The governing body for university sports in Canada signed a long-term contract with Sportsnet in 2013. U Sports was hoping to boost the profile of the league with expanded coverage and a refreshed approach. Instead, ratings are down, fewer events are being broadcast and questions surround what comes next for U Sports on television. The Silhouette looks at how we got here and what may lie ahead.
There are a number of problems facing university athletics – now known as U Sports after an organizational rebrand in 2016 – but none are bigger than the current television situation. In 2013, Canadian university athletics and Sportsnet joined forces, shifting the broadcast rights from TSN to the other sports channel. The agreement was met with some fanfare because of what it promised. Instead, the next four years would see significant changes, both with U Sports and Sportsnet, casting doubt on the viability and potential of Canadian university sport.
A reread of the May 2013 press release announcing the six-year Sportsnet television contract reveals how much has changed.
The Sportsnet executive quoted in the release, Navaid Mansuri, has not been quoted about Canadian university sport since then. The CEO of U Sports, then called Canadian Interuniversity Sport, abruptly resigned in Jan. 2015. That release also boasted that the Score – a television channel bought by Sportsnet – would “be one of the main hubs of CIS coverage”. The Score was renamed “Sportsnet 360” later that year and ditched their coverage of Ontario University Athletics football and basketball in the following year.
The release ends with a bold claim: “by the end of the six-year partnership in 2018-19, as many as 27 CIS events could air annually on Sportsnet.” Some new sports could get a national spotlight. For athletes and coaches competing in sports like volleyball, rugby and soccer, it felt like their accomplishments would finally be recognized.
To date, this has not materialized. Four years into the agreement and Sportsnet continues to broadcast the national championships and semifinals for football along with both men’s and women’s basketball – the same slate listed on that initial press release. Men’s hockey was broadcasted this year, but women’s hockey was not.
Money is at the heart of the television rights issue. In the current age of cord cutting and piracy, television networks are constantly trying to secure the rights for products that will capture a live audience. While sports is not iron-clad, it is one of the few programming options that has retained an audience. That is why you see massive contracts being handed out for the sports broadcast rights.
However, U Sports is the anomaly here. In 2013, the Globe and Mail said that U Sports was receiving $100,000 in the first year of the contract from Sportsnet. Neither U Sports nor Sportsnet would confirm that number to the Globe and Mail. This number pales in comparison to the billions of dollars brought in by other sports organizations. The rights to the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s men’s basketball tournament cost CBS-Turner $10.8 billion. The difference speaks volumes.
For the 2015 winter championship season, Sportsnet reimagined their coverage approach. Instead of having the hockey and basketball tournaments spread over a few weekends, the tournaments would be put on one weekend and all covered on the specialty channels Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet One. This meant 20 hours of U Sports programming over a Saturday and Sunday in mid-March. Sportsnet was attempting to compete with Hockey Night in Canada during the National Hockey League’s playoff race.
"We're very supportive of university sports in Canada, but at the end of the day we're in the business of generating the largest viewership and using that to generate revenue,"
Scott Moore
President,
Sportsnet
At the 2015 U Sports Annual General Meeting, a “Year 1 Review” report framed the reformatted weekend as a success, though time has exposed some issues. Sportsnet said “atmosphere and general attendance in venue still needs to be addressed”. U Sports members echoed this sentiment, saying, “Due to small crowds, it didn’t look good on TV… This hurts the brand.”
These issues persist. Attendance at the men’s basketball tournament was extremely low in 2016, though this is hard to quantify because of a lack of attendance numbers from the organizers at the University of British Columbia. Other sports struggle to capture a live audience, reaffirming the complaints from the year before.
U Sports departments are often small shops with limited resources. This makes it difficult for schools with multiple teams competing in championships to get the logistics taken care of. Some teams have to find more therapists for the athletes; other schools need to contract out for help building media guides.
The 2016 tournament also went up against the opening weekend of the NCAA March Madness tournament, even though Sportsnet recommended they change the dates to avoid this issue. None of these events rated in the top 30 sports broadcasts for their week, getting beaten out by events like a non-major golf tournament and the World Indoor Athletics Championships.
Despite being billed as a success in 2015, this format was abandoned in 2017.
Six months after Sportsnet inked a deal with U Sports, the Rogers-owned company signed a 12-year $5.2-billion contract for the National Hockey League broadcast rights. Initially seen as a watershed moment for Sportsnet, the company appears to have overpaid for the product. According to the Globe and Mail, ratings fell by 16 per cent in both the 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 season. This led to a decline in advertising revenue.
Rogers Media laid off 200 employees in January 2016 and said all areas were affected except for the Toronto Blue Jays.
What does this have to do with U Sports? It limits the resources available to grow the league, which is what the Canadian university sports organization was looking for when it signed with Sportsnet. The agreement was framed as a partnership between the two parties, with Sportsnet providing coverage and airtime for a league looking to break out of the local communities and create a stir nationally.
The two parties have a reason to believe in that. ESPN built its empire on college athletics. In the early 1980s, ESPN picked up the early rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and essentially created March Madness. A court ruling later that decade allowed ESPN to broadcast multiple college football games, creating a television product that other networks refused to.
