It had more purpose in a 9 team league but the best teams should still qualify, no matter what division they are in.
Again , I disagree. Go to the standings and look up the year 1981 for the final standings. The Als made the playoffs that year with 3 wins! The only reason they made the playoffs is because the team below them, Toronto, only had 2! The three teams that made the playoffs in the east had 10 wins between them, only one more than the Riders total! Minimun amount of wins is exactly the reason why the crossover eventually was adopted. A team that wins only 3 of its 16 games and makes the playoffs made this league look extremely bush in a lot of people’s eyes, no wonder the CFL lost a generation of fans!
I REAL FAN would never say “I don’t wanna play My division rivals 4 times!”
PLEASE. do you honestly have any idea what the CFL Fans really think?
they love seeing Edmonton play Sask or Calgary 4 times in a season! it’s awesome!
so dont’ try and tell us that fans don’t like that, cause that’s B.S.
and we aren’t jerks… we’re the majority who think you’re out to lunch!
3 teams that made the playoffs in the east had 10 wins?
you means exluding the first place team. but it is true 1981 is a perfect example of why the cross-over exists. Should a division be so dominated by the other division a cross-over should be allowed.
Haha, Funny keep the Whiners happy and the team that gets helped by the Cross over is the Riders.
2002 the Riders Crossed to the east?
BC in 2003
Riders in 2005
97' BC
In the 80's there were many times the West should have had cross over teams, but the rule was not in place yet.
The west(with Winnipeg) has always been historicly stronger as a whole then the east. It's un-fair when the team reverts to 9 or 10 teams to not allow the 6th best team, likely in the West to not get into the playoffs... although it looks like going by the leagues history the playoffs will switch to 8 of 10 teams in the playoffs. lol.
Winnipeg, Edmonton + 2 of Calgary, Sask and BCL are always top teams.
Hamilton is the only eastern team truly consistent in being a top team(up until the 2000's)
All-time:(not sure if this counts past few years, until atleast 2001)
Bombers - 501-458-12
Esks - 567-379-18
Stamps - 470-450-18
Riders - 437-483-23
Lions - 407-443-23
Argos - 412-485-15
Ti-cats - 435-443-18
Als - 363-368-21
Ottawa - 378-449-13
the 4 most winningest CFL teams of all-time are in the traditional western teams(Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary, Riders)
**to note, that the 4th and 5th best all-time Winning %'s are owned by eastern teams Montreal and Hamilton.
Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary dominate the CFL.
No, in 1981, the 3 teams that were 2nd , 3rd and last in the east had 10 wins between them.
My point is that it does not guarantee that the team that makes the playoffs wins a minimum of 33% of their games…The 3rd place team in the east could win 3 and the 4th place team in the west could cross over with 4 wins. That is not 1/3 wins is it.
The problems is that the schedule is not balanced.
Let say that BC has a great year and finishes 16-2.
Now SSK finishes 3rd at 7-12. Do you think its right that Mtl should crossover because they finish 8-10?
Keep in mind that SSK had to play BC 4 times this season but Montreal plays them only twice. Do you really think that they deserve to bump out SSK?
As for it making the league look bush, Stronger team miss the playoffs while weaker team make them in every sport.
It happens in the NFL,NHL,NBA and MLB and you dont hear them whining about it!
You are in one division and you have to live with it.
Would those other leagues would change the sytem if they found a team that a team that had less than a .200 winning percentage was making the playoffs over a team whose winning % was above .500?
MLB did make that change somewhat, you still get rewarded for winning your division, with a wild-card. Usually some of the wild card teams have better records than some division winners. I would say that if the Als had the better record, they are more deserving than the other team had the poorer record.
In your example,8-7 wins is close ,but in my example, the Riders had 9 wins, the Als 3. Riders won 3 times as many games but were eliminated because they were in the tougher division. Maybe they should make it 2 division winners get byes, with the next 4 with the best records , regardless of division, make the playoffs.
1 division, 8 teams, 6 playoff teams, simple and can be executed to perfection.
But the fact remains that it happens in every sport!
Last year
Colorado had 95 points and missed the playoffs while the rangers Tampa bay and Islanders had 94-93-92 points and made the playoffs
In Baseball Philly missed the playoffs at 85-77 while St Louis made them at 83-78
Toronto, Detroit Chicago and Anahiem also missed the playoffs with better records.
If you are going to have 2 divisons then each division should be seperate from the other when it comes to playoffs
That’s what it is now.
one division, top two seeds get byes, teams 2-4 battle in wild card round, then you get the final four, then yuo get the grey cup, then you get canada bowl all-star game played at rogers centre.
It’s 3-6, not 2-4. Nobody takes you seriously when you get the numbers wrong and mispell “you.”