Canadian College Bowl Games by the NeatO Gang

[raysox]

Who doesn't love a good Bowl Movement? Whether it's the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, or a Toilet Bowl, bowl games are just so much fun.

 

But there is a place with college football that don't have bowl games. That place is Canada.

 

A basic rundown of Canada's football landscape is this. 4 regional conferences, and no out of conference games. The conferences have a playoff to determine the champion, then the winners go to their respective semi final game. The easternmost is the Uteck Bowl, while the westernmost is the Mitchell Bowl. The winners of THOSE go to the Vanier Cup to play for the National Championship

 

Up until this year, their version of the NCAA was the Canadian Interuniversity Sport. They rebranded to U Sport. The new brand is bold, and is a fresh look.

 

That's where the NeatO Gang comes in.

 

 

So Matt, Dynamo, and I created the Bowl Alliance. It's 8 bowl games, then the Vanier Cup. The 8 games are all over Canada, and the final would be the day before the Grey Cup in the same stadium. My thinking is that neutral fans would be more inclined to go to the game if it's a whole weekend event. The games would be played on (mostly) turf fields, so wear would not be an issue.

 

The 8 games will mostly be towards the east, due to the west being such a big conference. So that's why Regina and Edmonton aren't hosting. That, and there is only 27 schools that have football programs. The saving grace is that there is talk of expansion, and inter conference play.

 

Ok so moving on. This is heavily like the NCAA's playoff system. We have 4 games that I coined the Bowl Alliance. Then, similar to the "Group of 6" games, we have the Elite Bowls. Two in the east and two in the west, they will host the game no matter. But between the two, will rotate the rights to give away the Uteck and Mitchell trophies. Each conference would host their championship game between the two best teams. After that, the bigger 3 conferences would get an automatic bid to the playoff. With the conference in Atlantic Canada being left out. This is due to them having 4 teams, and for their best team to be ranked #10 with a 7-1 record. The team to play Canada West's champion would be the best at-large team, or the champion of the AUS.

 

 

So see those logos? Those are new thanks to yours truly. Here are the current.

 

They're average to bad, so I remade 3 of them!

 

I believe that's it. So sit back and we will release each game one at a time! Games and records reflect the 2016 season as it has already happened.

 

[raysox]

Trillium Bowl presented by Air Canada

Varsity Stadium - Toronto, Ontario

 

Guelph Gryphons (3-5)

vs

University of British Colombia Thunderbirds (3-5)

 

 

Originally scheduled to be played at BMO Field, we decided to relegate this game to a lower game and move it to the historic Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The stadium has hosted Grey Cups and Vanier Cups, but is now down to 5000 seats. Guelph finished 6th in the OUA, and BC finished 4th in Canada West. The game would feature the teams ranked the lowest in a game,  just due to the amount of 3-5 teams. We ranked them 14th and 15th, the top two 3-5 teams in the league.

 

--

 

In the conference tournaments I mentioned earlier, all of them have 4 team playoffs, except Ontario who has 6. I felt the 6 Ontario teams in our system would be able to hold their own against a team that finished around the same in their conference.

[raysox]

Still trying to feel out this series, but I realized I hadn't commented on the Bowl logo. So the Trillium is a flower that is featured a lot in Ontario. The logo is designed similar to the Rose Bowl logo, with a roundell and a transparent background.

 

the flower has a CN Tower in the ridge down the center of the leaf

[nas1787]

So good. I was going to say that a trillium might work better than the maple leaves in the OUA logo, but then you came up with the Trillium Bowl, so nevermind. Neat to see something including my former school, the University of Guelph, here on the boards.What's with the grey circle on the Gryphon's helmet?

[raysox]

Thanks!

 

the circle is just a matte pattern I was working with. It had a gradient near the back of the shell then a muted circle near the front, which is hard to see on black I suppose. Here is another example with the chrome effect. You'll see a few more with matte!

[nas1787]

Gotcha. That's what I figured, but didn't see it on the Thunderbirds helmet, so was confused.

[JMtexan09]

i liked the new conference logos alot better! They seriously needed these right now on their uniforms

[raysox]

Stampede Bowl presented by Shaw

McMahon Stadium - Calgary, Alberta

 

Ottawa Gee Gees (6-2)

vs

#9 University of Saskatchewan Huskies (5-3)

 

 

This game would be played in a big town with a major college presence. The Stampede Bowl is the second farthest west game, and would feature the 3rd best Canada West team and the 5th best Ontario team. Though this would be a long trip for Ontario, they have such a good amount of teams that 6/8 games is bound to have that happen. 

 

--

 

Obvious cowboy theme here. Originally had a sharper logo with no sponsor but ended up hating it. I used the cowboy hat from the city flag, a red and black color scheme, an old western font, and some barbed wire I had designed previously. Went for a cleaner look overall.

[scottyeagle]

I love the flower in the Trillium Bowl logo; the subtle CN Towers makes it absolutely perfect.  The kerning in the Varsity Stadium lettering looks a little uneven though; it looks a little crowded toward the bottom.  And I'm just curious how it would be manifested on a white background. 

 

For the Stampede Bowl logo, that font has become so overused that I can't stand it.  That's not really your fault though and any other Western-ish type font is going to be weird too.  So I'm not sure what to do there.  The barbed wire is pretty cool though. 

 

Always a big fan of your work, and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with here!

[raysox]

SportChek Dominion Bowl

TD Place - Ottawa, Ontario

Concordia Stingers (4-4)

vs

#8 Carleton University Ravens (6-2)

 

 

Ottawa would be a great bowl location, just based on it's location. I have them lined up to host the 4th best Ontario team and the 3rd best Quebec team. As it so happens, Carleton is from Ottawa, which would be a big draw. Canada has a long history with the word Dominion, so it felt fitting to name the bowl in Ottawa that. I just wasn't in love with the "Capital" bowl theme originally when we were brainstorming. The game is sponsored by the Canadian sports wear store SportChek

 

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I wanted to emulate the red check on the SportChek logo, so I wrapped it around the white base. I did my best to match the font on the SportChek, then put a maple leaf inside the O.