The 2017 U Sports football season began on August 25 with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men visiting the Saint Mary's Huskies in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

, and the

Montreal Carabins The Montréal Carabins () are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Teams play at the CEPSUM Stadium and at Winter Stadium (Montreal), l'aréna du CEPSUM, located at the Uni ...

visiting the Concordia Stingers in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The season concluded on November 25 with the 53rd Vanier Cup championship at Tim Hortons Field in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. This season saw the first conference shift since 2001 with the

Bishop's Gaiters The Bishop's Gaiters is the men's and women's athletic teams that represent Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The name Gaiters#In the Anglican church, Gaiter is a nickname used to refer to garments worn over the shoe and lower pa ...

moving from the Quebec Student Sport Federation to the Atlantic University Sport conference. 27

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interd ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

participated in the newly re-branded U Sports football, the highest level of

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

Canadian football. The

Western Mustangs The Western Mustangs are the athletic teams that represent University of Western Ontario, Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. The school's athletic program supports 46 Varsity team, varsity teams. Their mascot is a Mustang named J.W. a ...

defeated the Laval Rouge et Or, 39-17, to win their first Vanier Cup since

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Regular season

Conference changes

On December 15, 2016,

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

Athletics and Atlantic University Sport (AUS) announced that the

would be joining the AUS conference beginning in 2017. The move increases the number of teams competing in the AUS from four to five, while reducing the teams in the Quebec Student Sport Federation (RSEQ) from six to five. It also marked the first time since 1990 that the AUS had more than four teams, when the University College of Cape Breton played for one season before disbanding.A History of Canadian University Football
/ref> This change also brought an end to the scheduled interlocking play with the RSEQ that had been in place since 2002.

Schedules

The schedule for the Ontario University Athletics conference was released on January 18, 2017, with 11 teams playing over the course of nine weeks with each team receiving one bye week. Compared to the previous season, there were no major format changes. The OUA will begin play on August 26, 2017, with the Carleton Ravens visiting the Queen's Gaels at Richardson Memorial Stadium. Eight other OUA teams will play the following day. The regular season will conclude on October 21, 2017, with the Yates Cup championship game taking place three weeks later on November 11, 2017. On January 23, 2017, the schedule changes for the AUS were revealed, with the conference opening the season two weeks earlier than usual on Friday August 25 with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men visiting the Saint Mary's Huskies. Each team will play the other four teams twice with each team also having two bye weeks over the ten-week schedule. With these changes, the AUS will also now permit teams to play one out-of-conference exhibition game, in lieu of interlock play with the RSEQ being eliminated. There are three Friday night regular season games in the AUS with the remaining 17 games being played on Saturday afternoons. The regular season will conclude on October 28, 2017, and playoff format will remain the same despite an additional team; the second place team will host the third place team in the semi-final and the first place team will host the Loney Bowl championship game on November 11, 2017. The Quebec Student Sport Federation released their schedule on February 21, 2017. Following the aforementioned departure of Bishop's, the conference's schedule featured five teams for the first time since 2002. Similar to the AUS schedule, the five teams will play eight regular season games over ten weeks with each team receiving two bye weeks. In contrast to the AUS, the RSEQ will have its top four teams qualify for the playoffs with two semi-final games and the winners of those games playing for the Dunsmore Cup on November 11, 2017. This was the same format used when the conference had five teams in 2002. Of the 20 games scheduled, two are on Thursdays, five are on Fridays, 11 are on Saturdays, and two are on Sundays. With the changes to the other conferences, the Canada West Universities Athletic Association was left as the only conference with an even number of teams and there were no major format changes when the schedule was unveiled on April 18, 2017. All six teams will play on September 1, 2017, and conclude their seasons on October 28, 2017. As usual, all teams will have a bye week on Thanksgiving Day weekend. In total, eight regular season games will be played on Fridays and 16 will be played on Saturdays. Similar to the other conferences, the conference championship game, the Hardy Cup, will be played on November 11, 2017.

Cancelled game

On October 4, 2017, it was announced that the October 5 game between the

and Concordia Stingers was cancelled due to Montreal players and coaching staff members exhibiting flu symptoms. Due to scheduling constraints, the game was outright cancelled and would not be rescheduled. Montreal and Concordia would only play sevens games as a result and winning percentage would be counted in the standings as opposed to point totals. If teams are tied in the standings based on win percentage, head-to-head results would be used as a second tie-breaker. The decision was met with controversy as a similar situation in 2006 had the St. Francis Xavier X-Men forfeit a game to the McGill Redmen due to illnesses on their team rather than the game count as a no-decision.

