Duane Rollins has details in full over at Out of Left Field about the CIS meeting Laval's conditions for hosting the next two editions of our national championship.
Update: The official press release says the games will be played Nov. 28, 2009 and Nov. 27, 2010. The first date lines up with the OUA schedule, which has the Yates Cup scheduled for one week earlier, Nov. 14.
It is fair to say this has been a bit of a gong show. Rollins has someone who was close to one of the other bids accusing the CIS of "making up the rules on this bid process as they go along," adding that the prospect of pushing the Vanier up a week "screws every school in Canada." It's not clear that it's come to that, but nevertheless.
In that scenario -- it's worth delving into since playing the same weekend as the Grey Cup is clearly not sustainable -- the Atlantic and Quebec conferences would not have much trouble starting a week earlier. Canada West, which has an odd number of teams, started Aug. 22 last season to avoid teams having to play two games in one week. The OUA would have to play the last weekend in August in order to fit in an eight-game schedule with three rounds of playoffs.
This is a mess, but the upshot is Laval, as Duane's source put it, will throw a "hell of a party."
As the athletics people at Dalhousie can tell you, bidding for a national championship can get awfully messy.
Related:
Vanier 2009 and 2010 to Laval (Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field)
(This has been revised since first posted.)
Football: Laval getting '09 and '10 Vaniers
Assuming the Vanier and Grey Cups are played on the same weekend again, and Laval makes it again, are these two games going to be anything but a sea of red and gold?
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's one thing to have the game in Southern Ontario one day when everyone else is in Montreal for the next day. It's another entirely to divide between Calgary and Quebec City.
GONG SHOW is correct; has anyone taken the time to do the research as to WHY it has been a GONG SHOW and told us about it
ReplyDelete