major announcement - big changes to cfl playoff and season start

[Tecno]

This, X100.

The changes are part of an all or nothing play by the league.
There is no turning back. Support it and the league has a chance to survive.

Of course there is.  You could fire Johnston tomorrow, have the BoG or next commish say "we made a mistake", and undo the GP/110YL/playoff changes.  Just blame it all on Johnston and say he went rogue.

Problem solved.  Heck, even Johnston could come out and say he got it all wrong, but of course that's impossible for that self-toot-sniffer.

[Tecno]

Literally no one is going to do any of that.

They already did.  Johnston got unceasing many-minute boos the entire time he was talking at the GC presentation @PAS/'26.  No one stopped booing until he handed the cup to SSK.

If that was any sort of good measure of public opinion, more than 50% of the fans around me were booing.  Way more than the 10-25% number they claim don't like the changes (in a rigged poll due to question wording, BTW).

It was brutal.  And he deserved it.

[Tecno]

There are rivalry games- like us and Saskatchewan, but there are also years where we play them in the preseaosn, 3 or 4 times in the regular season, and then again in the play-offs. A certain amount of fatigue sets in when you play the same team 5-6 times a season.

The fatigue is entirely dependent on whether you are winning or losing those games!  Last season, when SSK kicked our butt almost every time, I did start to get green fatigue.  But normally when we're kicking their butts I could have a season of just WPG vs SSK!

What will be guaranteed to be annoying though is if #1/#2 are always SSK/WPG and we have to face them in the playoffs TWICE.  That will totally SUCK ROCKS.  If SSK is basically on par with us that makes getting to the cup extremely hard.  And it could mean a "round 3 SF" is a brutal slobberknocker that leaves the winner wounded.  And not many other-team fans will want to see a WPG/SSK matchup in both round 1 & 3!

If the E reverts to being clearly worse, which it basically did in '25, this will mean the GC is really the West round 3 SF.  The actual GC then goes back to being a joke, where the E has to win via luck (like '22, '23 and possibly '24).

[Tecno]

They will not be "money makers,"  if attendance is dismal, which is pretty inevitable in most Canadian markets.

The question isn't whether attendance will be dismal, the question will be can they put more butts in the seats than they did for their (maybe meaningless and slightly cold) Oct games.  In most markets the answer is probably "yes".

If they beat their average, they win ($$).

[Tecno]

It's already highlighted as to who hosts which games.

So it's guaranteed 6 of the 8 games are played in their respective division?  Only the R1 "play-ins" can be in the "wrong" division.  Right?  I guess that's ok.

And the way the play-in seeding works it's basically random what side of the country hosts those games... unless the E is mega-weaker than the W and the last 3 place teams are always E.  If that were to happen too many years in a row the E might make a stink the W always gets both play-in games.

Might teams purposely try to be #3 in-division (assuming the stronger division) instead of #2?  Both #2 (if they lose) and #3 have 3 games to win, but #3 only has to beat the crap #8 team (easy peasy -- that was TOR in '25?!).  Then you get to face the loser (worst?) of #1/#2.  Only in the last game do you have to face the "best" in that division.  That sure seems like the easier path than being #2 and getting mollywopped on twice by #1!!

The more I'm looking at the format, the more I'm wondering why there's any round 1 division "showdown" at all.  That seems to be the worst aspect, making these play-them-twice scenarios as well as putting massive wear on players for basically no reason.  The reg season would have WAY more meaning if you just ditched that game and gave #1/#2 the round 1 bye.  Then #1 gets a R2 bye as well.

[Tecno]

The Grey Cup may be renamed the "Stewart Johnston Trophy for Athletic Excellence."

Trophy will have a pull-string at the bottom.  Yank it and let go and the cup lets out some random wormy sentence in that smarmy weaselly voice.

Pull... "next we're going to make the fields thinner!"

Pull... "watch me go to 11 men!"

Pull... "I'm improving your line of sight by 0.0012%!"

[Blueforlife]

This, X100.

