Crossover Playoff Format

Nice. Let’s do this.

I with you on that idea. We need to keep the East/West rivalry for the Grey Cup.

Why play the random game? Negotiate in the new CBA that a 10 team league plays 17 games and move the Grey Cup “up” by one week … balance it by holding cap steady that first year (i.e., no increase … players get the same total, but more per game … a 17 game schedule gives actual credence to the current playoff format as it is unbalanced.

With a 17 game schedule, how will it be determined which teams get 9 home games and which get only 8? With fewer home games not only do teams face a more difficult schedule, but also reduced gate ($) take opportunity.

Every off season you can be assured that you will get.

-Tread about getting ride of the ratio.

-Tread about redoing divisions (getting ride of cross-over).

-Tread about the poor players needed to be paid much more

-Tread allowing franchise player excluded from ratio.

Each team gets 8 home games and one neutral site game, whether it be in a non-CFL Canadian market (Quebec City, Okanagan, etc.), or a foreign city (Alaska, Idaho, maybe Mexico somewhere)

Don’t forget:

-Thread about eliminating the rouge

-Thread about bringing in Canadian QBs

-Thread about expanding to Halifax (at least this year, we can discuss this topic in concrete terms)

-Thread about recruiting players from Mexico . . . wait, what?

It wasn’t the playoff format as much as the effect on the regular season of the format that was the original intent of this thread.

Als and Argos had nothing to play for post labor day because of the cross over. That changes a lot of things. Both teams were playing better down the stretch and the fight for the last play off spot could have been something to build fan interest around. ESF possibly a better game.

There already was a playoff fight on in the west.

The other thread says the Als are done with only 5000 season tickets sold. Season over in September did not help.

Anyway…

Very good point!
Last season was an example of the crossover hurting the league by taking TOR and MTL out so early.

If all 3 of Mitchell, Reilly and Collaros are not starting QB’s in the west this season,
We just might see a crossover from the East. :o

Toronto and Montreal were terrible teams. I think having terrible teams in the playoffs hurts the league. Having 9-9 teams eliminated in favour of 8-10 teams hurts the league. Having 8-10 teams host playoff games while 10-8 teams have to play on the road hurts the league. Let’s reduce interdivisional play and make these scenarios less likely. Alternatively, we could just not eliminate any teams from the playoffs.

It would be awesome to see an Eastern crossover for once, and yeah, if Reilly moves East and the other two are elsewhere, just maybe.

“Als and Argos had nothing to play for post labor day because of the cross over.”
The Als and Argos (and the rest of the league) knew the playoff format before the season began.
If they couldn’t play well throughout the full season and chose to improve only after labour day, that is on them, not the playoff format.

“Both teams were playing better down the stretch and the fight for the last play off spot could have been something to build fan interest around.”
Or, both teams could have floundered as badly as they had before labour day and made the east/west division split look even more ridiculous by rewarding an incompetent team over a quality team.

“ESF possibly a better game.”
ESF possibly a worse game.

Ricky Ray was injured the 2nd game of the season and missed the rest of the season.
If Ray came back from injury around the middle of September the Argos still would have been eliminated from the playoffs but their team would have been hugely improved with Ray at QB.
Agreed that MTL was terrible.
As far as 8-10 teams, HAM played their scrubs in their last game against MTL as it meant nothing to either team and HAM had a playoff game the next week.

Lets face it both EDM and BC although not terrible, did not have great seasons either

When Jennings faltered, they had Lulay,
Not sure what happened in EDM, but I put that on their HC Maas

Yes, the Argos likely would have been greatly improved if Ray had come back in the middle of September. Would he have lasted more than a couple games? Why didn’t the Argos have a viable back up plan? In the end, they didn’t and were a terrible team that didn’t deserve a sniff at the playoffs.

No doubt, Hamilton would have played harder in the last week or two if the playoff system didn’t allow them to cruise while teams with equal or better records had to slug it out. It’s a shame the fans of the league didn’t get to see Hamilton’s best. That the system allows that to happen hurts the league.

Old geezer alert!

Check Argonauts and Alouettes attendances prior to the introduction of the full interlocking schedule in 1981. Better or worse than today? And it was that idiotic, incredible, bittersweet, wonderful 1981 season that basically destroyed the traditional playoff format, although it took a few years to realize. In 1981, the Argos and Alouettes raced to the wire with two wins apiece; Montreal nipped Toronto at the wire to finish at three and thirteen. Waiting for the surging Larks were the juggernaut Ottawa Rough Riders at five and eleven. Well, you either know the history or you don’t from there. 1981 and the full interlocking schedule began the problems that persist in Toronto. Not to mention Nelson Skalbania’s mismanagement in La Belle Province.

On my knees I implore the ghost of Greg Fulton to abandon the full interlocking schedule and discontinue the crossover playoff format.

