Rogers and CIS hope airing regular-season games will increase interest on the road to the Vanier Cup, won by the UBC Thunderbirds last November. It was the second of four regular-season CIS games set to air on Rogers-owned City this season. While NCAA football programming outpaces CIS in both variety and audience size, placing even a handful of games on national TV means progress in a season CIS officials view as crucial to the sport’s broadcast future. Regular-season CIS football has been absent from national airwaves since 2013, when a deal between Rogers and Ontario University Athletics expired. But in recent years, a fragmented audience and crowded sports landscape have stripped market share from Canadian university football.

Source: thestar September 24, 2016 21:19 UTC