But the NHL hockey deal appears to have put an end to that. In 2015, U Sports members complained about a lack of “lead-in” to Super Championship Weekend, meaning there wasn’t enough pre-coverage or hype for the event
In 2015, Sportsnet had some writers writing weekly power ranking articles about men’s basketball. They also hosted Sportsnet U Recruited, a competition aimed at university students to submit their U Sports content for the chance at a scholarship. (Full disclosure: I was nominated for this scholarship in 2015.)
Now, Sportsnet will mostly repost U Sports press releases or wire stories. They have some original video content, but the U Sports page still has a story about a soccer championship from November featured on it. The Sportsnet U Recruited competition does not appear to be running this year.
However, Sportsnet did broadcast regular-season football games in 2016. According to the Toronto Star, ratings for this were poor.
With cuts to the Rogers media departments, it is no surprise to see U Sports coverage fall to the wayside. Ratings and advertising revenue could improve as Canadian NHL franchises become more competitive, though it is unclear if this will improve anything for U Sports.
Sportsnet and U Sports are locked in to a deal until 2018-2019, and public comments show some hesitation on the broadcaster’s end.
In a Toronto Star article from Sept. 2016, Sportsnet president Scott Moore spoke about the future of their relationship.
“We’re very supportive of university sports in Canada, but at the end of the day we’re in the business of generating the largest viewership and using that to generate revenue,” Moore said. “If we were 100 per cent we probably would have renewed already. We want to see how things go with this experiment.”
And if viewership and revenue are what Sportsnet is chasing, that paints a bleak picture for U Sports. Viewership for the Vanier Cup has fallen over the past three years to 243,000 viewers. The Vanier is the crown jewel of the U Sports package and interest is waning. The winter championships don’t draw well either (number five).
U Sports could be forced to look elsewhere, but Canada’s small media landscape leaves a few options. Naturally, TSN is the other option, and this partnership could be a good one.
TSN needs content after losing the NHL contract. They have the rights to some regional hockey games but have not filled the gap with original programming. TSN is also the sole broadcaster of the Canadian Football League and a partnership between TSN and U Sports could create more meaning for university football. Currently, the CFL Draft comes and goes without much fanfare, though the league is trying to address that. The main obstacle is that the draftees are just names on a list. Only diehard fans of Canadian football will have seen the players before.
In theory, TSN could pick up the rights for a small fee and broadcast one U Sports football game a week. This creates live Canadian programming and could drive interest in the CFL too.
The Sportsnet deal was met with cautious optimism by most followers of the league. That optimism has faded. Instead of galvanizing a league and putting it in the national spotlight, U Sports’ relevance has faded through the contract. Viewership is down, Sportsnet has not broadcasted more events even though that was advertised in the original press release, and the total visibility has been limited to three weekends a year. What, if anything, comes next for U Sports on TV will provide more detail on the property’s long-term viability.
The 52nd Vanier Cup took place at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton on Nov. 26. This probably comes as a shock to you, considering less than 5,000 people attended the game and 243,000 watched on Sportsnet. For comparison, Tim Hortons Field can hold 24,000 and just over 300,000 watched the Vanier in 2015 and 2014.
This probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but it should. McMaster played a role in hosting and organizing the event, and student dollars help fund University Sports. The investment students make is not paying off and leadership needs to acknowledge they are behind the times.
For those who follow the U Sports, the Vanier news is frustrating given the cockiness shown by CEO Graham Brown. Four days before the game, Brown told the Hamilton Spectator that he expected 16,000 or 17,000 to attend.
This quote was insulting. When Brown said it, there were about 7,000 tickets sold. Moving 10,000 tickets in a short period of time, when the game was between two out-of-province teams, was never going to happen, and all U Sports fans knew it. U Sports would not even list the attendance in the box score on their website, likely too embarrassed at their own failure to post the dismal figure.
To his credit, Brown has made himself available to the media and he is candid when talking about what university sport needs to do to make itself relevant in the Canadian sports media landscape. But it’s not the only surprising quote we have seen from him.
In June, Brown told the Globe and Mail he plans to nearly triple the U Sports budget in the span of three years, going from $3.25 million to $10 million. A few months later, the league launched their rebrand, going from Canadian Interuniversity Sport to U Sports. The Vanier Cup, hosted at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, was supposed to be the official transition. U Sports could not have chosen a worse event to use as the launching pad.
It gets uglier if you dig into the nuts and bolts of their rebrand. U Sports is pitching itself to corporate sponsors as a way for them to access the 18-24 year-old market. If you tuned into the game on Nov. 26, that market was not represented. There were some undergraduates in attendance, but the broadcast’s crowd shots showed people mostly above the age of 30.
And yes, the two competing teams were Calgary and Laval. Defenders will say it is hard to sell tickets for two out-of-province teams, but what does that say about U Sports? You can’t get interest in the national championship of your most popular sport? (Crazy idea: don’t host neutral-site events.)
The 52nd Vanier Cup was an abject disaster. U Sports tried to draw attention to themselves with the rebrand, highlighting how they have turned a page as an organization. Instead, it cemented the existing beliefs in the brand: the support and interest for events is regional and the undergraduate market is not that excited about U Sports.
We can hope that the Vanier result teaches Brown a lesson: you don’t have all the answers and fixing Canadian university sport requires more than a facelift. Changing the name of the league doesn’t mask its problems; it only changes the shade of lipstick on the pig.
