Canadian Interuniversity Sport football
Current season, competition or edition: 2017 U Sports football season
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 |
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| Formerly | CIAU football, CIS football |
|---|---|
| Sport | Canadian football |
| Founded | 1961 |
| No. of teams | 27, in four conferences |
| Country | Canada |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Laval Rouge et Or |
| Most titles | Laval Rouge et Or (9) |
| TV partner(s) |
Sportsnet/The Score Television Network/Shaw TV(English) TVA Sports(French) |
| Related competitions |
Vanier Cup |
| Official website | en |
U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athletic conferences, drawing from the four regional associations of U Sports: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec, and Atlantic University Sport. At the end of every season, the champions of each conference advance to semifinal bowl games; the winners of these meet in the Vanier Cup national championship.
The origins of North American football can be traced here, where the first documented game was played at University College at the University of Toronto in 1861. A number of U Sports programs have been in existence since the origins of the sport. It is from these Canadian universities that the game now known as Canadian football began. In 1874, McGill University (Montreal) challenged Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) to a series of games.
The Grey Cup, the championship trophy of the professional Canadian Football League (CFL) since its founding in the 1950s, was originally contested by teams from the University of Toronto and Queen's University and other amateur teams since 1909. Many U Sports players have gone on to professional careers in the CFL and elsewhere; a number are drafted annually in the Canadian College Draft. In 2015, there were a record 199 CIS alumni on CFL rosters, including 136 on active rosters, 41 on injured lists, 20 on practice rosters, one on suspended lists and one on disabled lists.
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