CFL playoffs

I'm I the only one who thinks that they really need to due away with the east/west divisions. The CFL playoffs have been a joke for a while now. The forth place team in the west has a better record then the first in the east. I just think the two best teams should play each other in the grey cup. Top five teams make playoffs. Teams 1 to 3 get byes. 4 plays 5. If it were this season as of right now. Ottawa plays Edmonton, winner play's Calgary. BC plays Winnipeg. Doesn't that seem better then what we're going to get. I'm a die hard ticats fan and I would still rather them not make the playoffs in favour of this system. What do you think?

Gate driven league, you need 6 teams making the playoffs. The league would be in big trouble with only 5 teams in the playoffs. The way you do it is, top 2 get a bye , 3vs6 4vs5 . I think they should try one division for a year and see how it goes? Not sure why you say the “playoffs have been a joke for a while” ? Playoffs have been good games with the best 6 teams. This year the crossover takes care of a weak East.

I guess I just don't like teams with losing records making playoffs in any sport. Just seems in past history the teams in the west final have better records then the team in east final. Wouldn't you rather see teams that are 14-4 going head to head in grey cup. Then a 14-4 team playing an 8-10 team. Playoff games haven't been the joke it's the ranking of teams for the playoffs that's the joke. Just look at the current standings

Another let's change the playoff format because the west is good thread.

Yeah it would be kind of silly having teams with losing records win the Grey Cup. Thank goodness that embarrassment only happended twice.

2000 Lions and 2001 Stamps. Both went 8 - 10 that year. Both Western teams.

The LA Kings won the Stanley Cup with a losing record in 2012. It happens in many leagues.

Its easy to nitpick the CFL but its really not any different and if you look at the percentages of teams that make it. Only 66% of teams are making the playoffs which is really really good actually. Up until the 2000’s 75% of NHL teams were making it. Even right now over 50% make the playoffs in the NHL but 16 teams have made the playoffs since there were only 20 teams in the early 90’s. Which means at many points NHL had more teams in the playoffs percentage wise than the CFL

…yet nobody noticed

The Kings won 40 games in regulation and had 15 OT losses ,that stat is a little skewed .
6 teams is the right number making the playoffs with 9 or 10 teams.

They won 40 of 82 games. Meaning they were less than .500 winning percentage even though they don't count the Overtime Losses in the percentage, they had a losing record.

When you include OTL's they lost 42 games. They were a losing team. Only reason they got past Canucks tho was Canucks injury to Daniel Sedin. No sedin twins no chance for canucks.

`Lol… they got passed the Canucks because the Kings had men on their team ,opposed to the Sedin sisters ! :smiley: Good players but not made for NHL playoffs.

I came here to mention a point about the CFL play-offs.

However, I assume I am no longer allowed. :?

This it is now morphed into an official thread about the Kings and Canucks. :roll:

I'm still interested in what you think?

I would be ok with just no divisions until there is a 10th team.
Teams already play each other twice leaving just two additional games against their division. Instead those games should be weighted. Top teams have to play against each other and/or bottom teams play those games against each other.

There seems to have been more years where the crossover has been used than it hasn't. Fortunately for the 2 division league there has always been an east vs west based teams in the Grey Cup.

Although people tend to view their regional rivals as more important, one division would increase the importance of all the games.

Ex. Montreal vs BC game would effect more directly the standings in a one division league therefore increase the importance.

I think as well no divisions is the way to go as I don't see any evidence that a 10th team will exist in the near future. It makes a lot more sense really. Even with 10 teams I think one division is the way to go.

I think having 2 divisions is an attempt to keep as many teams in the playoff hunt, peeking fan interest particularly late into the season. The crossover keeps a team who may be doing well from being penalized due to being in a more competitive division. I think it is a unique system. I like it.

Having 2 divisions also optimizes TV scheduling and having predictable timeslots to sell advertisers.

Imaging having 2 playoff games in the west (or east for that matter) on the same day? Either one team has to get a dog schedule when hosting or the there's an overlap which hurts the overall potential audience. TSN is not paying over 40mil/year to let that happen.

I strongly feel the NHL is going in that direction if they can get a 32nd team (in the west), they'll switch to an all division playoff format too for the same reasons, especially in the early rounds.

