CFL (Non-Bombers) off-season news

[Blue In BC]

If the alternative is your best players leaving, then it does make your roster better than that alternative.

The SMS cap has no bearing really. If the cap had not gone up, how much do top salaries go up? If the cap had gone up double what it did then do those top players get even more?

If Rourke was a potential free agent does his SMS hit go up to $800K because of the SMS number and the competition to acquire him?

IMO the increase neither keeps a player from leaving or helps keep him. It's just the free market with a given SMS.

[Blue In BC]

With the ratio ensuring that the set number of Nat's and Americans is a given, should there be caps within the caps?  Should the $SMS be broken into 2 caps? One for Nats and one for Americans?

If they did it that way, teams would still pay a disproportionate amount to Nats, but that would be capped.  Bring down the top end of Nat salaries a bit...

Interesting but I'd think the CFLPA would not be in favour of that. Some Canadians are better than some imports and limiting a contract amount based on nationality would be unfair.

That argument was raised about lower Global salaries last year in discussions.

This really falls on team management / owners that will look to " buy " a top talent with contracts in excess of logic.

In the past before SMS we had rich teams paying some players $1M usd because they had no limits.

[TBURGESS]

How much did the cap go up this year? Can you point me to doc? Thanks.

[Blue In BC]

How much did the cap go up this year? Can you point me to doc? Thanks.

In theory it went up in 2025 by about $400K and that would be carried over as part of the 2026 SMS. I'm not aware of an additional increase above that from last year, but it's possible. IIRC there was a built in increase in each season in the CFLPA agreement.

The large increase last year was due to increased revenue which a separate increase.

There was never any clarity from the league  and the 2025 increase was announced late ( after free agency ) so teams had no where to spend it per se.

[ModAdmin]

How much did the cap go up this year? Can you point me to doc? Thanks.

Up by $412,365
https://cflpa.com/cflpa-shares-historic-salary-cap-increase-for-2025-season

[Blue In BC]

Here is what 2026 looks like for the SMS.

The CFL's salary cap for the 2026 season is set to increase due to the league's revenue-sharing model from the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), with the base cap expected around
$6.16 million and the total expenditure cap over $6.27 million, driven by 2025 revenue growth, keeping the minimum salary at $70,000 for now but signaling a healthier financial environment.

Key Details for 2026

EDIT: Here is the 2025 cap info again.  If I understand all this there is an additional new increase of about $54K?

That's the difference between the $6.06M and $6.16M. 2025 versus 2026 SMS.

The CFL Salary Management System for 2025
centers on a $6,062,365 salary cap, up significantly due to league revenue growth via the CBA's revenue-sharing model, with rules including spending thresholds, penalties for exceeding the cap (monetary and draft picks), and non-salary bonuses like housing/marketing, all managed under the framework of the 2022 CBA and ongoing discussions with the CFLPA.

Key Components of the 2025 System:

[TBURGESS]

I knew about the 2025 increase, looks like the 2026 is just $54K. Thanks folks.