Well, it's been 30+ years since I coached for the Orange, and I realize that many things may have changed. (I also think that some posts have been deleted from this thread.) But it's certainly still true that universities in that general area (CNY/WNY) are often attractive choices for good Canadian athletes.
From the young man's statements, it seems like Syracuse is just a really good fit...for him. They do have fine academic support, and he seems to be smart enough to a) recognize the need for it, and b) take advantage of it. Good for him.
Also, unless things have changed *mightily*, he has to have been at least a decent student to have gotten accepted by SU at all. (For a non-revenue sport, anyway. I simply don't know the reality of admissions for FB/BB, one way or another.) Don't compare Canadian high school grades to American grades; an 80 GPA in Canada is (or at least was) a very strong one.
True story: when I got to SU, days before the beginning of the fall semester, I went to the Admission Dept. and spent some time on their computers, just checking to see which of the previous year's top NYS HS seniors might have applied to Syracuse. I was hoping (in vain, it turned out) that one or two good kids might be coming in, just by chance.
One *very* well performed HS athlete had indeed applied to the 'Cuse, but had been rejected. The kid ended up at a nearby Ivy League university.