Mac in a pack hoping to challenge the Mustangs

It was only a few short years ago that Ontario university football was a bit of a mess.

There were two or three powerhouse teams at the top of the standings — for a long while, McMaster and Western with different schools occasionally tossed into that mix — and then a massive drop-off. The standings didn’t always show this disparity, because the weak teams had to play the other weak teams and someone had to win those contests. Those games plumped up point totals even among the soft entries. But the gap on the field between the elite and the rest of the field was chasmic.

Which is what made this weekend so refreshing.

Going into Saturday’s action, only Western had its playoff positioning locked up. The rest of the teams were basically a bunch of rather comparable ingredients you were tossing into a food processor to see what popped out the other end.

The playoff smoothie that emerged has McMaster in fifth place and facing Carleton (a school it didn’t play this year) in Ottawa next weekend.

More on that in a moment.

What made things so palatable this time around was how unpredictable everything was. And is. Granted, Western is going to win the Yates Cup unless the players are given the wrong game time and show up late, so it’s not a complete mystery. But nearly everyone else felt — and feels — they have a shot of at least getting to the Ontario final.

When Saturday’s games five kicked off simultaneously, Ottawa was 5-2, Carleton was 5-3, Waterloo, Mac, Guelph and Laurier were 4-3, and Queen’s was 3-4. That’s eight teams in contention for six playoff spots. All had won and lost games against other teams on that list. More intriguing was the situation that pretty much everyone, but Western, was potentially in position to host a home playoff game or miss the post-season.

No sense breaking down how it could have all played out. That would take more ink than has been spilled on the LRT debate over the years. All you really need to know is when it was done, Western and Ottawa finished 1-2 and got the first-round byes. Guelph jumped to third and will host Waterloo, while the Ravens host the Marauders.