As it currently stands the East is a joke. You can't have all the teams in your division under 500. I've been a fan in this league for years, and yes I do cheer for the Green and White. The point is still very valid that you should not have teams under 500 in the playoffs, but they should NEVER be hosting playoff games! The league needs to reconsider its playoff organization and allow the 4 teams with the best records the rights to host playoff games. The first and second place get a bye and 3&6, 4&5. If 3&4 both win, then 1&4 play and 2&3. If there is an upset then first place gets the advantage playing the lower ranked team.

This system would put much more focus on overall records allowing more competition especially at the end of the season. It will also lead to the creation of more revenue for the teams who worked all season for that benefit. This league is driven by revenue. If the west is where football is loved more, and it is there that the fans put their money into their teams... then those teams need to be able to capitalize on the revenue that a post-season game generates. The whole West-East drama is killing the league and making this country's best sport suffer.

We must solve the East-West situation, in 2017 may we have a united CFL. Where we do not divide our great nation, and our most beloved game by century old politics of East-West. We stand as one country, let our league reflect this unity! #onecfl2017

I have stated this before when this debate comes up at this time of the season.

I say no to the merging of divisions.

1 - Now you have 2 close races ( not Calgary ). :thup:

2 - If a fan base of a team is out around LD, interest falls off. :thdn: Thus ticket sales go down.

3 - The last 2 years the " real Grey Cup " :roll: have been blow outs.
While the actual Grey Cup has been 4 and 6 points . Close enough both East teams could have won.

4 - We have an 18 game schedule. What kind of formula do we come up with for a 3rd game. ?
It would be easy when we had a 16 game set up. Every team plays each other 2 X.
Now there is finding a correct way of what team do you play 3 X ?

If the CFL does rid the divisions I would hope this :
Base it on the previous year’s standings.
9 at 8 - 8 at 7 - 7 at 6 - 6 at 5 - 5 at 4 - 4 at 3 - 3 at 2 - 2 at 1 - 1 at 9.

5 - It is fine the way it is, with the cross over .

Easy solution to this dilemma (at least for this year ) All that has to be done is simply take the Bombers and plunk them back into the Eastern Conference. That's all that is needed , just reverse the two divisions ,the East becomes the 5 team division and the West becomes the 4 team division and voila ! problem solved. The Bombers would be the 1rst place team in the East get the bye and the East Semi would be a Hamilton at Ottawa encounter. Calgary would obviously still be in 1rst and the West Semi would be an Eskimo-Lion match-up.

Revamped current standings with Winnipeg in the East factoring in Tor losing to Sask and Mtl losing to Calg today.

EAST

Winnipeg..........10 - 6 - 0 - 20
Ottawa...............7 - 7 - 1 - 15
Hamilton...........6 - 9 - 0 - 12
Toronto.............5 - 11 - 0 - 10
Montreal...........4 - 11 - 0 - 8

WEST

Calgary...........14 - 1 - 1 - 29
B.C....................9 - 6 - 0 - 18
Edmonton.......8 - 7 - 0 - 16
Sask.................5 - 10 - 0 - 10

Proposed play-off format in this scenario as of today :

Eastern Semi-Final : Hamilton at Ottawa
Eastern Final : Hamilton/Ottawa at Winnipeg

Western Semi-Final : Edmonton at B.C.
Western Final : Edmonton/ BC at Calgary

Just think of the remaining regular season scheduling implications in this scenario , suddenly the home and home series between Ott and Wnp becomes that more interesting with 1rst place possibly on the line for the winner. The Edmonton - BC match-up possibly deciding home field for the WSF. The Cats with a win in Ottawa next week and suddenly home field is in question for the ESF.

So as you can see the play-off picture would be far more interesting and intriguing and fair with a simple move back to the East for the Bombers and a 5 team East division and a 4 team West division.

And Saskatchwean would still be in hunt for a cross-over

Bombers never saw or even anticipated the sad state of the Eastern division before agreeing to be jettisoned back west.

I kinda agree with the idea of the bombers going back into the eastern div. However, chances are by the time the league agrees to this (maybe never) the east will hulk up again and the bombers will have to claw and scratch for position - as usual..... :cowboy:

Most years the possibility of a cross over fixes this problem. This year is a bit unique. Saskatchewan could still mathematically finish with a better record than Ottawa.

I still don't think radical changes are needed all that being said. If Collaros and Burris/Harris had stayed healthy I think you'd see 2 teams with pretty healthy records in the East. Not to mention that Toronto wouldn't be as bad with a healthy Ricky Ray.