Fanium's new free iOS app allows CFL fans to check out three-down fantasy football.Fantasy football's long been a huge deal for fans of the NFL, but opportunities for Canadian football fans to draft their favourite players have been scarce until recently. That's starting to change, though. Fantas-Eh has been around for a couple of years as a pay service and recently announced they're revamping to a free product, and U.S.-based Fanium just launched their own free iOS-based CFL fantasy app this week. The Fanium app is already gaining plenty of popularity, as the company's picked up 1,156 followers on Twitter through Friday morning and has seen plenty of fans and some current players join in. It's perhaps most notable because of what it represents, though: a U.S. organization seeing the CFL as a business opportunity, and specifically developing something for the Canadian football market. I spoke to Fanium founder and CEO Grant Gurtin last week about what led him to develop this app, and he had some interesting things to say.

Gurtin said this is his company's first fantasy app on their own, but they have a substantial background in the arena thanks to developing companion apps for larger companies.

"We started last year with a fantasy football app for Yahoo! and CBS," he said. "We realized there was an opportunity to create a new app."

Gurtin said his personal background gave him some familiarity with the CFL, so it seemed like a natural league to explore. He said the CFL seemed like a natural target for them, as when they started developing the app seven months ago, there was no free fantasy CFL application on the market.

The Vanier Cup, which Laval claimed in 2012, will be seen on Sportsnet for the next six years.

The announcement Wednesday that Rogers Sportsnet had reached a six-year deal with CIS to broadcast Canadian university football, basketball and hockey was far from unexpected, but it's still significant. It had been apparent for some time that CIS was going to pool all of its rights with one broadcaster, and as I reported in March, Sportsnet was the logical fit. With Rogers' acquisition of The Score (made official at the end of April), the company has an expanded need for live sports programming, and the cross-sports stable of CIS events seems to fit well with what they're trying to do. All in all, this deal could be a boost for the profile of university sports events across the board, and it could particularly help CIS basketball and hockey. One key question does remain, though: how much will separating Canadian university football (now on Sportsnet) from the professional CFL version (on TSN through 2018) hurt that part of the game?

Argos' first-round pick Matt Sewell could be one of the top steals of the 2013 draft.

Monday's CFL draft (full results here) didn't have a surprise at the top, but there were still plenty of unexpected picks. The draft, expanded to seven rounds for the first time, saw 60 different players chosen by nine teams. In addition to the eight teams that will be playing this year, the Ottawa expansion team set to start in 2014 was allowed to select NCAA players with eligibility remaining in each of the first four rounds. Some selections looked like exceptional value, while other players were taken taken long before most expected them to be. Here's a breakdown of three steals and three reaches from the draft.

While Monday's CFL draft had plenty of surprises, the name at the top wasn't one. Calgary Dinos' defensive lineman Linden Gaydosh was chosen first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, as most expected. Gaydosh carried an appealing mix of athletic ability, CIS performance and a lack of NFL interest in his services, making him a logical top choice. The best part of his selection may have been his reaction, though. During a TSN interview over the phone from his home in Peace River, Alberta, Gaydosh was asked how he was going to celebrate. His response: "Maybe crack a beer. I've got a couple on the table." There's something perfectly Canadian about that coming from a top CFL draft pick, as it's a line that seems right out of a Bob and Doug sketch. Here's hoping Gaydosh's table looks like this one:

Calgary DL Linden Gaydosh may go first overall Monday.

The 2013 edition of the CFL draft kicks off Monday at 12 p.m. Eastern, and yes, Homer, it will be televised. The first two rounds will air live on TSN, with the remaining five streaming live at TSN.ca. We'll be providing live coverage of the first two rounds here, with thoughts and analysis on who each team takes and how their new players might fit in. The draft's a crucial part of the CFL calendar, as it's the primary means for teams to acquire Canadian talent that can help them out for years and years. It's always an important event, and this year's should be no different.

There are several notable storylines heading into the 2013 draft. This is going to be a unique draft thanks to the partial participation of the Ottawa expansion franchise. That team isn't set to begin play until 2014, but they have picks at the end of the first, second, third and fourth rounds (ninth, 18th, 27th and 36th overall). They're restricted to taking NCAA underclassmen who won't be available for at least

Linden Gaydosh shone at the CFL Combine and could be the top pick in Monday's draft.The CFL draft is always an exciting time of year, with the league's teams choosing Canadian players who may prove to be crucial for them this season and (even more likely) down the road. Canadian talent is on the rise to the point that the league's expanded the draft to seven rounds, so there should be plenty of top prospects selected from the NCAA and CIS ranks. The 2013 edition of the CFL draft is set to take place Monday (May 6) at noon Eastern, with the first two rounds airing live on TSN and the following five streamed on TSN.ca; we'll be live-chatting during the first two rounds here at 55-Yard Line, beginning just before noon Eastern.

What's perhaps most intriguing about this year's draft is there isn't a lot of consensus on where many players will go. Many of the most talented draft-eligible prospects either have another year of NCAA play and perhaps the NFL ahead (top-ranked Oregon LB Bo Lokombo is a case in point here), or have already signed deals with NFL squads (such as McMaster OT Matt Sewell and Regina DL Stefan Charles), hurting the chances they'll wind up north of the border any time soon. Moreover, the league's teams are likely to approach this draft with substantially different philosophies; some are willing to take risks on top talent that may never come to the CFL, while others may focus on who's ready right now and others may only want players at specific positions. With that in mind, here's a mock draft of the first round, focusing on who each team may take and why they might make that call.

Smith (L) and Bayless (R) agree on one thing: the CFL may not be a fit for Tebow.

It wouldn't seem easy to find anything that Warren Moon, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless would see the same way. Moon, the legendary former CFL and NFL quarterback, now has become a respected football analyst, while Smith and Bayless spend most of their daily two-hour First Take show on ESPN2 yelling at each other about everything sports-related (to the disdain of many). However, there's one thing where they all agree, and it's a conclusion reached here many times before: the CFL doesn't seem to be the best fit for recently-released New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow. Here's what Moon told KILT-AM in Houston Wednesday:

"You have to be able to throw the ball up there, if anything. They throw the ball a lot. It's only three downs, so the passing game is much more important up there, and there's a lot more field to cover," Moon said. "If you can't throw the football, it doesn't matter where you play quarterback," he said. "You have to be able to throw it. That's his biggest problem, just being able to complete passes, be an accurate passer. I think he's a really good athlete playing the position, but I don't think that's enough sometimes."

And here's what Bayless (long one of Tebow's biggest backers) and Smith said in response to Moon's comments on First Take Thursday:

Kris Robertson's combine showing demonstrated how much Canadian talent's out there.

The CFL's decision Wednesday to expand the annual draft of non-import talent (including this year's edition, set for Monday, May 6) from six to seven rounds suggests the league and its teams believe there's more and more Canadian talent out there that's capable of playing at a high level. That fits with other moves we've seen, such as this year's addition of regional combines (which has already paid off, as Kris Robertson went from stealing the show at a regional combine to besting more nationally-prominent prospects at the full event). The quality of CIS football has improved dramatically, with more and more Canadian university programs not only finding exceptional talent but also developing it, and Canadians are also shining at the junior and NCAA levels. Expanding the draft is a recognition of just how many top Canadian players are out there, and that's smart.