If the league expands to nine teams, would you be in favor of three divisions (east, central, west) with 3 wildcard teams joining the division winners in the playoffs?
Should the league expand beyond eight teams? With eight teams, each of the eight teams has options for moving to a major Canadian city if their current city's support begins to dip. With nine teams, there's nowhere to move and the cities would always hold all of the cards, correct? As of right now, Hamilton can move to Ottawa but where else? Nova Scotia? I'm thinking the league should always have 2 major Canadian cities deliberately without CFL football so their existing eight teams can move if things sour-out.
There are a gazillion expansion threads however the topic never gets old lol - I think your questions are in a sense putting the cart before the horse. First you need to establish cities where a CFL team could thrive.
To complicate the issue is new stadiums/major renos already started or being finalized for BC - Sask - MN for starters. Add in the issue with Hamilton and you can see that although there are cities that could support a CFL team, how long till they threaten to move or shut down without a new stadium?
For example I could see smaller stadiums selling out in places like Kamloops , Victoria - Saskatoon. However how long till they start making threats if they don't get major stadiums at tax payers expense? That alone could see cities working at snail paces to ensure they don't have a team. If on the other hand they are willing to survive within 20 - 30K outdoor stadiums then not only would they thrive but then we could have the discussion regarding divisional placement and playoff procedure.
The CFL will be lucky to get to 10 teams anything beyond that is nonsense ! Why 3 team Divisions ? 5 and 4 like it was before. Winnipeg moves back to the West ! 3 team divisions , doesn't work for numerous reasons, making a balanced schedule would be tough ! Not enough variety in a 3 team division ! Get quite boring !
The ultimate for the CFL would be two 5 team divisions ! If we get to 12 teams in 20 or 30 years, that's fine too !
A ten team league does not need to be divided. The only purpose the division serves is to award more accolades throughout the season and at its end. It will remain in place in favour of the player's association.
You know what, people will complain about this.
Personally I like the idea of East vs West, but you’re 100% correct. What’s the point of having divisions?
It has no bearing on playoffs (see crossover) and teams pretty much play each other the same number of times.
When Ottawa comes back, the schedule will be make it so that Eastern teams will play more games outside the division than within it. Now does that make any sense?
If you play 8 teams home and away for 16 games and than 2 “rivalry games” for a total of 18 games, wouldn’t that make more sense?
It seems to me the whole thing is very redundant the way the CFL does it. The only reason we have divisions is for nostalgic purposes.
It has been a two division league for 80 years and it’s part of the history of the CFL and what makes it Canadiana, East vs WEST ! Don’t think there was much input from the players association 80 years ago !
The teams do not play eachother the same number of times ! You play one team in your division 4 times and the other two teams, 3 times ! Then you play the other division 2 times each .So it’s not the same ! The crossover elimanates a 4 14 team from making the playoffs !
'East' doesn't play 'West' throughout the season. It's one city's franchise playing another city's franchise. There doesn't have to be an Eastern and Western champion or East vs. West match up in the final.
All the same, that doesn’t change the fact we’ll have a team playing 8 games against it’s division and 10 games against the other division…and supposedly still considered “divisions”.
Especially now with the crossover, there’s a possibility that two team from the same division face off in the Grey Cup.
So really, it’s not East versus West all the time (I know, it’s never happened yet)
The second we eliminate the Divisions and make it just 8/9 teams in one Division is the second we make the CFL REALLY look like a bush leauge, every leauge big and small has divisions hell my bantam football league has divisions!!! When Ottawa comes back this is what the Divisions will look like...
West
B.C.
Calgary
Edmonton
Saskatchewan
Winnipeg
East
Hamilton(Or wearever they go)
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Remember, the CFL was born from a union of two separate leagues....one in the east, and one in the west. That's the historical basis for the divisions.
When Ottawa comes on board, that will be nine teams. That is an uneven number of teams. When you schedule that, I presume that one team will just have to sit out each week, right? With every team trying to get in 18 games and every team taking at least two bye weeks because of scheduling an odd number of teams, that is going to make the season a little bit longer. Still, I don’t see it being a big problem.
