The Northern 8 Series INTRODUCTION
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The Northern 8 series INTRODUCTION Inter-conference play has been part of Canadian university football for nearly eight decades. In the 1940’s teams from Eastern Canada toured the West, with the established teams from Central Canada winning by lopsided scores. In the late fifties and early sixties teams from Central Canada and the West made the first efforts toward a truly national championship. Early Churchill Bowls featured inter-conference exhibitions. During this time, Atlantic teams had their invitations accepted from teams in Central Canada. In 1959, the Churchill Bowl was billed as “the first Dominion championship” featuring the UBC Thunderbirds and the Western Ontario Mustangs. In 1963, the Alberta Golden Bears hosted the Queen’s Golden Gaels in the “Golden Bowl” for the Lieutenant- Governor’s Trophy. The cancellation of a scheduled invitational national championship in 1964 gave way to the creation of the Vanier Cup in 1965. In the modern era of the game there have been numerous examples of interlocking and inter-conference play. Teams have played in two conferences in the same season. The OQIFC played partial interlocks in the 1970’s. Since 2002, the RSEQ has played an interlocking schedule with the AUS. Laval hosts a team from the Canada West or OUA every year as an exhibition. In all of those cases, there has been nothing more than a local marketing push surrounding these games. Television and its’ potential reach have never been factored into a national brand during the regular season. 2014 was the first year since the 1950’s that Ontario university football was not covered on a weekly basis TV either regionally or nationally. It has been suggested that the absence of TV had a direct impact on attendance at the Yates Cup and Mitchell Bowl, which were both not sold out. Two years before at McMaster both games were sellouts. In the fallout of the 12-year, 5.2-billion dollar Rogers-NHL deal, the landscape of television sport in English Canada is in the throes of upheaval. CBC is looking to amateur sport to fill programming. TSN markets itself as a place where “Football Lives Here”, while Sportsnet holds on to a CIS championship package with four years remaining. CIS Football is currently an outsider while a game of musical chairs goes on with sports rights changing networks and settling in for the long haul. We have a short window where we can take our best shot at getting back on the national stage with this proposal. This plan also addresses the parity issue, and the need to have a long term plan which provides a national identity for the game with an objective of growing it in all regions of the country. To not act now will guarantee we are spectators, while we will not connect with future spectators and participants. BACKGROUND AND PROCESS Recognizing the weakness in the television market for Canadian University Football with a need to address it, Jim Mullin embarked on a project in 2011 of a national highlight show in an effort to promote the Vanier Cup in Vancouver. In 2012, the show was sponsored by L. David Dube’s Krown Produce. The show is now known as Krown Countdown U, a magazine and highlight show covering all 27 teams nationwide and is broadcast on six cable systems in 20 CIS football markets in nine provinces, and nationwide to 900,000 subscribers on Shaw Direct. Since 2012, Krown produce also is the title sponsor of Canada West Football on Shaw TV. After the cancellation of the OUA Game of the Week from Sportsnet 360, Mullin and Dube discussed ways to get Canadian University Football back on TV, and onto the national stage on a regular basis. In September, Mullin visited OUA schools to discuss with coaches the possibility of a Canada West – OUA series of interlocking games as a vehicle to broaden competition and deliver a destination event for television on a weekly basis. It was resolved at that time, it would be easier politically to duplicate the AUS-RSEQ interlock, with a series in the two remaining conferences which did not have inter-conference play. After running numerous financial models it was determined in late October that the most sustainable way to create a permanent series was by involving all conferences in some manner. The concept was broadened to consider teams in the RSEQ in October, and contact had been made with Montreal and Laval’s coaches. We pursued a four step plan: 1.) Meet with coaches from various programs to survey their outlook on national interlock. 2.) Engage conferences and CIS on interlock. 3.) Meet with conferences and athletic directors to reach an accord on interlock. 