Standings

Post-season awards

A. Nick Cross had originally won the Peter Gorman Trophy, but was stripped of the award following a cannabis violation and it was instead awarded to Tre Ford.

All-Canadian team

First team

;Offence : QB - Noah Picton - Regina : RB - Alex Taylor - Western : RB - Ed Ilnicki - Alberta : IR - Trivell Pinto - British Columbia : IR - Mitch Hillis - Saskatchewan : WR - Kurleigh Gittens Jr. - Laurier : WR - Kaion Julien-Grant - St. Francis Xavier : C - Zach Annen - Carleton : G - Justin Lawrence - Alberta : G - Andrew Pickett - Guelph : T - Mark Korte - Alberta : T - David Brown - Western ;Defence : DT - Vincent Desjardins - Laval : DT - Connor Griffiths - British Columbia : DE - Mathieu Betts - Laval : DE - Jadarius Ceasar - Saint Mary's : LB - Adam Auclair - Laval : LB - Nelkas Kwemo - Queen's : LB - Jean-Gabriel Poulin - Western : FS - Stavros Katsantonis - British Columbia : HB - Gabriel Ouellet - Laval : HB - Malcom Lee - British Columbia : CB - Jamie Harry - Ottawa : CB - Godfrey Onyeka - Laurier ;Special teams : P - TJ Morton - Toronto : K - Gabriel Ferraro - Guelph : RET - Johnny King - Saint Mary's

Second team

;Offence : QB - Hugo Richard - Laval : RB - Nathan Carter - Carleton : RB - Jean-Guy Rimpel - Concordia : IR - Nathan Rowe - Alberta : IR - Guillaume Paquet - Montreal : WR - Jacob Scarfone - Guelph : WR - Jeremy Sauvageau - McGill : C - Francis Lapointe - Sherbrooke : G - Samuel Thomassin - Laval : G - Ryan Sceviour - Calgary : T - Gustave Sylvestre - Montreal : T - Maurice Simba - Concordia ;Defence : DT - Brett Wade - Calgary : DT - Adam Melanson - Acadia : DE - Kene Onyeka - Carleton : DE - Cory Robinson - Calgary : LB - Nick Cross - Regina : LB - Boston Rowe - Calgary : LB - Mickael Côté - Concordia : FS - François Hamel - Montreal : HB - Jackson Bennett - Ottawa : HB - Marc-Antoine Dequoy - Montreal : CB - Will Maxwell - British Columbia : CB - Khadeem Pierre - Concordia ;Special teams : P - Félix Ménard-Brière - Montreal : K - Marc Liegghio - Western : RET - Kurleigh Gittens Jr. - Laurier

Post-season

The Vanier Cup is played between the champions of the Mitchell Bowl and the Uteck Bowl, the national semi-final games. In 2017, according to the rotating schedule, the Canada West Hardy Trophy championship team will host the Québec conference Dunsmore Cup championship team for the Mitchell Bowl. The winners of the Atlantic conference's Loney Bowl will host the Yates Cup Ontario championship team for the Uteck Bowl.

Conference Playoffs

Atlantic University Sport

On November 9, 2017, Atlantic University Sport announced that the Saint Mary's team had been disqualified due to an undisclosed eligibility violation, and that the Loney Bowl had been cancelled. The Acadia Axemen were declared conference champions by default. However, Saint Mary's took U Sports governing body to the Ontario Superior Court (where U Sports is headquartered) due to their interpretation of a player eligibility rule. Saint Mary's wide receiver Archelaus Jack had been on the practice roster of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

's Saskatchewan Roughriders until October 11, 2016. The league rules state that if a player is on a professional team's roster past August 15, that player would have to sit out one year. The rules were not clear on whether this referred to an

academic year An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...

or season, or a 365-day period. On November 12, one day after the game was originally scheduled, the Ontario judge ruled in favour of Saint Mary's and the Loney Bowl was rescheduled for November 14, with the Uteck Bowl still scheduled for the following Saturday, November 18, against the

. Acadia won the game in overtime 45—38.

Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec

Ontario University Athletics

Canada West Universities Athletic Association

National Semifinals

National Championship

References

{{CIS football

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

U Sports football seasons