I read this and it didn't sober me up one bit. I think if you were to go through the history of the league, you would find that very few teams in general have gone on to win the Grey Cup while playing exclusively on the road (3rd or 4th place), crossover or not.
I would look it up but I have no need or desire for sobering. :cowboy:
At least you’ve toned it down slightly from a couple of weeks ago, when you were saying the west cross-over team would walk through the playoffs without breaking a sweat.
As we all know, success in November is driven by what you did in July & August, not the momentum you built up in September & October.
Although there are no sure things, I think that this season 4th place in the West is a more advantageous position than 3rd.
First, in all likelihood if you finish 3rd you will avoid playing on the road against Calgary and Edmonton (assuming they finish 1 & 2 in the West) with both teams relatively rested, both enjoying a bye in the later part of the season and possibly have 1 & 2 locked up by Sunday. The East teams have no byes left except for 1st and every game is a must game. The East finishes the season with all games being must games if the teams want a home playoff game or indeed a playoff game.
Bottom line is despite the recent resurgence in the East, whoever ends up in 1 & 2 in the will be beat up, there are no days off.
Dcmoses, I don’t think the stat I used was any more misleading than your explanation for why the western cross over team never succeeded in advancing to the Grey Cup in 7 attempts. Namely because in all but one of those years the western cross over team was met by teams with superior win/loss records.
As I mentioned you raised a valid point showing why the western cross over team may not have been able to get past the two top eastern teams in the 7 past cross overs which was because in most of those seasons the eastern teams had better records. In some of those years the eastern teams finished with win/losses records not much better than the western cross over team so in my opinion the teams were relatively evenly matched. I don’t know if I would buy into the idea that the reason the eastern teams kept the western cross over team from getting to the Grey Cup was because the eastern teams were “superior” is what I’m saying.
I posted what I posted for entertainment value more than anything else and for CFL fans to have a little fun with the stats.
Though the western cross over team may indeed finish the season with a better win/loss record than either the 1st or 2nd place eastern teams it will likely be because the eastern teams got off to such a dismal start this year. That has all changed. It would have been interesting to see what the standings would have looked like had the season gone 25 game instead of 18.
Nevertheless, I believe an eastern team finishing off the season with one or two fewer wins than a western cross over team has a very good chance of taking out the western team…. especially given the way the eastern teams have been playing the second half of the season.
But to put things into perspective and not put too much value on historical references [for as we know stats can be skewed] I’m not holding my breath that either B.C. or SSK will get into the Grey Cup unless the unforeseen happens. SSK has QB problems. The Lions’ Offence has been gutted. I don’t know if either of these teams can recover. The Lions played very well against Ottawa last week with several starters out of the line up. But that was against Ottawa. Montreal showed last week what it can do against a team that is relying on its second string QB. Montreal destroyed SSK.
I believe the eastern teams vying for a playoff position are in a better position to advance to the Grey Cup than either of the cross over candidates. Barring injuries I cannot see this changing.
I for one am glad to see it because I’ve always been an advocate of parity across the CFL. I would like to see both Grey Cup qualifiers be formidable opponents so the fans get their entertainment value.
Right now it appears Calgary is the team to beat. If Calgary does make it into the Grey Cup I don’t want to see a lopsided score or a result leaving the fans accusing the other team of not showing up.
I could see the Western crossover team winning the ESF but not both games.
Winning both games on the road is a difficult proposition, cross-over or not. I am not suggesting the cross-over team will win. I am just saying that 4th in the West is better than 3rd in the West. Both play on the road and 4th avoids Alberta (acknowleging that Edmonton could still finish 3rd or 4th, doubtful but possible).
If it is BC or Saskatchewan with a playoff QB they won’t break a sweat. :cowboy:
What has historically been difficult is winning the Grey Cup from third or the crossover. However, winning two road games to make the Grey Cup, while not easy, has been less of a challenge.
94 lions being that absolute best example :rockin:
A crossover team would have to win two games on the road and would have to travel twice across at least two time zones. IMO that is an incredibly steep hurdle for any team to overcome, regardless of win-loss records. It's one reason no western crossover team has ever made it to the Grey Cup, despite seven opportunities in the past.
By that logic Winnipeg has no chance of ever coming out of the west unless they get at least one home date because twice traveling across the dreaded time zones is too much. Ooooooohhhhh, scary kids. Time zones, ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh! :lol:
The west regularly travels across time zones all season and playoffs and it hasn’t stopped them from winning 10 of the last 16 Grey Cups. Only a brain dead organization like, oh say TORONTO, would travel twice rather than just spend the week between games in that time zone. And the reason the crossover has had trouble is, as I already posted, they had to play teams on the road with better records.
never understood the issue people have with crossing time zones. In all my travels I barely noticed the difference.
One time I left on a plane at midnight in Vancouver, stayed awake the whole time, arrived in Toronto at 7 am Toronto time, stayed up all day with no problem and went to bed at normal Toronto time. no big deal.