The Marauders have been taking a coach bus wrapped with a graphic of the athletic department’s logo to the various practice venues. Driving the maroon-clad vehicle has drawn profanities and middle fingers wherever they go. If members of the team go anywhere wearing the school colours, they are likely to hear things like “long drive for a f—king loss, ain’t it?”
In the heart of the city, this game is more than just McMaster University against the Universite de Montreal. It’s the city itself against the foreigners from Ontario and the Marauders are feeling the disdain.
The organizing body is not doing any favours, either. At the All-Canadian banquet, a Vanier Cup retrospective video was played. McMaster, who won in 2011 and lost in 1967 and 2012, was not featured in the video. 2012 was the most-watched Vanier Cup game of all time, so it was a curious exclusion. During the announcement of the All-Canadian teams, there were some players from McMaster on the teams that were not announced.
All of these seem like water off a Marauder’s back, though. The team is not getting pushed around or intimidated, a sign of a group that has experience with tense atmospheres like this. Keep in mind; two of McMaster’s road games were the opponents Homecoming, meaning big -- likely intoxicated -- crowds. They are not in uncharted territory. That isn’t to say that playing in front of more than 18,500 pro-Montreal fans is the same as a York Homecoming game. Mac will have to battle the atmosphere too, but at least it is an outdoor stadium where noise can escape.
Regardless of what the Marauders will say, they are at a disadvantage. Montreal has skirted typical Vanier Cup protocol. This year, the Vanier Cup is being hosted by the Montreal Alouettes. That’s an important detail. On Friday, the Carabins moved their walkthrough because of snow on the field at Percival Memorial Stadium. Montreal completed their walkthrough indoors on their own campus. McMaster finished their walk through on the Percival’s turf.
Now, if the Carabins were hosting, then moving around makes a little more sense. They are footing the bill so they should get some leeway. But if it’s a neutral side, advantages need to be provided to both sides. The CIS, a regulatory body, has failed. Referring to this week something out of the “Wild, Wild West” would be unfair to cowboys because I’m sure they had some kind of mutual understanding of rules.
Mac’s head coach, Stefan Ptaszek acknowledged this too. Neate Sager from Yahoo’s Eh Game blog has the quotes from an interview earlier this week:
"They're not reporting to the hotel until Friday. So they're going to all their classes, doing their regular football routine, on their campus, up until Friday. They'll probably come around the mountain to get the walkthrough at McGill's stadium. Then they'll check into the hotel and play their football game. We're being asked to travel today and eat hotel food, miss class, do all the things that come with travelling for the better part of 72 hours before we get a football game.”
Montreal should be reporting to the hotel earlier. They should not be dodging practice times and switching up venues. In 2012, McMaster moved their operation to downtown Toronto, despite being 40 minutes from the field. Those are the rules and the department followed them.
And the Carabins should not get much blame. If they are being allowed to get away with this, then full credit to them for trying. The organizers should be the ones shutting it down, but the question becomes “why would they?”
McMaster injury updates:
Chris Pezzetta will not play after injuring his knee in the Mitchell Bowl … Josh Vandeweerd practiced all week and completed walkthrough.
Photo credit: Fraser Caldwell
A crowd of 37,098 streaked the Rogers Centre with maroon and grey for the 48th Vanier Cup against the Laval Rouge et Or Friday night. Unfortunately, the record-breaking crowd for the CIS championship game also left, for the most part, with heavy hearts. Glen Constantin’s team would not be stopped. In a battle for historical milestones, it was Laval who would prevail, winning their seventh Vanier Cup title. No program in Canadian history has won more.
In the much anticipated rematch of last year’s overtime thriller of a championship game, which the Marauders won 41-38, the Rouge et Or came out firing on all cylinders. Without question the nation’s second ranked team had not forgotten about their loss from a year ago.
The first quarter of the game was scoreless for both teams, as neither seemed willing to give up the first points.
Running a strong ground game in the second frame, Laval went out to an early 12-0 lead. It looked as though their opponents outmatched Mac. Suddenly, a drive was sustained which ended in an all too familiar Kyle Quinlan rushing touchdown. The environment was electric, and undeniably hostile towards the Rouge et Or who despite travelling to neutral ground for the game, walked into a visiting team role.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first half, Laval took possession of the ball only to be promptly shut down by Mac’s defense, which showed its first spark of the game. It was clear that for the first time, the Maroon and Grey had gained momentum.
What happened next was unthinkable. Pinned to their own 14, Quinlan led his team up the field for a 24 second, 96 yard scoring drive capped off by a 52 yard Dhalin Brooks touchdown reception. On the biggest stage ever for CIS football, the Hec Creighton trophy winner demonstrated why he is considered to be one of the best players to ever don the McMaster colors.
As a result, the Marauders entered half time with a 14-12 lead; much different from the 23-0 margin they had at half the year before.
In an eerily similar fashion to the 2011 Vanier, though, when both teams returned to play in the third quarter, the Rouge et Or played a completely wired and vicious brand of football.
Laval looked determined to take the Vanier Cup away from the defending national champions, and they did just that.