4.) Meet with TV networks/outlets to reach a broadcast partnership agreement. The concept was shared with the CIS office in November, an informal meeting took place with coaches from all conferences on the Friday before Vanier Cup. CIS and some conference directors were engaged shortly after. There was another meeting in Toronto in December with Laurier AD Peter Baxter observing for CIS, Gord Grace representing OUA, five OUA coaches, three Canada West coaches, one RSEQ coach, Mullin and Dube. Many of the recommendations to the conferences and ADs are contained within this document. OBJECTIVES: - Creation of a weekly television destination event which would allow engagement with fans, alumni and media. - To create a national conversation regarding Canadian university football. - Expose the game in an effort to grow participation in all regions of the country. - To grow the game as a truly national brand, as opposed to a group of regional ones with a national tournament or final. - To enhance the student-athlete experience. - Show the game in the best possible venues and circumstances. - Create an aspirational target for all programs in the CIS. - To create brand with appeal to television, advertisers and fans. - To create a private non-profit structure to manage interlocking games, with the long term goal to return profit to the non-participating teams. - Preserve the importance and integrity of conference play and championships. - Avoid a divisional tier structure. - Reduce the number of blowout games through weighted scheduling. - Allow developing programs to compete against conference combatants at a complementary level. - Schedule more games where teams with a similar strength compete and have the opportunity to progress on an annual basis. - Provide CIS with options and tools to examine an equitable change to the structure of the national playoff system. - To have a series of games count toward conference standings, and provide a central narrative to viewers and participants. - To possibly facilitate televised conference playoff games, which would be the responsibility of the conferences to produce. - To employ a modified RPI to rank team and conference strength. - To enhance attendance. - To drive funding through corporations and alumni by using the tax code. - To create a venue where private donors work with the game on a national stage. - To retain recruits from declaring to NCAA programs. - To broadcast games involving teams from all four CIS conferences. - To ensure that Canadian university football and sport remain relevant in the national conversation. THE PROJECT The Project is built around three main components: 1.) Highly competitive games with a national appeal packaged for television featuring meaningful games which count in each team’s conference standings and the Northern 8/10 series. 2.) The long term objective of all CIS football teams playing at least one inter-conference game in their schedule. 3.) A national highlight and feature show which shall play highlights from all conferences and promote all 27 teams in four conferences. Inter-conference series: Two projects were discussed in detail at the December meeting in Toronto. The Canada West-OUA Interlock was the preference of the coaches present, since it was suggested that a national interlock would not be popular in Quebec, at least for 2015. It would feature the top six OUA teams versus all of the Canada West teams in a one or two game series. The Northern 8 Series was supported by the partners of the project. After further examination of scheduling and financial models, it was determined by the project partners that the “N8” is the only model which can create a national footprint in the short and medium term. It is also the only model which can be financially self-sufficient in the long term, providing financial benefits back to non-participants. We have concluded that due to time constraints in regard to planning along with the creation of a structure which can meet long term objectives of sustainability, the Northern 8 is recommended for implementation in 2015. The investors are focused on 2015, as the Canadian broadcast landscape is in a state of flux in regard to sports properties and broadcaster partnerships. After reviewing both concepts, we recommend the following be considered by the conferences and athletic directors: 2015: NORTHERN 8 AUS-RSEQ Sherbrooke v Mount Allison Concordia v Acadia Laval at McMaster Bishop’s v St. Francis Xavier McMaster at Calgary McGill v Saint Mary’s Calgary at Guelph Guelph at Laval Western at Saskatchewan Montreal at Western Ottawa at Montreal Saskatchewan at Ottawa In 2016, it is recommended that we add a one-game Canada West-OUA Interlock. Canada West teams 3-6 would be scheduled against OUA teams 5-8. It is known as the CW- OUA 4 v. 4. 2016: The Hybrid: Northern 8 and the Canada West – OUA Single game interlock/ AUS-RSEQ single-game interlock NORTHERN 8 AUS-RSEQ *CW 1 vs. RSEQ 1 RSEQ 3 vs. AUS 1 *RSEQ 2 vs.