Being from the states can someone please tell me why football at the University level is not huge like the US?
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No major TV contract. The schools don’t offer full ride scholarships. The student athletes are there for the education and not as a stepping stone to professional sports
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There's not as much money in it here as there is in the States is the main reason.
Television coverage is completely non-existent. Even the Vanier Cup, the national championship, was not nationally broadcast for a stretch of 6? years.
The schools don't depend on football and men's basketball to get their revenue. In the States, as far as I can tell, those sources are big cash generators. Iirc, football is a net monetary loss for a bunch of schools in Canada. This means that top brass at these schools put less money in football.
To go waaay back, college football in the USA was bigger than the pro game for a good chunk of time. That tradition doesn't really exist to near the same level in Canada.
The best American athletes play NCAA football or basketball to get to the pros. The top Canadian athletes go through the CHL to get to the pros. meaning that the elite sure-fire future pros (think Anthony Davis in basketball, Leonard Fournette in football or Connor McDavid in hockey), which draw some of the huge crowds, never play in Canada for their universities.
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It’s not just football that’s not big.
When it comes to amateur sports in general, there’s a lack of promotion and marketing along with a lack of support from politicians and media in general.
The population is just not deep enough (About 10 Americans to 1 Canadian) to be able to develop the high elite athletes that are the norm in the US.
Need facilities and money.
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Schools definitely do offer full rides for football. They’re the most well-funded programs at most schools.
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From what I understand, a full-time scholarship in Canada can only cover tuition and university fees. In America, it can go way beyond that.
I think in general though, university sports is just not as important a part of the post-secondary experience/culture here in Canada. I’d wager that only a very small percentage of students ever attend a game of any sort at all.
USport football attracts the largest crowds in general and those crowds are usually under 5,000.
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Cause y’all know how to promote sports, and we up here are a galaxy behind.
Once upon a time believe it or not, some collegiate crowds up here were actually competitive with some programs down south, but they quickly fell away as the promotion of college football in the south got modernized while the Canadian one stayed in the dark ages for 60 more years. Only in recent history have some schools gotten serious about their athletic programs. The rest treat it like an unwanted stepchild.
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My nephew played for Waterloo at the time of their steroid scandal. He didn’t get any assistance from the school. Since he was a First Nation(Ojibwe FN) student, his band paid for his tuition and books
It’s nice that his band paid for his education.
Too bad the university wasn’t much help at all.
Not all athletes at a school are there on scholarship. There’s only a limited number of scholarships that each school is allowed to give, to both incoming first-year players and the returning players. If your nephew was on the team, and the team knew that his band was paying for tuition and books, then they would have saved that scholarship for someone who needed it more
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It’s not considered a full ride program if the scholarships are limited. My nephew was behind the eight ball playing in Waterloo when mostly the players there were juiced up. The school turned a blind eye to the steroid abuse as the kids had money to buy illegal drugs.
“saved that scholarship for somebody who needed it more”. You realize Native students are underrepresented and come from poor reserves that are lucky to attend in post secondary institutions.
My sister couldn’t afford the fees for him to attend football camps, out of town trips. She was going to to school also. My brother and I helped him by paying for his camps and football trips.
I played Junior Hockey and it nearly bankrupted my parents. I played with used equipment expect for my skates, helmet, gloves and sticks. My parents couldn’t attend my games because they were working and money was tight. My brother had to quit Hockey because I was going farther than he was in Hockey, But we knew my nephew loved the sport of Football, so we supported him
We were proud of him when he played in GFL2. He got to play professional football. My nephew never forgot the help along the way
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That’s good to hear.
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Great info.Was really curious as we live close to the border and our son received looks, offers from all over the US, but not a peep from Canada. I always thought his game would have fit the Canadian game better ,but everything has worked out great. Thanks for all the response.
It is technically against USports rules for a school to offer “full ride” scholarships, paying any expenses that are not tuition or mandatory fees coming with classes. This would include books, housing, travel, food, etc. There is also a limit of 31(.5?) scholarships that each school can offer.
Of course I realize that Native students are underrepresented in most areas of society. That wasn’t my meaning when I said that. I was talking about someone who may have not had much money or a band helping him out financially. Given the illegal drug use and steroids taking lots of money, as you’ve said, there probably weren’t 31 students that needed the money more than him.
Good on all of you for supporting a dream and seeing it through to the end! I can’t imagine the pride I’d feel if I helped a family member make it into professional football
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Simple… because we have 1/10 the population, and we’re just not as football crazy as Americans.
I’ll ask you the same type of question back… why aren’t Americans just like Canadians?
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American sports fans, particularly in the Sunbelt, love their football. Canadian sports fans, particularly farther north of the border, and in the west, love their hockey. Americans will turn out to watch high school football, Canadians will turn out to watch junior hockey. Nothing wrong either way, unless you’re trying to earn a dollar to fund development of a sport?
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AHH little weird. Football question in football forum.
Gotcha, it does explain why there might be loss of fans at the pro level.College football in the states drives the pro game by filling in the towns where there is no pro team.
You were essentially asking why Canadians didn’t follow their college football just like Americans, so I was just using the same logic in reverse.
Here’s the fundamental difference… Canadians concentrate on education first before any sport. Americans… not so much. Canada is actually the number 1 nation on earth in percentage of citizens with a university/college education. Somewhere around 55%.
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Might I suggest economics or business administration degrees so we can get CFL finances in order… JK