The changes are part of an all or nothing play by the league.
There is no turning back. Support it and the league has a chance to survive.   

Love the attitude man

[Blueforlife]

That's ridiculous.  Why should fans put down $5,000 (assuming two tickets, parking, concessions, etc) every year, for a watered-down version of the NFL? The CFL is a business. If they want to give the middle finger to loyal supporters, then let the league fold.

They should be marketing the existing product better.They are getting rid of the 55 yard line, moving the goal posts, changing the play clock, moving the season forward by 5 weeks, and making a convoluted playoff format that renders the regular season irrelevant.

No thanks.  It's not the "CFL" any longer. May as well change the name of the league at this point. Although I am certain they probably will by 2029, and try again with American expansion. Why else would they make the field more inline with the American game.  I will never spend a dime on the Bombers after 2026, unless Johnston is gone, and the new changes are dropped.

We are not expanding to the US.  Paying 3x odds on that.

The CFL is not a watered down version of the NFL.

I will support this great league forever.  My buddy and I joke about getting wheel chair seats.  Don't let the door hit you on your way out next year.  Pick up some Jets seats, now there is a great team lol.

[bluengold204]

So it's guaranteed 6 of the 8 games are played in their respective division?  Only the R1 "play-ins" can be in the "wrong" division.  Right?  I guess that's ok.

And the way the play-in seeding works it's basically random what side of the country hosts those games... unless the E is mega-weaker than the W and the last 3 place teams are always E.  If that were to happen too many years in a row the E might make a stink the W always gets both play-in games.

Might teams purposely try to be #3 in-division (assuming the stronger division) instead of #2?  Both #2 (if they lose) and #3 have 3 games to win, but #3 only has to beat the crap #8 team (easy peasy -- that was TOR in '25?!).  Then you get to face the loser (worst?) of #1/#2.  Only in the last game do you have to face the "best" in that division.  That sure seems like the easier path than being #2 and getting mollywopped on twice by #1!!

The more I'm looking at the format, the more I'm wondering why there's any round 1 division "showdown" at all.  That seems to be the worst aspect, making these play-them-twice scenarios as well as putting massive wear on players for basically no reason.  The reg season would have WAY more meaning if you just ditched that game and gave #1/#2 the round 1 bye.  Then #1 gets a R2 bye as well.

I don't think you really understand the format at all...

I think you are in the mindset that these are mostly division matchups when they are not.  The only guaranteed divisional matchups are what they call the  'Division Showdown' games, where the 1st place team plays the 2nd place team in their respected divisions.  All other matchups (the "Play Ins", Round 2, and Round 3) are based off of league standings not divisional standings.

It is not random how the playin seeding works and who hosts, you take the left over teams (from both divisions) that did not finish 1 and 2 in their divisions and seed them according to their season records they will be placed as seeds 5-8.  The team with the best record will be Seed 5 and the team with the worst record will be 8 and thus play each other.  The team with the second best record will become Seed 6 and the team with the second worst record will become Seed 7 and play each other.  The teams with the higher seed will host.

Round 2 you will take the team that lost the Divisional Showdown games and play the winners of the Playin games.  These teams will also be reseeded as well.  For example in this round say the loser of the West Divisional Showdown now has the better record than the loser of the east Divisional Showdown and Seed 8 team won and advanced.  They would then play each other, even if that Seed 8 team is from the east.  This round is not division dependent anymore.

Round 3 similar the winners of the Divisional Showdown will play the winners from round 2.  Again lets say the West Divisional Showdown winner has the better record than the East Divisional Showdown and by some miracle that Seed 8 team from the Playin is running the table and won their round 2 matchup.  The West divisional showdown winner would play them, even if it is an eastern division team.  Again this round is not division dependent.


If you stop and think about it, the format is actually pretty good.  I honestly like it better than our current format as winning 1 game to advance to the final is kind of lame and could create some cross divisional matchups that we typically wouldn't see.