People in Toronto will watch the Argos play against regional rivals/business associates/family members from Hamilton, Ottawa and Montreal more readily than same from Regina, Winnipeg and Calgary. Have said it many times but Canadiens-Bruins and Maple Leafs-Red Wings have more cache than Habs-Coyotes and Buds-San Jose. Regional rivalries, please. So, when in Toronto on business, stay an extra day and watch your team play at BMO. You’re staying downtown anyway, right? Unless, that is, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in town. Ho hum. What time’s the next train out?

Annual all star game, afternoon games in autumn - Canadian weather is gorgeous in the fall, but who can see it in the dark? - and above everything else, play the Grey Cup in the afternoon so that children can “play CFL” at halftime and actually see the trophy presented to the winning side before bedtime.

It certainly worked for me.

Really? Because last year the highest attendance by far for them was when BC came to town. Next was Calgary. Then Hamilton in the LD games. Then the Riders. so 3 of the top 4 attended games were against the west. The year before was pretty similar.

Seems that a lot of people complain that an issue with the CFL is that it is playing the same teams so frequently…this would increase that.

Allstar game in the autumn…like during the season…with teams risking player injury for it? The NFL has been discussing canning the probowl because it gets poor ratings as it is a watered down version of the game…I can’t even imagine how much more watered down it would be DURING the season. An all-star type weekend where they had catching and throwing drills…that is maybe a good idea…I know I have always liked watching those.

Championship game outside of “prime-time”…what’s the sales pitch there? You want to pull the game away from when people actually like watching TV in mass? So you might get a few more kids that see the full game but the natural drawing audience is smaller?

The ideas I am putting forth are the factors that make me a CFL lifer.

The All-Star game is a pre-season exhibition game, with the emphasis on exhibition. It is an opportunity for a CFL event, like the “Caravan” during the American expansion. The CFL is good at this kind of thing now. Imagine Bo Mitchell completing passes to Duke Williams, kind of thing. It is entirely a spectator event, and so it might be held annually in Toronto, where the market is biggest.

Capturing children’s imaginations and encouraging the playing of “CFL football” is immensely important to keeping the national aspect of the game. You get a kid to say, “I’mWilliam Powell” when he makes a run in the park, and another says, “I’m Adam Bighill” when he makes a tackle.

A question for fans of the CFL: when did you become a fan, and what was it that grabbed you? If it wasn’t the spectacle of the game being played live, on grass, in an outdoor stadium, on either a summer’s night or autumn afternoon, you are missing something. If you haven’t played football in the park as a child, you are seriously missing something.

As a business, CFL football is driven by money, but TSN is the organization that benefits the most from promoting televised football in prime time viewing slots.

But as a Canadian institution that is and will be sustained by the citizens of Canada who love it unconditionally, and defend it in good times and bad, the key to its long term survival is reaching the market that television fails to target: children.

As the bad old ad went, “I love it, and I don’t care who knows it.” You can take the kid out of the CFL, but you can’t take the CFL out of the kid.

And please, somebody, get me started on why we need a return to four exhibition games pre-season.

Soapbox is free.

Thanks.

Again…you are risking injury for a game that is prior to other games…before all regular season now? Ouch. And now it is not Autum…but spring…months after said players had all-star seasons? Hopping right into action without getting into camp shape? This seems to smell of disaster all for the longshot that a CFL all-star game will capture an audience when we know the NFL’s already doesn’t…and it is played right at the end of the season…I feel the mistake the NFL makes is that the probowl should be on Friday or Saturday of SB weekend…but still, it is an awful game that gets poor response.

Capturing kid’s imaginations…so something like CFL week? Where players are actually out and interactive? When they have day camps for them?

Why do you want to go to 4 exhibition games? The NFL has been warning their players to prep for a work stoppage for 2 years and the union is holding back bonuses to hold guys over for it…a significant part of that is going to an 18 game season with 2 exhibition games…why…$$$$ and a lot more of it. Don’t get me wrong…I understand it would polish the game more out of the gates…but so would extending practice times to what they were pre-last CBA.

CFL Week, as you propose, is an excellent idea. It might even culminate with an onfield exhibition of the players’ talents. Called the “All Star Game.”

Four exhibition games togive coaches more opportunity to evaluate personnel, and to give each player the chance to demonstrate his ability. How many great players have left the CFL after getting a quarter of playing time in the pre-season? Especially with quarterbacks. Another thread discusses the weak development of quarterbacks in Canada. Four exhibition games will allow the quarterbacks more time to practice against live opposition.

We need to stop believing that the product is only good if it sells on television. The product will be better if the teams are provided more time in the pre-season to evaluate talent. Two pre-season games are insufficient. And anyone who claims that pre-season football is anything but heightened practice is wrong. The pre-season is for evaluation.

Is the CFL so poor it can’t afford cutting two regular season games off the television slate, in the interest of improving the product?

Quarterbacks need time, right? Provide it in the pre-season, when mistakes hurt less.

No divisions, No Conferences, the CFL should have all the teams on a single table.
The schedule should be balanced.

How about a third pre season game.

Maybe have 8 teams in the playoffs.
1st vs 8th, 2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th, 4th vs 5th.
Reseed after every round. No byes.

But will the CFL and CFLPA agree to eliminate two games?