In the spirit of spurring off season discussion, i was thinking of this topic, since -at least - i dont know much about the subject.
So, just reminissing about the end of the regular season this year and about the past few year, i was just woundering why is it that a west team has been coming over to the east division for playoffs. This makes it seem as though there should not be devisions for the purpose of playoffs and that the CFL should look similar to the OUA in that there would be 8 teams and they would only have one division.
Currently, are there are restrictions to how the west team can come over? or is it that the best 6 teams make the playoffs regardless?
If it is just the best 6, would it be beneficial to change to a one division league?
Your Suggestion is Killing the East Vs West Format..
I am not in Favour Of That ....
There just Something thing you don't mess with
The Rouge
3 downs
Field Size
The League format.
I like to see the Crossover Gone
I Personally I hate it
This Cause messes with League Format East vs West.
I am hoping once Ottawa is Back it will be gone.
I’m pretty sure only 1 western team can crossover and that’s if the last in the west has a better record than the 3rd place team in the east or beat them more but have the same record, etc.That’s why BC crossed over and the Peg was sent packin.My favourite line from last season came during the Jykine Bradley pick near the end of the last regular season game."That’s it, Winnipeg, your football season is over!"That relieved all the built up tension from a very up and down type season
I'm a traditionalist so East-West is untouchable as far as I'm concerned...I like the crossover because it rewards a team with a better record, but ultimately, nothing compares to divisional/rivalry games!
The league has been afraid of eliminating the tradition of the East vs. West format for the Grey Cup but the day may yet come. Circumstance has certainly stretched the tradition with Winnipeg representing both the West and the East in Grey Cup games and winning it from both sides. There was also the American team representing the East in '94 and then becoming the only Southern Division Grey Cup Champs the following year. The crossover makes it possible to have an all West or all East Grey Cup, but that has yet to happen. I'm sure if the league ever gets to 10 teams, consideration will be given to eliminating the divisions and adopting a home & away schedule of 2 games against each of the other teams. I too am a traditionalist, but also support the crossover.
I don't want to see the East-West alignment eradicated, but I do like the crossover. It rewards the 6 best teams with playoff spots. Why should, using last year as an example, Winnipeg get a playoff spot at 7-11? They get rewarded for playing in a weaker division? That's not right. Just look at the NFL. When an 8-8 division winner hosts a 12-4 2nd place finisher (as happened in 2008 with the Chargers and Colts) NFL scribes, namely Peter King from SI, start calling for changes. Seems like they'd be envious of us.
I say keep the divisions and keep the crossover. With the crossover there is the small possibility that we could one day see a Hamilton-Toronto Grey Cup. I know I'd love to see that.
If you think a Hamilton-Toronto grey cup would be totally epic, what if the game were hosted in Hamilton AND we won?The city would be partying for a month at least :lol:
If people think the Labour Day crowd is hot, imagine what a Grey Cup crowd against the Boatmen would be like, with a mostly Ti-Cat partisan crowd. We’d all have no voice for weeks. It would be great!
I really think the relevance of East vs. West is fading every year especially considering the size of the league.
If and when the CFL makes it to 10 teams, the most obvious thing to do would be to schedule every team (9 opponents per team) twice for a full balanced 18 game schedule.
I'm sure even then East. vs. West will still be reflected in playoff seeding but not so much in regular season scheduling. Each team would see each opponent at home once. This would be the Labour Day game for Toronto in Hamilton.
i personally, do not want to see the CFL go to a one division league (truth be told, i want the OUA to make two divisions with something like York, U of T, Ottawa, McMaster, and Queens in one and Western, Guelph, WLU, and Waterloo in the other) i think that the East vs west can be a better persona than what has been showed since i have really come of age in football. I feel like its not as competative in the west because they feel they do not have to worry about being 4th, because they can just beat out an eastern team…
my suggestion to making this better is that the team crossing over has to have a .500 record against the 3rd ranked team in the opposing division, and must have 6 more points (3 more Ws).
Using this years example, i dont think it was fair for Winnipeg to not make the playoffs. this year, peg had a record ot 7-11 and BC had a record of 8-10 meaning that they were only 2 points away from BC. now they did beat eachother once in the season, which goes with my suggestion.
With these stats, the question of whether BC was better than Winnepeg is an issue. i would not say that one game makes you a better team at the end of the regular season. Thus i feel that Winnipeg was deprived of a playoff appearance (could be my what if instincts for out playoff game kicking in though lol).
Toronto fans though don't travel, I remember the '96 Grey Cup here, Argos agains't Edmonton and there were so few Argo fans it was an embarasement. They hate coming to this city. Mind you back then the Argos had like what, about 2000 season ticket holders, just plain sad.
Personally I say keep the East-West thing going but I know people who don't follow the CFL and understand tradition of something think it's very strange when say BC plays someone in the "East" playoff game. But I don't have a problem with it. Mind you I wouldn't have a problem if they got rid of the divisions as well.