The Rouge et Or went up 18-14 and never looked back. It was not the day for Mac to repeat as champions, and Laval tailback Maxime Boutin did his part to make sure of that. The second year player, who only began to start recently, rushed for over 250 yards, including an 84 yard run-which marked the third longest play from scrimmage in Vanier Cup history. Boutin was part of a team rushing performance of 373 yards, breaking a previous record for Vanier Cup single game yards formerly held by the 1982 UBC Thunderbirds. “They made it easy for me, and I almost always had a huge gap to run into,” Boutin said of his offensive line after the win. For his efforts, Boutin was awarded CIS player of the week along teammates, defensive end Arnaud Gascon-Nadon and kicker Boris Bede.
The 6 foot 5, 255 pound senior Gascon-Nadon decided to return for a final year despite the opportunity to go pro. Drafted by the Hamilton Tiger Cats in last year’s CFL draft, Gascon-Nadon cited that “This is the reason I came back and didn’t go pro” in a CIS press release. “After last year’s loss to Mac in the Vanier, we all wanted to get this payback. We really wanted this seventh banner to become the most decorated team in history,” he continued.
For both teams, the long journey to the 48th Vanier was one of domination and preparation. Laval undoubtedly had practiced all season for a chance to take back what they believed to be rightfully theirs from McMaster. The Marauders looked to join Laval in the upper echelons of CIS football by winning a second straight national championship. Truly, it was a story that wrote itself. For McMaster fans, it was a bittersweet conclusion.
As the crowd thinned out and the clock winded down, it was clear that the spirits of Mac’s fans had been broken. That being said, the players on the field continued to battle, persevering through tough calls and plenty of time wasted by Laval injuries.
Regardless of the 37-14 loss, Mac’s run to the 48th Vanier broke CIS records and they carried their school and the entire Hamilton community the entire way through. It was a story made memorable regardless of the ending.
For all the players, coaches and fans of McMaster football it was a difficult day. That being said, one loss is certainly not enough to break the spirits of this program. The streak of 21 consecutive victories had come to an end. There was no repeat of a national championship. But there is not yet a way to measure the impact that the Marauders have had on CIS football; the 48th Vanier Cup was evidence that it is on the map in a way it has never been before.
Brian Decker
Executive Editor
Perhaps no team would be more suited to play in an overtime shootout for the Vanier Cup than the McMaster Marauders.
Armed with an MVP wide receiver, an All-Canadian field goal kicker, a talented group of slotbacks, a powerful running back and a quarterback who had permanently entered Beast Mode, the Marauders had a bevy of weapons to march 35 yards into the end zone more times than their opponent could match.
That, and a diverse playbook devised by a man many have described as a football genius behind the scenes.
Observers of this year’s Mac team will no doubt be familiar with offensive coordinator Jon Behie’s arsenal of jet sweeps, behind-the-back handoffs and other tricky plays that have led many to herald the former player as an offensive mastermind.
Behie, a man who considers himself a Marauder lifer and a “McMaster football historian,” credits the skills of his players for the offence’s success rather than his own creativity and influence. But with aerial precision demonstrated by Kyle Quinlan and co. last Friday, it’s clear Behie’s fingerprints are all over the blueprint Mac used to cause utter destruction to the vaunted Laval defence.
The Marauders threw for 496 yards and gained nearly 700 for the game, moving the ball against Laval seemingly more successfully than any team this decade. The variation in playcalling, especially with Quinlan’s powerful arm,
“The pass game has always been my thing. Moving guys around, it’s like a chess match. It’s been fun to draw it up.
Since the turn of the century, Behie has been heavily involved in McMaster football, first as a recruit and fan, then as a quarterback and receiver and now as the offensive coordinator of the most potent offence in the CIS this year.
“I went to every game starting in 2000. This is the only place I applied and I wanted to be here,” says Behie. “I immersed myself in it and I just haven’t left.”
The Burlington native says his passion for offensive innovation has been around since the first time he ever picked up a football, and that he always had an eye on helping to direct a team.
“I remember drawing up plays and talking with coaches in high school,” says Behie. “I’ve wanted to coach for as long as I can remember, and I can remember in my first, second and third year wanting to get into coaching and teaching.
“It was kind of ‘right place, right time’ and the circumstances were lucky that they are what they are here at Mac.”
Behie says playing quarterback and receiver from 2002 to 2006 for McMaster helped foster his creativity for the passing game, something that has flourished with Quinlan, Mike DiCroce and the other talented players in the receiving corps making plays.
“The pass game has always been my thing. Moving guys around, it’s like a chess match. It’s been fun to draw it up.”
Behie is right to send credit for the Vanier win towards Quinlan, whose astonishing performance led him to call his the fourth-year pivot the best to ever play for McMaster.
“What he did was unbelievable. He couldn’t have done anything more; statistically; ‘wow’ factor; winning. It was all there.”
But his own brand of creative offence and his dedication to the team’s development has also been an integral part of McMaster’s rise to becoming the king of Canadian university football.
“It’s always about the program. It’s never been about one year’s team. And that’s why I do this every day and care so deeply about it,” says Behie.
Four days after the victory over Laval, the Vanier Cup sat in Behie’s office, but the drive to win another one was clearly already on his mind. He was heading off with head coach Stefan Ptaszek to scout recruits at the Metro Bowl in Toronto.
