USD Football 1997

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HOP ACROSS THE BORDER TO CANADA AND YOU'LL FIND A DIFFERENT BRAND OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

By Mike Fazioli

schools - all 24 of them - are far small– er and there are no athletic scholarships offered. Big money, which Division I schools depend on in the form of atten– dance, merchandising, television and bowl bids, is nonexistent. "We're Division III," said Gordon Grace, first-year head coach at Mount Allison University of Sackville, New Brunswick. "There are a lot of similarities that way. Non-scholarship, fairly similar in terms of overall talent, we fit closest with Divi– sion III football. Financially, we just don't get the attendance to be able to justify giv- c o N T I N U ED

you forget, check out Canada's distinct ver– sion of college football. Yes, Virginia, they play college foot– ball in Canada. But Canadian Intercol– legiate Athletic Union football, whose rules are the same as those of the pro– fessional Canadian Football League, is not the same as our NCAA brand. The biggest differences are the 110-yard– long, 65-yard-wide field, three downs instead of four, and 12 players on the field instead of 11. Based on talent, level of play and fan support, CIAU ball comes nowhere close to the Yanks' Division I football. The

merican sports fans tend not to think of their neigh– bors to the north as a for– eign country. After all, there are Canadian fran–

chises in the NBA and in Major League Baseball. The NHL, though now pre– dominantly an American league, still has strong, deep Canadian roots. The cultures are similar and, with the excep– tion of Quebec, the language is the same. But Canada, as many of its citizens are quick to point out, is not the U.S. In case