Agreed to the fullest. I absolutely hate the crossover with a passion. It makes no sense, in fact its completely backwards!
Having said that, the original poster is right. If you want the “best” six teams in the playoffs, just get rid of the division.
Better yet, just like every other league in North America, get rid of the dumb thing called crossover and actually have a purpose to having divisions.
Right now there is no purpose to having divisions and honestly it’s a joke. The CFL should be embarrassed. It’s way too simple.
Get rid of the crossover or get rid of the divisions. You can’t have both, it compromises the integrity of the league. Good thing with expansion on the horizon the CFL will come to its senses.
I don’t get this at all. How does allowing the best teams to make the playoffs, regardless of division, compromise the integrity of the league?
Look at all the other major sports leagues:
The NHL allows more than 50% of their teams into the playoffs. And don’t even get me started on Charles Wang’s moronic proposal.
MLB has a problem with the Sox-Yanks dominance in the AL East that they are in the early stages of considering “floating realignment.”
The NFL, as I stated before, has a problem when a 8-8 teams hosts a 12-4 team just because they won a division. People have been calling for changes in their system because they find that to be unfair.
The NBA has one conference so strong, that people are starting to advocate that they get rid of conference affiliation in the playoffs and go to a 1-16 seeded tournament.
The only league that seems to have it “right” is the CFL. The CFL always guarantees that the best teams make the playoffs. I don’t see anything wrong with that, and I definitely don’t see it as compromising the league’s integrity. If anything, it strengthens the league’s integrity. Only the top teams should have a chance to hoist the Grey Cup, and the division alignments shouldn’t prevent a more worthy team for doing so. BC was better than Winnipeg this year, period. They got the playoff spot. Seems fair to me.
^ None of those leagues have the crossover.
For a while now the Western Conference in the NHL or even NBA has been much stronger then the east. A couple seasons a 50 win team missed the playoffs in the NBA because of their division, while a mediocre sub .500 team made it. But you know what? Who cares. That’s the point of competition. You have divisions, because those teams literally are a barrier between you and your goal. Not everyone in a division can make the playoffs and sing kumbaya. Yet we don’t see the NHL or NBA have a silly cross-over to make everyone happy.
My team benefited from it last season and ended up beating yours and yet it was a shame. BC had no business in the playoffs. Had they been a better team and not choke it up at home against Edmonton, they would have earned their spot. Not getting a get out of jail free card because Winnipeg was slightly more mediocre.
If you really want the best teams in the playoff, scrap the divisions and have the top 6 play in the playoffs. The CFL won’t do that because they know that would cursing the storied tradition. Just wait the day the BC Lions are the Eastern Conference representatives versus the Western Conference Saskatchewan Roughriders in Edmonton and half the country could care less, they’ll change their ways immediately.
Just like the Brett Hull foot in the crease or how the NFL will change its OT format. Things like this tend to disappear once leagues get embarrassed.
I can kind of understand the argument of having the best teams in the playoffs, but then you must get rid of the divisions. It redundant, since there’s no point of dividing the teams up. And that’s why I say it compromises our great league’s integrity. For what?
Yes, none of them have crossovers, however, with some of the proposals (ie the one in the NBA about seeding teams 1-16) they would have a crossover essentially. The top 16 teams, regardless of conference affiliation, would make the playoffs. While it wouldn't be a crossover, it would have elements of a crossover.
I guess I see your point on the necessity of the divisions. I just happen to like some of the unique qualities that the CFL has, one of them being the crossover. If it went away, it wouldn't matter to me (and in a 10-team league it probably would), but right now it gives the teams with 7-9 marks with two weeks left in one division something to play for. That means the fans in that city win. Nothing is worse than watching a team that has been eliminated from playoff contention.
Tradition is a good reason to keep the two divisions. It fosters rivalries between teams in the same division and between the East and West. Many of my friends are from the West, and it's a constant talking point throughout the season when we watch games.
There's another reason for the divisions, though, and that is to reduce travel expenses for all the teams. Divisional play gives the league a structure to have teams play their closest rivals more often. For that reason alone, I can't see the league eliminating the divisions.
heres another one of my points that i think people have looked over from my original post…
I think that if we are to keep the cross-over, then there should be more restrictions. what i mean by this, is that the team that is crossing over should have to be more than one game better than the 3rd place team in the opposing division.
would this make more people happier, or not? are there other options or do we have the best option involved currently?
BC should not be punished for playing in the stronger west division. Winnipeg should not be rewarded just because they were third in the “weaker” East division. They had a chance to get in the playoffs and they lost when all the marbles were on the table. They win, they get in. They lost, they didnt get in.
It should remain as it is, the best 6 teams. If the fourth place team in the west is 1 point better than the third place team in the east, then they deserve to get in playoffs over them.
It is what it is for now. Should change once Ottawa is back in league. Until then, East will need to get better if they want to avoid a west team crossing over. Vise versa, if the East were the stronger division.
