CIS football Twenty - six universities across Canada compete in football under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport ( CIS ) . The teams are divided into four conferences , drawing from the four regional associations of the CIS : Canada West Universities Athletic Association , Ontario University Athletics , Quebec Student Sports Federation , and Atlantic University Sport . At the end of every season , the champions of each conference advance to semifinal bowl games ; the winners of these meet in the Vanier Cup national championship . In 2010 , Waterloo University suspended its CIS football team because they had a drug test failed by 5 out of 62 players . The CIS reorganized the calendar of the OUA with 9 teams instead of 10 . The program has been reinstated for the 2011 season . CIS football is the highest level of amateur play in Canadian football . The origins of North American football lie here . The first documented game was played at University College at the University of Toronto in 1861 . A number of CIS programs have been in existence since the origins of the sport . It is from these Canadian universities that the game we now know as Canadian football , and its offshoot , American football , sprang . In 1874 , McGill University ( Montreal , Quebec ) challenged Harvard University ( Cambridge , Massachusetts ) to a series of games . American football traces its roots to this varsity play . The Grey Cup , the championship trophy of the professional Canadian Football League since its founding in the 1950s , was originally contested by teams from the University of Toronto and Queen ' s University and other amateur teams in the early 1900s . Many CIS players have gone on to professional careers in the Canadian Football League and elsewhere ; a number are drafted annually in the Canadian College Draft . In 2007 , there were a record 120 CIS alumni on Canadian Football League rosters . Season structure . Regular season . The regular season is eight weeks long and usually opens on the Labour Day weekend . Regular season games are in - conference with the exception of limited interlocking play between the Quebec and Atlantic conferences . There are featured homecoming and rivalry games in most regions . The Hec Crighton Trophy is awarded annually to the MVP of the CIS . Playoffs . After the regular season , single elimination playoff games are held between the top teams in each conference to determine conference champions . In the Canada West and Quebec conferences , the top four teams qualify for the playoffs , while in the Atlantic conference the top three teams qualify , and in Ontario the top six teams qualify . Each conference has its own championship trophy ; the Hardy Trophy in the West , the Yates Cup in Ontario , the Dunsmore Cup in Quebec and the Jewett Trophy in the Atlantic conference . The conference champions proceed to national semifinal bowl games : the Mitchell Bowl and the Uteck Bowl . The participant conferences of each bowl are determined several years in advance on a rotating basis . Vanier Cup . The winners of each bowl game meet in the Vanier Cup national championship , first established in 1965 and named in honour of Governor General Georges Vanier . The game was held in Toronto every year through 2003 when host conference bids were first accepted , yielding a move to Hamilton for 2004 and 2005 , followed by Saskatoon in 2006 . In 2007 , the game returned to Toronto , along with the Grey Cup , which was hosted there for the first time since 1992 . The Vanier Cup game moved back to Hamilton in 2008 before heading to Quebec City for the 2009 and 2010 games . The 2011 Vanier Cup will be played in the newly renovated BC Place Stadium in Vancouver , British Columbia . The next few years . There have recently been efforts at establishing new varsity football programs at institutions that currently do not have teams . A group of alumni from Carleton University in Ottawa have successfully revived that school ' s program that is now scheduled to return in 2013 . The team will be a member of the Ontario University Athletics conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sport , returning football to Carleton University after a 15 - year absence . Because the AUS is the smallest conference in the CIS , there has been talk of adding more teams there , as well . There has been interest expressed in starting a team at the Université de Moncton , due to the recent construction of Moncton stadium . As of May of 2011 , the athletics department has submitted a feasibility report to the school ' s president and are going to base a large part of their decision upon how the Uteck Bowl in 2011 is received by the fans in Moncton . Additionally , a club team league , the Atlantic Football League , features five universities in what some hope will lead to varsity teams featured at some of these schools . Teams . Awards and the annual All - Canadian Team . There are post - season awards for on - the - field excellence . The players deemed to be the best at each position are named to the annual All - Canadian Football Team as first or second team players . Additionally there are a number of individual awards for categories like " best defensive player " . CIS football players in the professional leagues . As of 2009 , there were 111 CIS football players on the rosters of Canadian Football League teams . As of 2010 , the CIS had produced 25 players who have earned a spot on an NFL roster ( including three who did not play a regular season game ; players listed in chronological order by entry year in NFL ) : 1945 Joe Krol , Western Ontario , K / RB . 1947 Les Lear , Manitoba , OG / OT . 1960 Bill Crawford , UBC , OG . 1965 Jim Young , Queen ' s , RB / R . 1976 Brian Fryer , Alberta , R . 1979 Ken Clark , Saint Mary ' s , P . 1986 Mike Schad , Queen ' s , OG . 1987 Brian Belway , Calgary , DE . 1987 Dave Sparenberg , Western Ontario , OG . 1987 Brant Bengen , UBC and Idaho , WR . 1988 Dean Dorsey , Toronto , K . 1992 Tyrone Williams , Western Ontario , WR . 1995 Tim Tindale , Western Ontario , RB . 1995 Mark Montreuil , Concordia , CB . 1995 Mark Hatfield , Bishop ' s , OL . 1996 Grayson Shillingford , UBC , SB . 1998 Jerome Pathon , Acadia & U . of Washington , R . 2001 Randy Chevrier , McGill , LS / DE . 2000 J . P . Darche , McGill , LS / LB . 2003 Israel Idonije , Manitoba , DL . 2004 Steve Morley , Saint Mary ' s , OG / OT . 2006 Daniel Federkeil , Calgary , DE . 2006 Jon Ryan , Regina , K . 2009 Vaughn Martin , Western Ontario , DL . 2010 Cory Greenwood , Concordia , LB . NFL Draft . In the 2009 NFL draft , the San Diego Chargers selected defensive lineman Vaughn Martin from Western Ontario in the fourth round . Martin became the first CIS underclassmen to be selected in the NFL draft .