As much as we may love college football and the NFL and recognize the sport as America’s new pastime (sorry baseball), we recognize the game will never quite be the international sensation soccer is around the globe. But efforts by the NFL and the American football community as a whole seem to be paying off north of the border. Canada may play the game slightly differently than what we are accustomed to in the United States, but the talent is starting to improve and become more recognized by NCAA programs. As a result, Canada is sending more talent to the NCAA before it returns to play professionally.
According to American Football International, 45 percent of the players playing in the Canadian Football League are Canadian, and only 33 percent of the players in the CFL hail from the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS, the Canadian equivalent of the NCAA). That percentage for the CIS is still a good chunk of the CFL roster, but American Football International suggests it is lower than in years past. The theory here is this is a sign Canada is sending out more talent to the NCAA in the United States, which later comes back to the pro football league.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, coverage of the sport as a whole has increased in many ways through the improvements of social media and other technology. There was an old commercial (I cannot remember which company) where a basketball player in Alaska (I’m fairly certain) send Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski a highlight video on a CD-ROM explaining he does not know if he has what it takes to play basketball at Duke but would like to find out. It was pretty innovative for its time (mid-1990s?). Today a player can put together a highlight clip, upload it on YouTube and email the link to any number of coaches without having to pay for the postage to mail the CD. What a world. This likely has benefitted some players in Canada at one point or another.
Football camps growing in popularity have helped as well. Football camps have been around for a long time, but now they seem to be more abundant and different scouting services hold their own camps. Opportunities are everywhere, and that is a good thing for players from Iowa and Maine and Canada.
Canada may never be as rich in football talent as a state like Florida or California or Texas or Ohio, but doors are opening everywhere as the game expands. This may just be a sign that the game really is growing.