For Behie, the process of accomplishing what the Marauders did in 2011 again in 2012 is already underway.
“We’ll do everything we can to try to get another another Yates, another Uteck and another Vanier,” he says. “Hopefully we don’t have to wait 47 years 
Jemma Wolfe,
Senior ANDY Editor
Friday Nov. 25 is a day McMaster will never forget. For the first time in our university’s history, our football team brought home the Vanier Cup after quite possibly the most exciting game the league has ever seen. It was so thrilling, so emotional and so euphoric that even I – an arts editor who has never played a sport in her life – was screaming and jumping around after Tyler Crapigna’s winning kick.
But perhaps sports and arts aren’t so unrelated. Perhaps it isn’t so bizarre for the arts to be interested in sports, and vice versa. No one can deny the fundamental relationship between music and games, for instance. From ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ and its intrinsic association to baseball to the iconic theme song for Hockey Night in Canada, music is an integral part of the sporting experience.
I can’t quite imagine a hockey game without ‘Kernkraft 400’ by Zombie Nation playing at some point, or AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ coming on during time-outs. Even the Superbowl’s half-time show has become a fabled platform for superstar bands to perform on, and is annually awaited with much anticipation.
I wonder what songs were running through the heads of Mac’s football team as they practiced at B.C. Place. What tunes did they blast in the locker room as they donned their equipment with nervous fingers? What lyrics raced through their head as they began overtime, on the precarious precipice of victory? Finally, what ecstatic song became the celebratory anthem of their after party?
Sports and song – a happy couple with a long history and a prosperous future. Congrats to our Mac men on their Vanier Cup win; you made one arts editor proud.
Geoff Lister / The Ubyssey
Brian Decker
Executive Editor
VANCOUVER – It was almost a surreal scene. The Laval Rouge et Or, perhaps the finest football program Canadian university football has ever seen, were being dominated by a team in its first ever Vanier Cup appearance, trailing 23-0 and being outplayed by the McMaster Marauders in every part of the game.
It would only get more surreal from there.
Tyler Crapigna shook off a missed kick that would have won the game in regulation and nailed a 20-yard field goal in overtime to give McMaster a 41-38 win and the school’s first national football championship in a back-and-forth second half with a plenty of action and a dramatic finish.
“We kept swinging until the bitter end and we got three more points than them. How that works I don’t know. At this point we don’t care too much,” said Marauder coach Stefan Ptaszek.
Mac quarterback Kyle Quinlan threw for 482 yards, ran for 101 more and earned game MVP honours in what was one of the craziest back-and-forth games in CIS football history.
“That was the wildest game of my career,” Quinlan said.
McMaster’s 23-point halftime lead, thanks to a stingy defence and a brilliant display from the Quinlan-led offence that outgained Laval by 267 yards in the first half, had many at BC Place thinking Mac had secured the title. But the Rouge et Or, aiming for a record seventh Vanier Cup title, stormed back and scored 24 unanswered points of their own to take a lead early in the fourth quarter
Guiallaume Rioux brought a slumbering Laval team back to life with a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown – Laval’s first points of the game – just over three minutes into the second half. Barely a minute later, linebacker Frederic Plesius picked off Quinlan and took it to the house to make it 23-14.
Mac responded with a 101-yard touchdown from Quinlan to OUA MVP Mike DiCroce, but it was called back after DiCroce was ruled offside.
The Rouge et Or would then add an 18-yard field goal from Boris Bede, then took a 24-23 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter thanks to a 44-yard touchdown run from star running back Sebastien Levesque that capped an eight-play, 107-yard drive.
And that’s when things really got crazy.
“I asked my guys ‘if I told you in August that you were gonna be down 24-23 in the fourth quarter of the national championship, and you’re the best offence in the country, would you have taken that?’ And they grinned from ear-to-ear and said ‘absolutely,’” said Ptaszek.
Quinlan took over the game with his legs, escaping the pocket and scrambling for first downs, while DiCroce was able to break free from the double- and triple-teams that covered him to help Mac put together a drive that was capped off by a nine-yard touchdown run by fifth-year receiver Matt Peressini. The pair would hook up again on a two-point conversion to give the Marauders a 31-24 lead with 5:53 remaining.
Laval would storm right back, however, capping off a nine-play, 62-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bruno Prud’Homme to Julian Feoli-Gudino, making the score 31-31 with 2:13 to go – just enough time for the Marauders to drive down the field on the strength of Quinlan again and set up a 30-yard field goal attempt by Crapigna to win the game at the end of regulation.
Having weathered the storm of a second half charge by the nation’s no. 1-ranked team, the scene was set for Mac to win its first ever title. But the kick sailed left, and Laval’s Adam Thibault was able to run the ball out of the end zone to force overtime.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride. We’ve been up and down and we weren’t gonna stop swingin’. Missing the field goal was just another thing we were gonna get back up from,” said Ptaszek.
The Marauders would respond quickly in the extra frame, with Quinlan tossing a 28-yard touchdown pass to Brad Fochesato to take a 38-31 lead.
Then, after being sacked on Laval’s first possession, Prud’Homme threw up a desperate, high pass to the end zone looking to tie the game. Mac defensive back Stephen Dennis looked to have read the route well, leaping in the air and looking to have a sure interception that would have won McMaster the game.
