Linking the country: Football season begins, for one team anyway

What you missed while getting thrown out at home...

The CIS football season started last night, but it seems nobody told Alberta, who lost 32-0. Huskie Outsider has a game story, as you'd expect, as well as a "Sights and Sounds" video that shows you just what kind of a show they put on in Saskatoon:


Both at Yahoo! Sports, our Neate Sager looks at some reasons why only one Canada West team has won a Vanier Cup in 13 years, and our Andrew Bucholtz runs down the various list of teams who have a non-trivial shot at winning it this year.

Chris Cochrane, in the Chronicle Herald, acknowledges that the FRC-CIS top 10 results "carry little weight at any time of the season", nonetheless says the poll is an indicator of how "the AUS still lacks competitive respect. And that’s a justifiable impression." (Disclosure: I'm a voter in that poll.)

In a CP story, we find that Laval coach Glen Constantin likes Acadia to repeat. Those of who chose Saint Mary's are therefore disagreeing with a coach who has 134 championship rings. No pressure.

The Canada West coaches poll, as noted by UBC coach Shawn Olson, is a bit of a surprise with the Huskies finding themselves quite low at fifth out of six in the conference, despite being 8th nationwide in the CIS poll. (And I know coaches can't vote for their own teams, but Manitoba?)