So, as the Vanier Cup approaches the question is: Is Quebec City and the province a great supporter of the best football program in Canada, the Rouge et Or, or is it a love of football - a game that has taken off over the past decade in La Belle Province?
The Vanier Cup being held in Quebec City will provide the answer.
There is no doubt that had Laval won the Mitchell bowl against Queen's and would be playing at home in the Vanier, we might be looking at an attendance record for a college game in Quebec City.
"Had the Rouge et Or been in the Vanier this country would have seen what takes place at a Laval game. It would have been a great football experience," Michel Belanger, the CIS communication officer told TSN.ca.
However, even without Laval in the final college game of the season, one could expect a sellout. The Queen's Gaels and the Calgary Dinos will meet for the Vanier Saturday afternoon.
The stadium holds around 11-thousand seating capacity (boosted to 17-thousand when standing room is counted) and all tickets to this have been sold. But how many will show up since the Rouge et Or won't be around?
In fact there is some controversy over tickets available to teams.
It seems that both Queen's and Calgary wanted more tickets and had a hard time getting them. Both schools are saying that Laval, figuring that their team would be in the final, kept most of the tickets for themselves.
"That's not quite the case," says Belanger of the CIS. "When teams bid for these events; be it this game or a CIS basketball event, a certain amount of tickets are set aside and in this case it was 200 per team. If people want to fire the blame let them take aim at the CIS and their procedures, not Laval."
This situation for the Vanier Cup is a very rare exception. Most of the time since the Vanier started in the mid 60's the word "sellout" and Vanier Cup were not synonymous.
I was in the SkyDome ten years ago when Laval made its first trip to the Vanier and not hundreds but thousands of fans took the trip from Quebec. Laval won their first effort, beating Saint Mary's - then coached by Blake Nill - 14-10. When you have the capacity of a Rogers Centre seating it's not an issue.
Nill is back to the Vanier as coach of the Calgary Dinos.
This is the first time I can ever recall a controversy over getting tickets to Canada's top college football game. Be it the Rogers Centre or Ivor Wynne Stadium - which hosted several Vanier Cup games - or even the game in Saskatoon, getting tickets and/or seats has never been an issue.
Other than Quebec City, what other place in this country can sell out a ten thousand seat stadium for college football and the Vanier?
The answer is probably none. London, Queen's and other places do well with some playoff games or great rivalries but nowhere near the 15-thousand guaranteed sales mark.
Sure, the Laval football team is not in the Vanier. They may get a crack at that next year because they have the Vanier for back-to-back years. This is a great opportunity for the Laval campus and Quebec City to put its mark on this event and become a great Canadian university town.
The mark of great college towns is when there is a good-to-decent crowd when there in no home team in the final.
Halifax has gained a great reputation as maybe the college capital of Canada due to so many universities being here, but for decades when they held the CIS final 8 basketball tournament the organizers could count on a very good crowd for the final. Many of those finals didn't even have an Atlantic-based team - much less a hometown school.
One of the CIS fears when going out of the favoured area, in this case it's the Rogers Centre, is the "what-if" factor? What if the home team doesn't make it to the final? And, in this case, the home team lost to Queen's?
"Not having the Rouge et Or will make a difference," says Belanger. "It may be the difference between a standing room only crowd of 17-thousand to "only" a sell out."
There's plenty going on in this year's Vanier Cup city as a major boxing fight is taking place on Saturday night at the Colisee and 15-thousand tickets have been sold for that event.
When one adds both the Vanier and boxing potential crowds, then a figure of nearly 30-thousand emerges. For a city the size of Quebec that is a heavy commitment to sports.
It could very well be the biggest day in sports in Quebec City in a long time, maybe ever. And, it would put the city in the upper echelons of university sport.
For TSN.ca I'm Alex J. Walling.
Alex J. can be reached via email at ajw@eastlink.ca