Somehow, it slipped through his hands on an ever-so-slightly mistimed jump. Somehow, Thibault tipped it to himself three times while falling down. Somehow, Laval had tied the game at 38-38.
The Rouge-et-Or would take the next possession, but Prud’Homme was quickly picked off by cornerback Steven Ventresca, who raced down the field, lateraled to fellow corner Joey Cupido, who then passed it off to Mackenzie Dent before a forward pass ended Mac’s desperate rush toward the end zone at the 20-yard line.
“That defensive unit had their nose bloodied in the second half, and they wanted to stick the dagger in the heart of the beast and finish him off. I appreciate that they were doing that. With Tyler Crapigna being an All-Canadian field goal kicker, they should have maybe not been so liberal with their decision making,” said Ptaszek with a grin.
Instead, the Marauders got the ball from the 30-yard line, and Laval took an unthinkable Too Many Men penalty, allowing Mac to set up a 20-yard game winner for Crapigna.
The kicker, who just minutes before had been the loneliest man in Vancouver, ripped the ball through the uprights, pumped both fists in the air and was engulfed by a jubilant sea of maroon players and coaches.
“Either it was gonna be through the uprights or it was gonna be out of the stadium. I just smashed it right through,” said Crapigna.
“He’s money. We had all the faith in the world in him that he was gonna ice it,” said Quinlan of his team’s faith in Crapigna not letting a second chance slip away.
Ptaszek said that no mentorship on his part was required before his kicker’s second attempt to seize victory.
“I walked over just before the second attempt in overtime, and he said ‘Coach, I’m gonna get it for you.’ I go, ‘I know.'”
While perhaps not a David-and-Goliath type upset, the Marauders were certainly in deep facing the revered Laval program.
“We played a very good football team today. They’re deserving champions. Hats off to coach Ptaszek and his staff,” said Laval coach Glen Constantin, whose program has become respected and imitated by teams across the country. The Rouge et Or operate on a $2-million budget with its own Board of Directors and have transformed the competitive nature of CIS football.
The win gives McMaster its first-ever Vanier Cup title, an outcome that seemed far-fetched just three weeks into the 2011 season. After a 48-21 loss at home to Western and the three-game suspension handed out to Quinlan for allegedly assaulting a police officer during an incident at a campus bar, it looked as though the 2011 season may have gone down as a lost year for the Marauders.
But if there’s one thing Mac showed in overcoming their midseason uncertainty and reaching the title game, it’s that they’re a team capable of overcoming great adversity.
That was never more clear than in the wild second half of this game.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride. We’ve been up and down and we weren’t gonna stop swingin’. Missing the field goal was just another thing we were gonna get back up from. We were gonna keep goin’ until we got the job done,” said Ptaszek.
“We came out a little bit slow, and I guess we got ahead of ourselves. To bounce back like we did is awesome,” said DiCroce, who finished with 102 yards on seven catches. “We’re so used to battling back from adversity. We knew we could come out and compete with Laval. It showed a lot of character.”
“We weren’t comfortable with the lead to say the least. [Laval] is as good as it gets in the country. We knew they would make a game out of it. Every time they got something, we had to respond and respond and respond,” added Quinlan, who said his three-game suspension (and ongoing legal process – the case is still before the courts) taught him a lot about dealing with obstacles in his way.
“There’s really only one choice when you face adversity and that’s to battle back with everything you’ve got.”
“None of my coaches and none of my young men are perfect. We’re all going to make mistakes. If there’s anything they learn from this year, it’s what you do with those mistakes and what you learn from them that makes you a better person,” said Ptaszek.
Mac receiver Robert Babic tied a Vanier Cup record with 12 catches, picking up 135 yards in the process, while defensive Player of the Game Aram Eisho racked up 11 tackles. Levesque finished the final game of his CIS career with 139 yards on 17 carries, while Prud’Homme went 21/30 for 239 yards.
Ptaszek has now won three Vanier Cup titles in his career: as a receiver and offensive coordinator with Wilfrid Laurier, and now as the head coach of the Marauders. The six-year bench boss says the sense of accomplishment from winning the Vanier Cup hasn’t settled in yet for him or his players.
“We’ve got our whole lives to figure out what this means to all of us. We barely know what we’ve done right now.”
“The Yates Cup took a little bit to sink in. Now that it’s all over, it’ll sink in soon, but I’m not sure when,” added safety Michael Daly.
In winning the Vanier Cup, this McMaster team has accomplished something its predecessors had failed to do in the 47-year history of the championship. It’s a moment that will live on in the history books of not only the team, but the entire McMaster community.
“It’s just as much theirs as it is ours. You saw how many fans we had out there. It’s crazy. People are making trips to Moncton, to Vancouver just to watch us play,” said Daly.
Quinlan was not lost on the significance of the victory his team had just accomplished.
“The first in McMaster history. It feels incredible to be a part of that.”
Photo C/O Richard Zazulak
It's the day they've all been waiting for. Every CIS player dreams of playing in the Vanier Cup, and for the players and coaches of the McMaster Marauders, that dream has finally come true.
The Sil's got your Vanier Cup needs covered. Check here tonight for the game story and follow @Decker_Brian, who's live on site in Vancouver, and @SilSports for updates.
