CIS ALL-CANADIAN PICKS: SO POLITICAL

This isn't something to get bent out of shape over, really, but the football all-Canadian selections announced by Canadian Interuniversity Sport today are a head-shaker.

The background is the picks are highly politicized and there's a lot of "you scratch my (running) back and I'll scratch yours." There's also an effort to spread the selections out evenly across all four conferences. Can't have anyone feeling left out.

So that sort of explains why the Ottawa Gee-Gees, who led the country in scoring defence (97 points allowed), rated only one selection to the defensive first or second team. (That would be defensive back Anthony Plante-Ajah.)

Where's linebacker Joe Barnes, the fulcrum of the U of O's dominant defence?

Well, the Laurier Golden Hawks had two of the three first-team linebacker selections, Jesse Alexander and Yannick Carter, so that filled the quote of OUA linebackers. That's no slight intended to Alexander or Carter, who should be there. Still, Laurier, who lost twice to Ottawa by a combined score of 61-33, got four defensive selections to the Gee-Gees' one.

Another glaring absence is Laval Rouge et Or QB Benoît Groulx as the second-team pick behind Instead of Groulx, the second-team quarterback was... drum roll... the Gee-Gees' Josh Sacobie. Sacobie was one of the top three or four QBs in the CIS, but Groulx had around 550 more yards with a better completion percentage and yards-per-pass. It sort of feels like Sacobie was picked to make up for the Gee-Gees' lack of defensive selections.

Along with Plante-Ajah and Sacobie, the Gee-Gees earned one selection: Offensive lineman Kevin Kelly was named to the first team.

My Queen's Golden Gaels had one pick, wide receiver Brad Smith, whose selection might raise some ire. Good receiver, good guy but all accounts, but the son of Montreal Alouettes president Larry Smith also went through a five-week stretch where he caught only one TD pass, from a backup quarterback in a blowout. There's just a creeping feeling Smith got on for one game — a four-TD game against Guelph in Week 2. By the end of the season, Robb Bagg seemed to have become Queen's go-to receiver. Smith, though, had the stats (seventh in the CIS in receiving yards) and reputation, but honestly I figured he would be a second-team selection.

Smith was a first-team all-Canadian as a rookie in 2002. Has anyone else had three seasons pass in between all-Canadian nods?