CIS Corner: McGill not joining OUA opens door to rethink university football

When one door shuts, another usually opens. Ontario University Athletics, perhaps worrying about setting a bad precedent by raiding another conference, has turned down McGill University's bid to move its football team from Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) to the OUA.

The long and short of it? It didn't fall upon the OUA, which incidentally has the fun job of scheduling an odd-numbered 11-team football league beginning next season, to address a need of the Montreal school. McGill, along with fellow Anglophone institutions Bishop's and Concordia, has struggled to be competitive with the mighty Laval Rouge et Or in the RSEQ, along with the Montreal Carabins and Sherbrooke Vert et Or. But bolting for Ontario is not necessarily the solution, although this decision might be a prod to work for a solution.

The worst that can come out of this is for all of the highers-up to fall back on the status quo. University football is a great game and there is an audience for it, as the ratings for past three Vanier Cup games clearly convey. But that requires furnishing the student-athletes with more quality competitive opportunities and fewer games that spiral into 61-0 and 69-0 blowouts (and those are just from games I have commentated this season for Streaming Sports Network Canada, hi-yo).

Realizing that McGill is sticking around should galvanize the RSEQ to address the lot of its three Anglophone institutions. It's not a negative, per se, but they simply haven't benefited from skyrocketing growth of football in Quebec to the same extent as the rest of the league. Part of McGill's motive for exploring a move was that it also felt it would create more recruiting exposure in Southern Ontario, which was part of the reason their former rivals Queen's moved from the old O-QIFC to the OUA in 2001.

Interlocking play possible

According to those close to the situation, one possible step could be reintroducing interleague play between Ontario and Quebec, which was last tried in 1999 and 2000.

Laval's recent playoff battles with OUA teams such as last fall's double-overtime Vanier Cup classic against McMaster and tense national semifinals against Queen's and Western in 2009 and '10 have certainly stoked the appetite for deciding bragging rights. McMaster-Laval in the regular season instead of a preseason game? McGill playing Toronto in a game that counts for the first time since the 1970s? That would put more meat on the bone for a brand of football that struggles to expand beyond it loyal niche audience, raising the possibility that a Vanier Cup game in front of 25,000 to 30,000 fans would be more of a norm than an exception.

As a side benefit, it would give Bishop's, Concordia and McGill more face time with prospective players. The six-team RSEQ could also play Ontario without affecting its interlocking games with Atlantic University Sport, which it has played since 2002.

This shouldn't be seen as McGill being thwarted. It's really more of a first step toward creating more of a buzz.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.