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A few of the Mac players have Twitter, and by the looks of their tweets, they're raring to go for tonight's game. Here's what a few of the players have had to say so far:
LB Ryan Chmielewski (@Chummer_54): "Few hours til #Vanier can't wait. #macmen gonna put on a show for our viewers. We promise we won't disappoint.@tsn_sports" - at 1:09 PM
CB Joey Cupido (@joecup18): "#Macmen getting ready to win one more game at the #VanierCupthanks to everyone for your support on this journey #bringittoMcMaster" - at 9:51 AM
LB/DE Shane Beaton (@SB13x0) "Hay is in the Barn. #MacMen ready to go to war tomorrow. #VanierCup" - yesterday. (note: 'Hay is in the Barn' is a Stef Ptaszek/Gary Jefferies term that means all the preparations have been made for a game and all that's left to do is play)
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If you're looking to get caught on the Marauders, the Rouge et Or and how they got to the Vanier Cup (as well as a bunch of other interesting stories), here's a little post with all your required reading for tonight's game.
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Interested in tonight's game? You've got a few options for following along.
- Vanier Cup parties are being held in the Burridge Gym and at TwelvEighty. Both were pretty well attended for last week's Uteck Bowl, and the atmosphere at TwelvEighty was lots of fun. I was there last week and it's nice to see that many people into the game. Have to imagine they'll be even better tonight.
- TSN is carrying the game live at 6 p.m.
- You can follow the liveblog commentary of the CIS Blog, where I'll be joining Andrew Bucholtz, who runs Yahoo! Sports' CFL Blog, The 55 Yard Line, and a host of others.
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Brian Decker
Executive Editor
Saying the McMaster football offence has been potent of late is like saying Lamborghini has built a few cars.
They’re not just moving the ball and scoring points; they’re doing it in brilliant fashion.
In their three playoff games in 2011, they’ve outscored opponents Queen’s, Western and Acadia by a total of 126-53. Even with shaky starts – they trailed 3-0 after a quarter to Western and 14-0 early to Acadia – they’ve been able to put points on the board virtually at will.
But perhaps just as impressive has been their defence, keeping Western out of the end zone in the Yates Cup until the game had been decided and shutting down Acadia after a hot start to let the offence work its magic.
But as much as the Marauders have looked like an unstoppable maroon freight train, they’ll need to be firing on all cylinders as they face the powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or in the Vanier Cup.
Laval is looking to claim a record seventh national title in 15 seasons as a team. They’ve won every Dunsmore Cup since 2002, have never lost in the championship game, and their model of corporate support – the team has its own board of directors apart from the athletic department and operates on a $2-million budget, nearly four times that of McMaster – is influencing football programs across the country.
This year’s edition of the Rouge et Or appears to be no different, cruising to an 8-1 regular season and disposing of Canada West champions Calgary 41-10. Led by a staggering front seven and a powerful running back in Sébastien Lévesque, Laval poses a challenge to McMaster that will require the best the Maroon and Grey have to offer.
Their most recent games suggest the Marauders are up to the challenge.
Despite trailing early to the Axemen in the Uteck Bowl, the Marauders showed off what they can do on both sides of the ball, scoring 38 unanswered points and holding Acadia to little production on offence.
“It’s the same thing we do every week. We play four quarters of football. It doesn’t matter if we go up by 20 in the first quarter or if we go down by 20. We’re going to play four quarters and we’re going to come out with the win,” said linebacker Ryan Chmielewski.
While Uteck Bowl MVP Kyle Quinlan usually gets most of his attention for throwing to OUA MVP Mike DiCroce, it was fourth-year receiver Brad Fochesato – who grew up playing rep football with Quinlan for the Essex Ravens – who was the quarterback’s primary deep threat on Nov. 18.
After the Marauders tied the game at 14 in the second quarter, Quinlan found Fochesato for a spectacular 75-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-14. The pair would connect for more than 140 yards in the second quarter alone.
“That’s what they do. They’re both from Essex, they’ve been playing together a long time. Kyle knows where [Fochesato] is going to be and he gets him the ball,” said Chmielewski.
A win on Friday would constitute an achievement never before reached by McMaster’s football program. They’ve never won the Vanier Cup, having only played for the national title once – 44 years ago, in a 10-9 loss to Alberta.
But with a win or a loss, Mac has now elevated its status as one of the premier football teams in all of the CIS. They’ve gone from struggling, to enjoying extended playoff runs, and now find themselves playing for the national championship. With a deep, young roster the Maroon and Grey could be a strong contender to return to the national title game sooner than later.
“I think [making the Vanier Cup] is huge. We’ve never won a bowl game. I think it’s big for McMaster, it’s big for the Hamilton community and it’s big for Ontario,” said Chmielewski.
HISTORY IN THE VANIER – SORT OF: Mac has one made one national championship game before, but never the Vanier Cup – when they played Alberta for the national title in 1967, it was known as the Canadian College Bowl.
The Marauders were so strong that year because the University offered a one-year Physical Education certificate, which attracted students from across Ontario – especially athletic, football-playing ones – to the school to help work towards teaching careers.
The Marauders looked to be in position to win until a last-minute turnover deep in Alberta territory doomed their chances, and the Golden Bears walked away with a 10-9 win.
