The No. 10 ranked Manitoba Bisons football team host their first Canada West conference regular season game of the 2012 season when they play at home against the No. 8 ranked Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday, September 8 starting at 1 p.m. at University Stadium (U of Manitoba campus).
The Bisons opened a football season with a win for the first time since the 2008 season (Manitoba win 25-12 over Regina at home) when Manitoba defeated #7 UBC on the road by a score of 31-24 on Saturday, September 1. They are tied with Saskatchewan plus four-time and defending Canada West champion Calgary with a 1-0 record in 2012.
Last season, Manitoba won the lone match-up against Saskatchewan (Manitoba 26-16 at Manitoba on Sept. 17/11) and overall during Brian Dobie’s 16 year tenure has a 6-7 conference regular season record versus the Huskies at home.
Heading into this second week of the 2012 campaign, both teams won their first games. Saskatchewan won 32-0 over Alberta in Saskatoon on Friday, August 31.
This will be the first of two meetings this season between the two teams (Fri., Oct. 12 at Saskatchewan at 8 p.m. CT)
For the 2012 season, there are eight of 12 starters on the offence and seven of the 12 starters on defence returning to the Bison squad. Five years removed from winning their third Vanier Cup Championship in team history, the Manitoba Bisons football team only has two players left (Landon Rice and Thomas Hall were both red-shirt players) on this year’s edition that were part of the 2007 Vanier team.
Bison Football Notes: Kickoff will occur at 1 p.m. and the game can be heard live on radio on CJOB (cjob.com) and simulcast on UMFM 101.5 (umfm.com). In addition, the game is shown live on SHAW TV Manitoba.
