Francis Xavier 5
Wilfrid Laurier 5
Windsor 5
Queen's 4
Alberta 3
Guelph 3
Ottawa 3
Toronto 3
UBC 3
York 3
Waterloo 2
McGill 1
US Schools (Top 25 by # of players on a CFL Roster)
South Carolina 8
Fresno State 6
Troy University 6
Akron 5
Central Michigan 5
Eastern Washington 5
Georgia 5
Louisville 5
Oklahoma 5
Temple 5
West Virginia 5
Auburn 4
Boise State 4
Connecticut 4
Duke 4
East Carolina 4
Eastern Michigan 4
Idaho 4
Maryland 4
Mississippi 4
Nebraska 4
South Florida 4
Tennessee 4
Tulsa 4
Washington State 4
Yes ... Yes I do! (To be fair ... it's raining here & I'm bored!)
Some other interesting information for y'all ...
Average age of a CFL player on the active roster is 27.32 years of age. The median age is 26.8 years old.
25 to 27 year olds are the largest grouping of players in the league representing 43.51% of the league. Expand that by a year on either side, and 2/3rds of the league's players are between the ages of 24 & 28.
Your list is testament to Blake Nill's extraordinary program at the U of C...he runs a really good show there. And, he lost a ton of weight over the spring/summer too. He's a big guy, maybe 6'4", but I figure he's gone from 280 down to 230.
And when you consider that Nill coached and built the Saint Mary's program up until 2006 and that many of the Husky grads that are in the CFL would have been recruited and developed by Nill while he was there ...
Sounds like the Dinos/Bisons game last night was a Passing Academy!!!
