By Dave Naylor: A closer look at where the CFL finds its talent

Where does the Talent of the Canadian football league come from – be it here in Canada or south of the border?

The attempt to answer this question led me to wipe off an old idea this summer by carrying out a deep dive and the CFL service plans of the week of all nine teams opened.

Week 1 may only be a snapshot, but it is one that tells us which schools in Canada produce most players, what conferences in the NCAA send most of the talent north across the border and what percentage of Canadians are developed in the CFL at home, compared to the USA for their experience in college football.

So what did we find? Here are some of the revelations, some surprising and others are not so much.

Two programs in Quebec are the biggest change that we have seen in the development of the CFL player in the past 25 years

The University of Montreal led all Canadian schools with 14 players at the opening week CFL roster, two more than any other school-one of which is Laval with 12.

The fact that the Montreal Carabins football program did not exist 25 years ago and did not exist 30 years ago shows how quickly the development of the French-Canadian talent occurred during this time.

With 26 players, the effects of the two programs were immense and corresponds to 11.5 percent of all Canadian players in the league and 17.1 percent of all players from U sports programs.

The rest of the top 5 comprises Guelph, who at 12 at 12, followed by Wilfrid Laurier and Alberta at 11 and 10.

Among the conferences, the athletics of Ontario University leads the country with 58 players, followed by Canada West with 49, Quebec with 36 and the Atlantic University Sports at 14.

NCAA current conferences are still producing most of the CFL talent

Large schools of large conferences still offer more talents than any level of American college football, although this number may decrease.

Here, too, we feel about it due to the lack of historical data, but it definitely feels like more players from Mid majors or the division of football championships, the lower level of NCAA division I, which are not the schools that are playing on national television on national television.

The four Power conferences -the ACC (31), Big 12 (30), Big 10 (24) and SEC (18) form the four best conferences that CFL players produce with a total of 103 players.

Among the mid-majors, the American Athletic Conference (16), the Mid-American Conference (16), the Sunbelt (14) and Mountain West Conference (20).

There are 59 players from the FCS Division I level, which are represented by 12 different conferences, the most productive of the Big Sky and the Missouri Valley, each with 11.

The NCAA Division II has 18 players who are represented at the opening week of CFL rosteries, while Division III only has six.

It will be interesting to see whether the CFL can preserve its ability to draw talents from the power conferences of College football at a time of players who earn the college salaries far more than is offered in the CFL.

The players of the Power Conference are most likely with NFL-focused and are therefore more likely to wait for opportunities instead of trying to make a career in Canada, especially since the wages between the two leagues continue to grow.

There are a five-way

Memphis, Wake Forest, North Dakota, Houston and Oregon form the list of the five NCAA schools, in which five players each took part in the CFL opening week.

Since we do not like ties, I searched for the nine practice roster to break the logjam and found a player from the University of Memphis. That is why we will crown the Tigers in 2025 for most CFL players from an American school.

Only one of these schools – Oregon – comes from a Power Four conference.

About a third of the Canadian players in the CFL comes through the NCAA

Of the Canadian players in the CFL, which were opened this season, 31.3 percent NCAA football played before becoming a professional.

Without comparison data from the past, we have to assume that the number is higher than before, and there are several reasons to assume that this is the case.

More and more young players in Canada are jumping on the high school in the USA in search of better competition, coaching and exposure to help them land NCAA grants.

Anecdotically, we also saw more players who played larger roles in better programs.

However, the importance of U sports for the CFL cannot be reduced, with 68.7 percent of Canadians in the CFL arrival over the Canadian university game.

* – Only 2.2 percent of the Canadian players (5) came directly from Junior Football (CJFL) to the CFL.

Canadian schools were surprised to find outside the top 5

Western University was a consistent power package in Canadian university football, but only has seven current CFL players, which is surprising for a program that played in three of the last seven Vanier Cup games.

McMaster and Manitoba, two schools that have pumped a lot of talent into the CFL over the past 25 years, are also at a low ebb, each represents three players.

Players from Atlantic schools are very low in the CFL

There are only 14 CFL players who are produced by the five schools at Atlantic University Sports and led by Saint Mary's with six. This is by far the few of the four conferences in Canada.

Ontario heads all conferences with 59 current players with 11 teams. The West and its six teams contribute 49 players, while the five teams of Quebec 36 add.

CFL teams like to draw and sign players of schools geographically close to them

One thing that shows Roster research is the tendency of teams to design or sign players who went near school.

For example, the only CFL players from the University of Ottawa all play for the Ottawa Redblacks. The Montreal -Alouettes have five former members of the Montreal Carabins, the Saskatchewan Roughiders have four players from the University of Regina, Hamilton has four of the University of Guelph, Calgary has three former Calgary Dinos and Edmonton have three former university of Alberta Golden Bears.

Click here to put together the players' players put together by Dave Naylor.