Time Out: Early Christmas present for football players and fans

Late last month, the Quebec and Atlantic football conferences gave their players and fans a great Christmas present when they announced they would play an interlocking schedule starting next season.
What that means is that starting next September, teams from the QIFC and the AUFC will face off in regular season games for at least the next two seasons.
The first time this new and innovative format is scheduled for is September 14-15. During that weekend, Concordia will play host to Acadia University in it’s first interlocking game of the season. They will play one other interlocking game later in the year, that time on the road.
The announcement is being hailed as an innovative and unique move that should help improve the quality of university football in Canada.
The project had been on the drawing board for some time, but both sides finally came together and reached the agreement which they hope will be a win-win situation.
There are some obstacles left to overcome though, and the biggest would seem to be the cost incurred in transporting an entire football team and staff to the Maritimes and vice-versa.
Whatever the case, the i’s have been dotted and t’s crossed, and the upcoming football season looks more promising then ever. Not only will Concordia be playing teams from the AUFC, the league also has an exciting new addition to the QIFC in the University of Montreal Carabins.
Competition in the conference will be tougher then ever, and what a better way to kick off the interlocking schedule than with a re-match of this year’s Atlantic Bowl when St. Mary’s visits Laval.
The only sad part about all of this for me is that I won’t be around to see it, at least not as a Concordia student anyway. By that time, I will be one of many Concordia alumni, an audience Harry Zarins, QSSF commissioner, is hoping to attract.
Only time will tell if this move will prove fruitful, but I hope it does and I also hope the rest of the country follows the lead that the QIFC and AUFC have taken.
I will look on with great interest from wherever I may be next fall as history takes place and the face of Canadian university football is changed forever.

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