The Mount Allison Mounties are gearing up for their last regular season game against the St. Francis Xavier University X-men on Saturday.
There is added excitement and pressure surrounding the matchup, as representatives from the National Football League will be in the stands.
NFL Canada on Campus is a program that aims to build football hype and drop some cash into university football programs.
“It all leads up to the game day, where we have some fun interactive games going on, fun things for the fans, and we have a $5,000 donation to the football program,” says Cole Crawford of NFL Canada.
Pierre Arsenault, the athletics director at Mount Allison University, says the donation will be money well spent.
“We have clinched first place in the league and so we already know that two weeks from now we will be hosting the Loney Bowl, the AUS championship game, here in Sackville,” says Arsenault.
Mount Allison has always been successful in drawing crowds to home games, usually getting about 2,000 fans in the stands. Last year’s Uteck Bowl saw 3,700 seats filled.
“When the Loney Bowl comes here in a couple of weeks, we are really excited about a good crowd for that,” says Arsenault.
Mounties quarterback Brandon Leyh says he is hoping for a wet forecast for the big game.
“We practice in the rain all year round. We played on this grass all year round, so they haven’t had a chance to do that as often as we have, so I am personally hoping for rain to be honest,” says Leyh.
Sackville is the only Maritime stop for NFL on Campus.
