I don't get it. 4 teams in the East and 4 teams in the West, why do we need a crossover. I could understand if there were still 5 teams in the West, but there is not. The C.F.L. needs to change that format for this season. There is still plenty of time in the season for teams like Edmonton, Toronto and Hamilton who are teams with poor records to start fighting for the 3rd playoff spot in their respective divisions. Does anyone want to see all 4 West teams and only 2 East teams or the reverse 4 East and 2 West in the playoffs? If you count Winnepeg it could potentionally be 5 West teams and 1 East (Montreal). This type of thing makes the C.F.L. look like a joke. If they are going to do that, than why not have 1 division with all 8 teams. Wake up C.F.L. and lets get it right.
oh come on, why should a 4-14 team make it to the playoffs while a 8-10 team does not.
want to see the best 6 teams in playoffs if hamilton/toronto finishes 4th with a 9 and 9 record why would you want a team from the west make it with only 6 or 7 wins all the other leagues have wild card teams make the playoffs with the best records
I do think the rule should be amended so that to crossover, you must have at least 4 pts more than the opposite 3rd place team.
I want to see the best six teams in the playoffs it makes it more interesting. But if we are going to just have the best six teams in the playoffs then why not just have one divison. Also some have said would you rather have a 4-14 team make it instaed of an 8- 10. Well doesnt this happen in all sports like baseball/basketball/hockey. Like when the bluejays come in 3rd in the american league east with so many points but do not get into the playoffs because they have the Yankees and Red Soxs in their division. But some other team from a different division makes the playoffs because there are weaker teams in their divison
I lived out West when the Cats would some years make the playoffs and a Western team would have a better record in fourth place and out of the playoffs.
There was alot of anger out West when that happened .
People would be quite outspoken about it.
So it's only fair to do it correct with the crossover.
You have to earn a playoff spot now.
Here's some Cats' playoff history -- with fourth-placed West teams indicated (all those teams did not qualify for the playoffs):
1975 5-10-1 << made playoffs -- Calgary was 6-10
1978 5-10-1 << made playoffs -- BC was 7-7-2
1979 6-10 << made playoffs -- Wiinipeg was 4-12 (even worse)
1983 5-10-1 <<made playoffs, lost East final -- Calgary was 8-8!
1984 6-9-1 <<< made playoffs, lost Grey Cup -- Saskatchewan was also 6-9-1, no biggie
1987 7-11, made playoffs -- Sakatchewan was 5-12-1 (even worse)
1993 6-12, made playoffs, lost East final -- BC WAS 10-8!!!
Many reasons right there. How we had any business being in the East final in 1993 winning a third of our games is a mystery to me.
Oski Wee Wee,
I don't like the cross over.
If both teams played against the same opponents an equal amount of times... fine.
But if you play in a weak division and get to beat up on the worst team in the league time after time you're bound to build up some points.
As long as there are equal amounts of teams in each division I think there should not be a crossover.
Imagine one year Halifax wins the West Division Title? That would be dumb. (if and when Halifax comes into the league)
In an eight-team league, the best six teams that get their business done on the field should make the playoffs, period. With an East-West format and an unbalanced schedule, the crossover helps ensure that.
The "everybody in one division" crowd will have their beefs, but that is another thread as to how we a) cut two home gates and have a 14-game balanced season to be "all fair" or b) expand the season to a tidy 28-game death march to make things balanced that way.
Ottawa, Halifax, etc. would obviously add to the possibility of one national division (10 teams, 18-game balanced schedule). For that, you need 10 teams and a lot more travel miles across the league (esp. re Halifax).
Oski Wee Wee,
I hate the crossover and always will!
The schedule is so unbalanced that having 1 more win in the other division does not mean they are a better team.
Even though Winnipeg is have a great year this year lets use them as a example.
Lets say WPG were to finish 7-11 and Edm finished 8-10. Can you honestly say that Edmonton is a better team because they had one more win than Wpg? They only played Montreal twice while Wpg played them 4 times?????? 6 if you count the preseason which allows them to find weaknesses......NO WAY!
