USD Football 1997

The rules are different, but the game looks much the same north of the border.

QUICK FACTS • The CIAU consists of 24 schools, all in one division and broken down into four conferences: Canada West Uni· versities Athletic Association , Ontario Universities Athletic Association, Ontario-Quebec lnteruniversity Foot– ball Conference and Atlantic Universities Athletic Association. • The national championship is decided by aplayoff system in which each conference holds atitle game and sends the winner to the national semifinal games: the Churchill Bowl and the Atlantic Bowl. Those winners advance to the Vanier Cup, played annually at Toronto's SkyDome. • The CIAU's version of the Heisman Trophy, the Hee Creighton Trophy, is named atter one of Canadian college football's pioneers and author of the official rule book of Canadian football.

ing scholarships. We don't have the dol– lars to compete in that way." Grace can make the comparison first hand. Born in Chatham, Ontario - only a couple of hours from Ann Arbor and the Michigan Wolverines - Grace followed both NCAA and CIAU football growing up. His coaching career began at Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario}, but headed south when he was hired as a graduate assistant at Michigan. Grace spent two seasons with the Wolverines before returning to Laurier as offensive coordinator in 1996. He was hired by Mount Allison in January. The dif– ferences he found crossing the border were, to say the least, like night and day. For starters, he has gone from being a member of Michigan's huge staff to being the top man of a full-time staff of one. 'Tm the only full-time coach," Grace said. "Sometimes I play secretary, some– times I copy tapes, draw up new plays, call recruits ... you wear all the hats here. Most of our assistants are volunteers. "In the States there are so many resources. Ten full-time coaches, full– time strength coaches, full -time video

staff, therapists, all that. They develop the athletes much more than we're able to." Mind you, Grace isn't complaining. CIAU fans and administrators aren't expecting their teams to challenge the Michigans and Notre Dames south of the border. With no scholarships on the table, the student-athletes choose their uni– versities as much by academic reputation as by athletic reputation, if not more so. There are no cutthroat recruiting wars, no hard-core wooing of athletes. "For the quality of coaching life, it's much better up here for me," Grace said. "There's not nearly as much pressure. What you give up here is the big money, TV, big crowds. But I still get a lot of satisfaction here. It's fun, and that's important."

There is some competition for players, however, coming from the American schools. Mainly in western and south– ern Ontario and the Toronto area, a num– ber of Canadian high school players are recruited by U.S. schools, with Michi– gan, Ohio State and Syracuse the main recruiters. Florida has gotten into the act, grabbing quarterback Jesse Palmer from Ottawa. "That's really more of an Eastern phe– nomenon," said Saskatchewan head coach Brian Towriss, a two-time nation– al championship winner and four-time Canada West Coach of the Year. "Out here, we get one kid every three or four years who goes Division I. Aside from that, most of the kids who go south end up in Division II or NAIA."

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