[jets4life]

They already did.  Johnston got unceasing many-minute boos the entire time he was talking at the GC presentation @PAS/'26.  No one stopped booing until he handed the cup to SSK.

If that was any sort of good measure of public opinion, more than 50% of the fans around me were booing. Way more than the 10-25% number they claim don't like the changes (in a rigged poll due to question wording, BTW).

It was brutal.  And he deserved it.

The number is closer to 75% from the polls I have seen.

[bomber beetle]

Of course there is.  You could fire Johnston tomorrow, have the BoG or next commish say "we made a mistake", and undo the GP/110YL/playoff changes.  Just blame it all on Johnston and say he went rogue.

Problem solved.  Heck, even Johnston could come out and say he got it all wrong, but of course that's impossible for that self-toot-sniffer.

There must be team owners who believe they need these changes to have any chance of making a profit.
Reversing the decisions would involve more casualties than just Johnston. The league would not survive these casualties.

[TBURGESS]

I'm 69, and I've been watching the CFL since I was 10, and this is the first time since I started that I'm actually wondering if there is any point in continuing. I feel like I'm watching the death of the CFL play out in slow motion. 

The new rules suck. The new field sizes suck. The new playoff format SUCKS. The only point of the 18 game season is to remove 1 team? ***? We already have the same 9 teams playing each other up to 4 times a year. Now it could be up to 6 times, including playoffs, & the only time it will really matter is the Grey Cup. 

[theaardvark]

5-8 and 6-7 playing games could both be hosted by the same division, but the winners of those go on the road the rest of the way.

[bomber beetle]

I don't think you really understand the format at all...

I think you are in the mindset that these are mostly division matchups when they are not.  The only guaranteed divisional matchups are what they call the  'Division Showdown' games, where the 1st place team plays the 2nd place team in their respected divisions.  All other matchups (the "Play Ins", Round 2, and Round 3) are based off of league standings not divisional standings.

It is not random how the playin seeding works and who hosts, you take the left over teams (from both divisions) that did not finish 1 and 2 in their divisions and seed them according to their season records they will be placed as seeds 5-8.  The team with the best record will be Seed 5 and the team with the worst record will be 8 and thus play each other.  The team with the second best record will become Seed 6 and the team with the second worst record will become Seed 7 and play each other.  The teams with the higher seed will host.

Round 2 you will take the team that lost the Divisional Showdown games and play the winners of the Playin games.  These teams will also be reseeded as well.  For example in this round say the loser of the West Divisional Showdown now has the better record than the loser of the east Divisional Showdown and Seed 8 team won and advanced.  They would then play each other, even if that Seed 8 team is from the east.  This round is not division dependent anymore.

Round 3 similar the winners of the Divisional Showdown will play the winners from round 2.  Again lets say the West Divisional Showdown winner has the better record than the East Divisional Showdown and by some miracle that Seed 8 team from the Playin is running the table and won their round 2 matchup.  The West divisional showdown winner would play them, even if it is an eastern division team.  Again this round is not division dependent.


If you stop and think about it, the format is actually pretty good.  I honestly like it better than our current format as winning 1 game to advance to the final is kind of lame and could create some cross divisional matchups that we typically wouldn't see.

Thank you for this. I did not know that.

The graphics the league provided do not clearly indicate this but the wording does.

I agree, this is better than the current playoff format. It will guarantee that the best two teams always have a chance to advance to the Grey Cup game.
And it should eliminate most of the late season games where one or both teams are playing a nothing game.

[blue_gold_84]

There must be team owners who believe they need these changes to have any chance of making a profit.
Reversing the decisions would involve more casualties than just Johnston. The league would not survive these casualties.

The CFL's survivability hinges more on its financial stability in the short- and long-term than arbitrary wholesale changes to the game itself.

Whether said changes benefit the CFL or not remains to be seen. We're all just waiting to see how it unfolds, irrespective of our position on the changes.

Johnston isn't infallible and he'll likely become the fall guy should this not work out as he envisions.