Having a better record and not making the playoffs is something that happens in the NHL, NFL, MBL and NBL but you never hear complaining there. The only place you hear complaints is from the west in the CFL.
I say if you are in one division and you didn't make the playoffs in that division.....suck it up and try harder next year!!!
That being said, you would cheat the second-place team in one division out of a playoff home gate. Not going to happen.
As long as we are rewarding divsion winners bye weeks -- which we should -- then you need a six-team playoff system. Reducing it to four will never happen because of CFL economics and TV revenue concerns. Four teams will have home gates in the playoffs for the foreseeable future. This is a gate-driven league. Whine all you want.
Oski Wee Wee,
I would expect Halifax would come in after Ottawa (Mach 3), given the fact there is no CFL-ready stadium there. By then a 10-team league could adopt a balanced 18-game schedule and have 3 teams from each divison make it with no crossover. 
Oski Wee Wee,
BTW: I will simply be cutting and pasting my entries here in any subsequent crossover threads. It gets monotonous trying to indicate weekly that the BOG is king and their little set-up here IS the set-up for the foreseeable future.
Oski Wee Wee,
The crossover also means that Hamilton and toronto could technically meet in the Grey Cup in any given year. That would seriously kick arse.
I've never been a fan of the cross-over simply because of the great east-west rivalry of the Grey Cup.
Huge numbers of non-football fans tune in to the Grey Cup, making it one of, if not "the", biggest sporting event in Canada each year. They do so simply to cheer for either the East or the West.
All of those fans are disappointed, and the nationally important nature of the annual Grey Cup game is put at risk, when (as happened in 2001) Winnipeg plays Calgary, in Montreal for the Grey Cup.
The fans in Montreal who bought tickets months earlier to be part of a national celebration felt a little cheated.
But thats just my $0.02.
Think about the Toronto Blue Jays, right now there are divisions that they would be first in, yet they are out of the playoff race in their own… is it fair? no. Is it sports? yep.
The reason we were in the east final was that we beat the 4 - 14 Ottawa Renegades at home in the East Semi - Final - so even if the current crossover rules were in place, we still would have made the playoffs, and hosted BC instead. Not coincidentally, Crossovers were introduced the next year. The REAL mystery is how we ended up a field goal short of the Grey Cup in 1993!
When I think of ways to IMPROVE the CFL image and change people’s (read American football fan)PERCEPTION of the league … the FIRST change I ALWAYS propose is the SCRAPPING of the artificial, antiquated, arbitrary, and absolutely unnecessary EAST WEST Division of the league.
Then, when I read a post such as the ‘caretaker’s’ - a member of the BoG, no less - IN SUPPORT of a facet of the league which I deem the single biggest IMPEDIMENT to GROWTH (read new American football fanbase) - I throw up my hands in FRUSTRATION and resign myself to ACCEPTING that the CFL will ALWYS REMAIN the backwater, ‘bush’ league it is … complete with IDIOSYNCRATIC scheduling, unbalanced divisions and ARTIFICIAL DRAMA.
The only words, worth repeating from a politicians mouth I have ever heard were from an NDP candidate for the National leadership, he said … “If you want DIFFERENT RESULTS then you have to do things DIFFERENTLY.”
As long as the SAME OLD SAME OLD is done around this league … NOTHING will change !
Peace.
I do think that age-old traditions in Canada and the CFL are ripe for challenging, it is a different world today and the younger people do think differently. For example, check out my thread here on Sportsnet about American based teams being able to quality for a great Canadian hockey trophy, the Memorial Cup. People appear not to care less where teams are based any more and if an American city can win this trophy.
[url=http://forums.sportsnet.ca/thread.jspa?threadID=120049&tstart=0]http://forums.sportsnet.ca/thread.jspa? ... 9&tstart=0[/url]I personally don't care about the east-west thing any more and I'm not sure a lot of other people in Canada do even if polls suggest otherwise.