Some images from today's game between the University of Waterloo Warriors and the Carleton Ravens.

This is 'Black and Gold' day (team colours) and all the newly arrived first year students are encouraged to show up and support the UW team. They all seemed to have a good time, even though UW lost 21-18 in an exciting game. Was good to see such a large crowd on hand. Tomorrow I'm off to shoot a rugby game and there'll probably be 50 or so spectators

As always the DA*300mm performed wonderfully.

Hope you like the shots.

Party time....

[reh321]

You definitely caught the spirit of the occasion.

[RGlasel]

Interesting pictures, well taken. I especially like the picture of a Raven player reaching to catch the ball and the Warrior player jumping to make the catch. It took a second look at the fifth picture to realize you captured a high snap.

[finfang]

Great shots once again, cant wait till you post some of the rugby ones.

[SJM]

A great series

[GeoJerry]

Some great shots, fun to look at. I didn't know college football was big up in Canada!

[RGlasel]

I didn't know college football was big up in Canada!

It's all relative. Compared to other varsity sports in Canada, it's big. Compared to Div I NCAA football, it's peanuts. It's the only varsity sport in Canada where several head coaches make 6 figure incomes (although honorariums for assistants are still peanuts). There are probably a dozen programs in Canada that can draw more than 5000 fans for some games, compared to basketball and hockey which might draw 3000 fans in a few locations and other sports will be below that.

To compare the talent, a decent CIS football team is competitive with Div II NCAA; Simon Fraser University in British Columbia is part of a Div II NCAA league in the Pacific Northwest (last time I checked, SFU was in the bottom half, but they were a mid-level CIS program at best when they participated in Canadian Intervarsity Sports). Canadian universities are limited to only offering athletic scholarships that cover tuition, not room and board, and academic requirements have some (not a lot, but some) teeth. A number of Canadian born players are recruited to play Div I NCAA football and the professional Canadian Football League requires that half of the roster be Canadian born, so there are career opportunities for Canadian players.