As a lifelong fan of the NFL and American college football here in the States, I’ve always had the potential to indeed be a CFL fan. What has PREVENTED this ‘potential’, however, from ever being fulfilled is the simple fact that there are only…EIGHT teams in the entire league but even WORSE…SIX of those eight teams MAKING THE PLAYOFFS (and sometimes a below-500 team actually MAKING IT TO and even WINNING the Grey Cup); ridiculous!! Knowing and respecting that football as I know it did indeed originate in Canada and not the US, I certainly hope that the CFL will never die out. I’m SO against even the THOUGHT of, say, the Buffalo Bills moving to TORONTO and the domino-effect it would indeed have on the collapse of the entire CFL. I’m also against CFL expansion into the States as well (such as that lame short-lived expansion in the mid-90s - keep both leagues in their respective countries). All that said, the only way that I can ever become a serious fan of the CFL, or care for its survival, is if the darn league can simply EXPAND to at least TEN teams and LESS THAN HALF those teams being able to make the post-season! No, it wouldn’t get me into it as much as American ball being that I grew up with it, but it would definitely stand crystal clear in the NFL & NCAA’s rear-view mirror every late-summer/early autumn. As for keeping the season at 18 regular season games, and keeping the post-season at 3 rounds (division semis, division championships, Grey Cup), FOURTEEN teams would be needed! Seven teams in the West, seven teams in the East, each one playing each other in their division twice (that’s 12 games) and playing 6 of the 7 teams from the OTHER division just once (the 1st place teams from the year before not playing the last place teams, the 2s not playing against the 6s, no 3s vs 5s, and of course no 4s vs 4s). Now THAT, to me, would make for what I’D call CFL Perfection and a shoe-in to me being a bigtime fan! As for what cities should be ADDED on to this 14-team format? Here’s what I think would be the most-likely, make the most sense…
WEST: British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg (in the West where it belongs), and…LONDON & WINDSOR (yes, both on the other side of the Lakes but pretty much an instant-rivarly with the latter’s fan-base perhaps getting help from ‘you-know-who’ across the river)
EAST: Toronto, MISSISSAUGA (hey, it’s growin more and more and would pretty much be to the ‘Big Bad’ Argos what, say, the Brooklyn Dodgers were to the Yankees back in the day), Hamilton, Montreal, QUEBEC CITY, OTTAWA, and HALIFAX (or, perhaps, the ‘Atlantic Schooners’)
GO CFL EXPANSION!! This American is WAITING to be a FAN!!