CFL rules/field

Been having discussions with other season ticket holders in the east
We discussed the fact that European hockey plays on a wider ice service than the NHL but the same length with the same number of players, should the CFL keep our field width but go to a 100 yard field with 11 players on each side of the ball ?

No, but thanks for asking.

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No, no need

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Nope

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the extra man on the field is part of what makes the CFL the CFL.

(and it drives yankee hotshot qb’s nutz)

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That’s very true I remember when Ferragamo came to the Alouettes he could never figure out the extra D back

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I think we will need to look at field size at some point. We don’t have to do much to make our field fit other stadiums, but we will need to be open to change. An easy way is to remove the 55 and go to 15 yds in the end zone, take the width down a few yards to 60. Move the hash marks and we won’t see any difference in play. Maybe scoring up a little. Need to try and then gauge comments during preseason. Everyone will probably agree with this point, any trials during preseason and we will all be watching.

The only reason to use a smaller field would be to fit U.S. stadiums, and even there soccer fields could be used instead, but since there a no plans whatsoever to repeat U.S. expansion, there is really no good reason to change the size of the field.

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Thanks for everyone’s input on this

The people Ive been chatting with have been trying to figure out how to grow the game and interest among Canadians inundated with NFL information and coverage.

We also to be honest are more intrinsic seeing more Canadians developed rather than drawing in more Americans. They thought this might be a better way

Thanks for the input

The league has to dedicate more time going to schools, holding coaching clinics with peewee and high school programs, offer serious discounts for school age children and get kids excited to go to games. In Hamilton the junior hockey team hosts a couple games a year where they host a day game for school age kids only. Fills the rink, kids get enthusiastic and it fosters further interest down the road - some of these kids will start bugging their parents to take them to games. Building interest in the league is going to take a long term consistent effort. It won’t be done by a few gimmicks catered to NFL fans - they’ve already got their preference for what they’d rather watch. You may pull them in to watch a Johnny Manziel once or twice but that’s about it.

It’s an interesting idea - it’d generate more offense, you’d think, due to more space to move for each player.

Great points

Even if the CFL was more like the NFL that still wouldn’t make it more appealing to Canadians.

The league has many problems, but being Canadian isn’t one of them.

In BC I know a lot of fans said they would never go to another game again when the games took four hours to complete, so I’ve been thinking the CFL should take a page out of the XFL’s book and reimagine “Canadian football.”

The league should never have let the games drag on that long. It was really a fatal error in BC.

Very good points

The timing of games is definitely an issue, although I don’t see the games taking that much longer than NFL games, so fixing that won’t bring in NFL fans. For most NFL fans, it’s the perception of the CFL being lower quality football, which many say is because of the ratio, but in reality is more to do with the salary cap. (And personally, I don’t see the quality drop-off to be as big as some say it is. My opinion.)

But fixing the timing of the games would improve the entertainment value. Watch some of the classic games from the '60s, and you see the difference immediately. Players hustled back to the huddle, and the next play was whistled in quickly. Why are teams now allowed to celebrate every play, and then stroll back to the huddle, with the next play not being whistled in for 15 to 20 seconds? Give teams maybe ten seconds to get back, then the 20 second play clock. Or maybe just have a 30 second play clock that starts immediately, similar to the NFL’s play clock. Games would definitely drag less, and would be more entertaining.

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Back in those days the CFL was mostly Canadians playing. It was their league they grew up with it so they had more pride in playing in it

Imo

The NFL can get away with it, though because it’s the NFL.

The CFL doesn’t have that luxury.

It’s as the same as how the NHL got away with it when it got stir crazy over obstruction.

The CFL operates its business like it was the NHL, but it can’t rely on major league status to get it out of trouble when it screws up.

It’s probably not as bad as it was, but the damage was done.

Absolutely,

So much time wasting in the 54 minutes not played under the 3 minute warning. A 30 second play clock from the previous play would eliminate the need for the rule changes at the 3 minute warning while increasing the pace of the whole game.

CFL is 20 second play clock between plays XFL is 25 NFL 40

It’s not so simple:

The CFL and XFL play clocks run from when the referee blows the play in. So long as the previous play ended in bounds without a score, change of possession, end of period, penalty, timeout etc, the game clock will run for the time between the last play and the play clock being blown in. There is no defined limit to how much time can elapse during this period. In practice, 35 to 45 seconds elapse between plays in both the CFL and XFL outside their respective 3 and 2 minute warnings.

Furthermore, in the CFL before the 3 minute warning, the game clock runs with the play clock irrespective of the previous play ending on a clock stopping scenario. So once the 20 second clock is blown in, the offense is free to run 20 seconds of game clock down.

At the 3 minute warning we get all the “no lead is safe”, clock saving rules to jack up the drama but the time has been wasted during the other 27 minutes of the half.

The NFL has a 40 second play clock that starts at the conclusion of the previous play. Should the game be paused for some other reason such as injury, they then use a 25 second play clock.

A legitimate 30 second play clock timed from the end of the previous play would increase the pace from the current 20 second clock.