BOOKENDS TO TWO SEASONS: McMaster and Laval have some history against each other, including the two teams’ first action of the year – a preseason game on Aug. 28 in Quebec City. The Marauders led 10-5 at halftime before both teams sat their starters for the second half and the Rouge et Or finished with a 24-10 victory.
The two teams planned to play a preseason game in 2010 before the suspension of Waterloo’s team for the season forced a re-scheduling.
The last time the two teams played was in the 2003 Mitchell Bowl, when Laval escaped Hamilton with a 36-32 victory, advancing to win the Vanier Cup.
TRIPLE CROWN FOR PTASZEK?: McMaster coach Stefan Ptsazek is on the cusp of a rare feat. Having already won the Vanier Cup twice – in 1991 as a player and in 2005 as an offensive coordinator, both times with the Laurier Golden Hawks – he could accomplish the rare feat of having won CIS football’s biggest title as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
RINGS OF SUPERSTITION: Laval’s Glen Constantin hardly has enough fingers for all the Vanier Cup rings he’s won as coach of the Rouge et Or. But even though he could wear a different one each weekday – he’s won five as Laval’s bench boss – he chooses not to wear one at all. For Constantin, wearing a championship ring isn’t as good as the drive to chase another one.
“Some of my kids ask me why I don’t wear my [championship] rings. I go ‘Guys, the best-looking one is the next one,’” Said Constantin at Tuesday’s Vanier Cup press conference.
Brandon Meawasige
Assistant Sports Editor
For nine Marauders, Friday’s Vanier Cup game against Laval at Vancouver’s BC Place will be their last chance to don the Maroon and Grey on the football field.
Of that group, most will be playing in their last game of competitive football; a culmination of years dedicated to hard work and commitment to the sport.
The lucky ones – those with a future on the gridiron – will use this game to showcase their skill sets, discipline and talent that have helped McMaster become one of the most exciting teams to watch in the entire country this year.
They’ll have a chance to play one more game for Mac thanks to a Nov. 18 win over the Acadia Axemen.
“I’m really proud of our coaches and players,” said coach Stefan Ptaszek. “The stakes were higher than they've ever been now we have a shot at our first national title in over 40 years.”
Ptaszek continued by attributing the Marauders’ playoff results to the play of its veteran players.
“There were tons of distractions, chartered flights, hotel food, and national media attention,” the coach commented. “As much as the stakes changed and the surroundings changed, being focused and mature about all the hoopla is a result of the leadership and veteran presence in our locker room.”
Among those nine veteran players is receiver Matt Peressini, who led the team in receiving touchdowns, scoring eight of the Marauders’ 21 in the regular season.
“When I came back for my senior year, I knew I would be able to contribute to the offence. I attribute that to my connection with Kyle (Quinlan),” said Peressini.
The veteran receiver also took time to give a shout out to OUA Most Valuable Offensive Player Michael Dicroce.
“When you’re playing with the best receiver in the province, you’re going to get opportunities,” Peressini added. “That was a factor as well.”
After a successful season in every sense for Peressini and his squad, the receiver will get to fulfill a childhood dream to cap off 2011.
“It is an unbelievable feeling. I’ve been here for a long time and the reality is a lot of guys were never able to win the big one in their careers for this school,” said Peressini of the opportunity presented to him and his teammates.
That opportunity has been on Peressini’s mind for a long time.
“It’s huge. Its what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid: wanting to play university football and playing the biggest game at this level,” said the veteran receiver.
Surprisingly, most of the seniors do not dread their last 60 minutes on the football field. Rather they seem to embrace every second of preparation both physically and mentally to leave it all between the lines on Nov. 25.
Whether it is the end of a five-year career or just the prologue to a new one, the Vanier Cup is a national spectacle the likes of which most football players in this country never have the privilege to experience.
Senior linebacker Ryan Chmielewski, the heart and soul of the Marauders’ ferocious defence, seems more than prepared to handle any test thrown his way.
“We just have to keep doing what we have been doing in order to have success against Laval,” he said.
When asked how McMaster’s seniors are approaching their last game, Chmielewski made sure to emphasize the eagerness of his team to get out onto the playing field and compete for a national championship.
“To be honest, we cannot wait to play in this game,” said the veteran linebacker of the looming Vanier Cup match up.
The senior’s reaction is slightly surprising, as most would assume that the last game of a playing career would bring with it a touch of the bittersweet.
Instead, Peressini and Chmielewski both seem more than happy to face the conclusion of their Marauder careers.
Their last game at Ron Joyce has been played, post-game celebrations at the Phoenix will soon be a fond memory, and the CFL may come calling for their services.
While time will take them from McMaster, the Marauder veterans insist that their team and the school that it represents will always have a place in their hearts.
“I would love to play football after this,” said Chmielewski. “After we win this game, I may look into playing at another level and seeing who's interested. But for now, I’m focused on this game and bringing the Vanier Cup back to McMaster. It’s where our heart is.”
Ptaszek believes that the success of this senior group is the result of an attitude that has veterans asking more of themselves.
“The guys are looking at the question, ‘what has the program done for me?’ and responding by asking themselves what they can do for the program,” said Ptaszek.
With a win on Friday, this group of players can do for this program what no other group before them has been able to do: bring the Vanier Cup to McMaster.
