I hate them. Makes you feel like you're stuck in a time loop, and it is beyond ridiculous that Edmonton and Sask can potentially play each other three consecutive times if Edmonton winds up making the playoffs.
Actually, I like the occasional home-and-home, especially between traditional rivals. I think the Labour Day Classics should all be part of home-and-home series. But yes, it can be overdone, especially at the end of the season. I'd rather see the last three games of the year be one against each of the other teams in the same division, making each one a "four-point" game with real potential for affecting the standings head-to-head.
And I'm definitely not in favour of the home-and-home-and-home-and-home like Hamilton had against Winnipeg. Meeting four times in the first five weeks had to be the dumbest scheduling ever. What were they thinking?
How can Edmonton and Saskatchewan play 3 games back to back?
Back in the good old days the western final was best 2 out of 3 games. That was when you had to be a real man to play football, didn't have any girly boys playing back then.
Not a fan of the home & home. Variety is the spice of life. Besides that, its makes the CFL look like it only has 8 teams :oops:
Same with Montreal potentially playing Toronto three games in a row (if the Argos happen to upset Hamilton in the east semifinal).
I like it, builds rivalries and makes for very interesting games.
And look at what happened to Saskatchewan in '67 when they had to play all three. (snicker) They played on the Sunday and the Wednesday, and then had to play Hamilton in the Grey Cup on the Saturday. They were exhausted and bruised, and couldn’t get anything going. Not to take anything away from the Ticats - they were truely beasts that year, especially on defence.
Fixed it for ya.
Personally I like home and home games against division rivals. The second of the two games are always tense and full of emotion. Usually makes for fun games to watch.
Agreed, but it shouldn't happen at the end of the season like this. . .
I have hated home and homes for a long time for 2 reasons
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most of the time, 2 unequal teams will still split the games
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the possibility that when 2 equal teams are playing, one will have injury to a major player for just a few games that will include those two games. When teams play each other and there is one sided significant injury problem, that team should have a chance to recover or adjust team personal before the next game.
Or, as I mentioned before, the home-and-home-and-home-and-home (near enough anyway) that Hamilton and Winnipeg started this season with. That was just plain stupid.
I don’t think it builds rivalries at all. In an eight-team league, rivalries are already built into the fact that you play everyone else so frequently and your division rivals in particular. To me, the home-and-homes are boring. As FootballYouBet said, usually the teams split no matter how unevenly matched they are, the chance for injury is higher, and it just makes other parts of the schedule more repetitive because we don’t have many teams in the league.
And like MadJack noted, home and homes are particularly annoying at the end of the season when it’s quite possible that these same teams will meet in the playoffs. If Toronto beats Hamilton, the Alouettes will have played the Toronto Argonauts three games in a row. That’s just idiotic.
Easy way to fix that, have home and homes early in the year.
So you're in favour of scrapping Labour Day rematches as they're home and homes??? To me, those are the two best weeks of the regular season.
Yup. I can’t stand the Labor Day rematches. Stupid wastes of time as the losing team usually wins. To me, it’s fake parity, and it makes long stretches of the season monotonous. There really should be no reason for home and homes at any time of year. If we were a larger league where you played multiple teams once or twice and only had one home and home with a specific team, I wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t fly in the CFL IMO.
As a Ticat fan, I love the Labour Day Classic home-and-home with the Argos. And when I lived in Calgary, I remember the Stamps fans loved the home-and-home with the Eskies. And there were a lot of 'Rider fans there who loved their back-to-back with the Bombers.
Part of the problem for you might be the lack of a natural (geographical) rival for the Als. Maybe when Ottawa gets its team, or if Quebec City gets a team, and the Als have a natural rival again, you’ll change your mind. Or maybe not. I can understand your objective arguments, but for me, they’re outweighed by the excitement of the rivalry itself.
But I also think they should be limited to one or two pairs of games mid-season. Labour Day works for me.
Love home-and-home games myself, feels like playoffs in sports that play 3 of 5 or best of seven.
The Hamilton-Winnipeg schedule of 4 games in 7 weeks was excessive but only the last two were home and home games. This year at Labour Day there were only two games that had rematches the next game (Calgary/Edmonton and Saskatchewan/Winnipeg).
Home & home series by team (not including pre-season)
BC had one 1 home and home series (against Winnipeg)
Edmonton had 2 (against Calgary and Hamilton)
Calgary had 2 (against Edmonton and Montreal)
Saskatchewan had 2 (against Winnipeg and Toronto)
Winnipeg had 3 (against Hamilton, Saskatchewan and BC)
Hamilton had 3(against Winnipeg, Edmonton and Toronto)
Toronto had 3 (against Hamilton, Montreal and Saskatchewan)
Montreal had 2 (against Calgary and Toronto)
This is more than last season when
BC had 1 (against Montreal)
Edmonton had 2 (against Calgary and Saskatchewan)
Calgary had 1 (against Edmonton)
Saskatchewan had 2 (against Winnipeg and Edmonton)
Winnipeg had 3 (against Toronto, Saskatchewan and Montreal)
Hamilton had 1 (against Toronto)
Toronto had 2 (against Winnipeg and Hamilton)
Montreal had 2 (against BC and Winnipeg)
I like the Labour Day and LD rematch games (hope they go back to all 4 games being rematches next season since there won’t be scheduling issues for Montreal then).
I do think the home and home really does amp up the rivalries. Winnipeg and BC have had back-to-back series two years in a row and the rivalry that’s built up wouldn’t be there without them IMO.
most of the time, 2 unequal teams will split a series where one team is at home in week 3 and one in week 12 as well. it’s home field advantage, it’s the fact that anything can happen on any given day… has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that teams are playing each other twice in a row
the Labour Day games & rematches are awesome. too often it gets repetitive and the league definitely needs to get rid of some… but there’s nothing wrong with the occasional home and home.
True, it was 4 in 7 weeks, not 4 in 5. It just felt like a home-and-… series. The fact that we hadn’t even played Toronto once until we had finished off with Winnipeg was ridiculous.
And the Toronto-Hamilton LDC was the rematch - across the bye week, but still a home-and-home, sort of.