TORONTO — It’s Week 2 of the Power Rankings presented by AMSOIL, and there’s a lot of movement between the teams.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2025/06/10/amsoil-power-rankings-a-new-no-1-emerges
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2025/06/10/amsoil-power-rankings-a-new-no-1-emerges
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The riders?? Bahahaha
Looks like Montreal to me
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As usual, Edmonton is where they belong, bottom of the barrel.
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Let me fix that for you:
Als
Riders
Lions
Bombers
Stamps
Tabbies
Redblacks
Elks
I’ll take first for riders but…., well…, yeah ok. Not exactly a game that inspired a first place choice.
I thought bc deserved higher, though maybe because their opponent was Edmonton?
I didn’t see the Montreal Toronto game. Maybe the als didn’t get enough love because they played TO? How TO was rated at first to start the year I’ll never know.
SK - John Deere running OK but absorbing dents along the way.
Wpg - Day passes from the Retirement Home s/b ready by Thursday.
MTL - Larks perched above the East again.
BC - Lions have their “ROAR” ke back.
CAL - BOO - not BO - Stamps frighten the Scaredy"CATS".
OTT - Corvette on offence, Trabant on D. The back end needs work.
TOR - Need to Ar"BUCKLE" up until Kelly’s good to go.
HAM - High octane offence, diesel defence.
Edm - Looking very “Elkish” - again.
It’s a new season, guys. How an 0-0 team can be rated above 1-0 teams at this stage is voodoo math. But then…who cares?
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No it’s not. I have already posted in last week’s thread the sound reasons why Toronto and Winnipeg were ranked #1 and #2 at the start of the year and why those two teams had the shortest odds to win the Grey Cup. And the oddsmakers know far more than you and I or any of the writers. You bet against the champions and the dynasty and you do so at your peril.
Does that mean they will stay there? Likely not. Toronto has already dropped precipitously, but of course they played without their #1 QB. Winnipeg is in the same boat this week and could drop as well. These rankings are of course subjective and will fluctuate all year, but it makes perfect sense to rank the teams with a lot of emphasis on and influence by their past performance. Based on that the rankings last week were perfectly understandable and appropriate before anyone had played even one game and that logic shouldn’t be abandoned just because a team didn’t play.
Many people think their team or some other team should be ranked higher than some of the more successful teams of the last few years and especially last year. They have improved, they have added ________, the other teams are weaker, blah, blah. The rankings can’t support that type of false reasoning and homerism. Start with the facts and then modify as teams actually play. It started last week and it continues on. Even then it is subjective and not a big deal, but ranking certain teams or your team higher just because you think like this isn’t appropriate this early in the season. Time will tell us soon enough who are the contenders and who are the pretenders, although even then the season doesn’t start until Labour Day. The Bombers started something like 2-30 last year but were still in the Grey Cup.
The anglo Canadian sports media perpetually underrates and ignores the Alouettes. I guarantee you that if any other team had gone 12-5-1, finished with the best overall record in the league in 2024, maintained roster continuity in the offseason, and suffered no significant coaching losses or changes, there is no no way in hell that team would have been rated at no. 6 overall heading into the season. 
But hey, these are the same experts – and I use the term very loosely – who were prepared to hand Edmonton the division title based solely on offseason signings and who had Hamilton as the team to beat in the east.
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The oddsmakers basically rank them according to the standings last year for a small league like the CFL. For big money leagues, that’s not the case.
Secondly if you want to argue that the Winnipeg Bomber football club, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary etc are the same clubs as they were last year, then you might have an argument with me. There have been massive changes on the GC champ team as well. 2025 is a clean slate for everyone. You & a lot of other people have noted the changes on these teams so, …what…let’s just ignore that & bring in last year’s results??
Note, Jon, I haven’t gone ahead & changed everybody around. IMO, & mine alone, I don’t think that, for 2025 through no fault of their own as they had a bye, they shouldn’t be ranked about someone who, in this season, hasn’t beaten anyone. The Winnipeg club of last year is NOT the same club as this year - they’ve changed their OC & made at least a dozen changes to their roster. What’s last year got to do with it.
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Bang on.
The double standard in ranking is what bothers me. Winnipeg basically gets #2 overall due to legacy achievements, despite undergoing substantial offseason change (losing OC and some key players). Toronto was ranked first overall (lmao) based on last year’s achievements despite undergoing massive offseason change (entire D-line pillaged by Edmonton, new co-DC, Kelly still not ready to start season, etc. etc.). Montreal, by comparison, had much less roster change outside of QB1, and even there, DA went 4-0 as a starter in 2024, which people apparently forget about, just like they forgot we went 12-5-1 and finished on top of the league. And we had no coordinator or head coach changes either. But somehow we were ranked at 6th overall? Like, SIXTH?! It boggles the mind.
All I’m saying is that without even having played you can’t penalize a team like Winnipeg or Toronto with “what ifs”. The oddsmakers, who I again point out, are far smarter than us. And if you think the oddsmakers just look at last year’s standings and just follow those you don’t undestand how they work. They do a far more in depth investigation than anyone else, including the writers. Their living depends on it. This has been discussed several times on the forum and numerous posts have been made in that regard so I won’t get into it again. Suffice it to say that if you haven’t seen Casino have a watch to see how real life oddsmakers work and in particular Lefty Rosenthal, who in the movie was Ace Rothstein and played by Deniro. It’s certainly not voodoo math and in fact the farthest thing from it
This sweeping proclamation made by you couldn’t be more wrong. The problem is that you have picked the Bombers to swoon every year for years now and every year you have been wrong. Am I to be believe your biased amateur opinion over the pros? I think not. Maybe you will be right this year, but basing the rankings on your own personal wishlist and selected facts about teams you rank higher and lower doesn’t make me want to discount the opinions of the professionals.
Always had the Als at 1/2 myself, however, in knowing how these rankings are influenced i understand it even if i don’t agree with it. The system is a what have you done lately formula. What the Als did lately was finish with a 2-5-1 record (including playoffs) and lost their starting QB.
I get that the first five were more or less meaningless games as the div was already wrapped up but the system doesn’t really acknowledge that does it?
OK, and what the Bombers did “lately” was get blown out in the Grey Cup by a team starting a journeyman QB.
True, but they were 6-2 over the same “lately” stretch. I figured the BB were middle of the pack to start the season. Guess we’ll see soon enough.
In any case they do seem to start the GC finalists at 1-2 more often than not.
The Bombers have been in a 3 yr swoon & you have predicted a thumping in the GC for 3 years now. The oddsmakers have picked the Bombers as 2 score favourites the past 3 years.
But - I think we can all agree, Jon, that we can finally put to rest all talk of a Bomber dynasty since the experts, like TSN, the Winnipeg Press, to mention two, have moved on & any talk of dynasties the past 3 years involves the Argos. You never paid much heed to the “experts” then.
I’m not quite sure why you think I am picking on the Bombers. Look at my comments more closely - I “picked” on all of the last teams on the list. The double emojis should clue you in that I’m having a little fun. You are taking all of this much too seriously, Jon.
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Reasonable explanation.
Also a reasonable explanation!
I could care less if we’re ranked 1st or last right now, I just want to see my team play!
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Except that after Montreal went on an eight-game win streak in 2023, culminating in a Grey Cup championship, we STILL didn’t get rated at the top to start the season.
I get not being 1-2 after falling to Toronto in the 2024 EDF from self-inflicted wounds. But ranking us sixth overall and last in the division was bananas.
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What is the point of doing a power ranking after 1 week of football.
Like the sample size is so minimal it doesn’t mean a thing.
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