Scheduling...who'd a figured?

Ottawa and Hamilton, last two regular season games vs. one another. At first look early on, couldn't figure why the schedule was set up that way that two eastern teams didn't meet till November. My thinking was that it would be a nice break for the 'Cats before the playoffs. A chance to maybe rest some players and take care of the little nicks and cuts that come up during the season.
But now it appears to have the makings of the most exciting, dramatic, two weeks of not only this season but of any season in 'Cats recent history.
I for one can't wait to get it started. Burris is on fire and their running game seems to be clicking as well. Hopefully the long week between games will help get us back on track.
I'm hopeful.
OSKEE!! :thup:

An interesting scenario:
And, it’s one that I think could quite likely occur. The Tiger-Cats could have first place wrapped up before playing that final game in Ottawa. If TOR wins both of their remaining games – vs. BC & WPG, both @ TOR – and, HAM wins the first game against OTT, by any score, the Cats would know they have first place wrapped up before going to bed in their Ottawa hotel rooms on Friday night, Nov. 6th. If they won the second game, the following day, over OTT, they’d finish alone in 1st with a 12-6 record, TOR (11-7) would be alone in 2nd, and OTT (10-8) 3rd. If they lost the second game, regardless of the score, all three teams would finish tied with identical 11-7 records and, in that case, the tie-breaking rules would result in the same order of finish.

If TOR doesn’t win both of their remaining games, then 1st place goes to HAM or OTT, whichever of the two wins, at least, one of the their two games against each other, in addition to winning the two-game total points battle. That is unless one of the teams wins both of the games which, of course, would also give them 1st place.

Now that’s a lot what if’s :lol:

I think a lot of people saw this coming. We knew Ottawa was going to be improved this year, at least enough to make these last 2 games important. Thats why a lot of us booked the trip to Ottawa for the final game. It's gonna be epic!

Well done ottawacat as usual! :thup:

I think the Arblows are capable of beating both BC and WPG, especially with both Harris and Ricky Ray at QB
Both games are very winnable for the Blew Team

BC is fighting for its playoff life and Jennings has the ability to torch that awful Toronto secondary. I think Toronto will have its hands full with BC.

I agree it is a lot to expect from a horrible Casey Creehan defence

BUT, ON THE OTHER HAND!!!

Matthew Scianitti ?@TSNScianitti 2m2 minutes ago
#CFL sources say #Argos to announce Ricky Ray will make first start of 2015 this week against #BCLions

One downside to all this is that if the Ticats and Arghos win this week, I'll have to cheer for the [gulp] Arghos in their final game to guarantee us getting first place.

Not sure I can bring myself to do that. :expressionless:

Not really. It’s just TOR winning 2 games at home and HAM winning 1 game at home.
My extra “ifs” were just to explain the hows and whys and ways those 3 games ending that way would give HAM 1st place.

Drew does a great job of explaining it all here. [url]http://3downnation.com/2015/10/25/lucky-7-the-east-division-playoff-scenarios/[/url]

I personally think scenario 3 is the most likely to happen.

Matthew Scianitti ?@TSNScianitti 17m17 minutes ago
Milanovich confirms Ray’s start & says after repeated unacceptable behaviour on the sidelines, Gurley will not play vs #BClions

Gurley with his panties in a knot! :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s still stupid scheduling.

I agree it can be exciting, but only if the Cats come ready to play. We know Ottawa will.

Harris agent made Milanovich’s decision very easy. They showed Harris on the sideline he was pissed. Expect Harris to leave town the minute free agency hits. Argos better hope Ricky still has an arm and is willing to re-up in Toronto :o

Its been 3 years now and might continue if Saskatchewan’s stadium has issues (its looking good right now) but you never know…

Edmonton has a bye in the last week of the season. That means if they win their division. They get to rest their players from November 1st to November 22nd. How’s that for a monster advantage ?

Toronto was planned not to travel from October 12th to a possible November 22nd ! Rogers kind of leveled the playing field in the East.

Then you have the B2B between Ottawa and Hamilton while the other two eastern teams play at home against two teams that are likely eliminated. If your going to have B2B games do it for everybody.

With Copeland and Cohon gone, the league office is again in the hands of Braley and his two lieutenants.

For those more visually oriented...

The one thing that no one has mentioned is what happen if the Ticats and Redblacks split the games but end up even on total points. In that case, the Ticats get first place, as it goes to record within the division, and the Ticats would have one more win than the Redblacks.

I like your visual aid chart, CFiO. One thing, though, in the case where TOR wins both of their games and HAM/OTT split, it wouldn't be the "higher total points in the split games" that would determine the order of finish in the standings. The 3 teams would be tied, with identical 11-7 records, and the tie-breaker, in that case, is "higher percentage of wins in games played among the tied teams" -- HAM .800, TOR .500, OTT 200.

When two or more member Clubs are tied in the final Division standings at the conclusion of the regular season schedule, preferential ranking for playoff purposes shall be determined on the basis of the following descending-order priorities and shall be awarded to the Club that:

has won the greater number of games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has the higher winning percentage in all games played against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points (i.e. points scored for less points scored against) in all games played     against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has scored the higher net quotient of points (i.e. points scored for divided by points scored against) in all games played against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has the higher winning percentage in all games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points in games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher quotient of points in games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points in games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has scored the higher net quotient of points in games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has won a coin toss against the other tied Club.

Note: If two Clubs remain tied after other Club(s) are eliminated during any step, tie breaker reverts to step a).

The two boxes for those scenarios have identical outcomes because of that. I could have merged the two boxes, I suppose, to show that.

So if we split the games with Ottawa it comes down to aggregate points from the 2 games!

Unless the Arghos win both games and we end up in a three-way tie, in which case we get first on our record among the three teams.