The athletic department Bob Copeland runs at the University of Waterloo has a budget a fraction of what you'd find at major NCAA Division I programs. His football players, at best, shoot for an invite to the Canadian Football League combine. The school's stadium holds 5,400 counting the standing-room-only section.
"The whole financial structure of collegiate sports in Canada is apples and oranges to what you have," said Copeland, the athletic director at the college located outside Toronto. "College football alone in the U.S. involves billions of dollars. We're not even in the conversation."
Waterloo, however, is big time in one dubious respect: the school was the site of the biggest steroids scandal in North American collegiate sports history. One of its football players allegedly trafficked steroids and human growth hormone, a finding that led the school to test all 62 players. Nine turned up positive for performance-enhancing drugs, including the first positive for human growth hormone on the continent. Copeland and school officials announced in June they would cancel the 2010 season.
So, if it can happen at a university known more for its engineering school than athletics, in a country where football falls below hockey in popularity, why not here?
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