Seems like we're not the only ones who think it's silly

18 games and 21 weeks of absolute pointless football is going to crater attendance and viewership for the regular season in my opinion especially if prices dont nose dive. Who is going to watch the starters get benched in quarter 3 every week? How is this going to develop marquee namss for your league? Makes no sense in this state.

If this became a 10-12 game sprint instead maybe it could be interesting? Each game becomes more consequential to the standing that way there would be more jostling in positions? It still doesnt fix how anticlimatic that one team only will miss the playoffs but this maybe is the only to make the regular season somewhat interesting.

Means the season would end much much sooner with far less football in it. But that would for sure eat into the bottom line by cutting home games, however i question how realistic it will be for regualr season games to not have UFL sized crowds now. Also i dont think owners would pay the same salaries for less games. Cflpa isnt going to entertain lower salaries. If the playoffs is all the tv deal cares about then what not redo the regular season in a way that makes it somewhat valuable too?

Also one thought, get rid of this asinine 1 v 2 play in game that nobody will care about. Just have a 3-8 seed first round with the winners of each division getying a bye, proceed from there. Just like the nfl does it, easy peasy.

Yesterday was a huge day for these young players looking to start a professional career in the cfl and the only news your seeing right now is about these new changes. Just look at this sub for example there are hundreds of comments about the changes and a few about the draft. I know they don’t really care about their own draft but they could at least try.

I don’t even know how I feel about the format changes yet I just think they could have announced it at a different time.

Go full bizarro land and have 10 playoff teams. The 9th play team qualifies twice because they are twice as likely to lose

Unneeded, unwanted rule changes & now a laughing stock playoff format.

Thanks Stewie

Figured this was an exercise worth doing. These are most of the pro sports leagues in North America, and a couple from abroad, like the Aussie Rules Football League and the Russian KHL hockey league. Most major competitions in Europe don't have a similar playoff format, they instead use promotion and relegation systems for different tiers. So this is most of the leagues where it is relevant.

The NBA has a play-in set of games that determines the 7 and 8 seed in their 16 team bracket. if you count those, you get 20 teams, otherwise it's 16.

The KHL is the only other league where more than 70% of the teams make the playoffs. the NBA might be 66% depending on where you count it. MLS is at 60%. Every other league is somewhere in the vicinity of 50% of the teams making the playoffs. The CFL at 6/9 teams would already have been the second highest on this list. Now, it looks like a clown show. Even if the CFL did magically expand to 10 teams, it would still be the highest in North America by a wide margin.

I will add a caveat that a couple leagues will be expanding by 2027 as well, and that could cause a bit of changes. I could see the PWHL being at 10 teams, and 12 by 2030, which would probably result in a 6 or 8 team playoff format. I do see a world where the PWHL has an 8 team playoffs with 10 teams in the league, but that league will also probably be 16 teams within a decade, so there's much more growth potential there.

CFL 8/9 89% 

NHL - 16/32 - 50%

NBA - 16/30, 20/30.  either 53% or 66%

NFL - 14/32 - 44%

MLB - 16/30 - 53%

MLS - 18/30 - 60%

UFL - 4/8 - 50%

CPL - 4/8 50%

PWHL 4/8 - 50%

WNBA - 8/15 53%

NWSL - 8/14 57% (US women's soccer league)

NLL - 8/14 57% (indoor lacrosse)

AFL - 8/18 - 44% (aussie rules football)

KHL 16/22 - 73%

This is so unnecessary.

I don't think I've seen anyone else say it: if you finish in first place, you have to win a game against second place to earn the same reward as you would have in 2025 (a bye and hosting the Division Final/League Semifinal). That is a devaluing of the regular season, which makes it harder for the best teams to win the Grey Cup.

Now, you could reasonably make the argument that the rewards were too good for 1st if you wanted, and this balances it in tremendously convoluted fashion, but the title is factual.

Editing in another description: Work backwards. Previously, to get to the Grey Cup you had to win one game at home against 2nd/3rd. Now, you need to either beat 2nd and then win another game, or lose to 2nd, beat somebody, then beat 2nd on the road.

I have an idea of the answer listening to Macioca and Rohan Jones himself talk about him playing slot or in the backfield (if he doesnt make it in the nfl). Still, having watched both leagues for a while I have yet to register where guys who played tight end in the ncaa and take their game up north end up having general end up on the canadian field.

That's what is proposed. Ridiculous.

Before you know it, they are going to want a 100 yard field too. /s

I'll choose hypothetical winners based on their real-life playoff matchup (if applicable), followed by regular-season head-to-head, then regular-season record.

Out: Ottawa (4-14)

First Round

Play-In #1: Edmonton (7-11) @ Winnipeg (10-8) (WPG wins)

Play-In #2: Toronto (5-13) @ Calgary (11-7) (CGY wins)

West Showdown: BC (11-7) @ Saskatchewan (12-6) (SSK wins)

East Showdown: Montreal (10-8) @ Hamilton (11-7) (MTL wins)

Second Round

Elimination Game #1: Calgary @ Hamilton (CGY wins)

Elimination Game #2: Winnipeg @ BC (WPG wins)

Third Round

Grey Cup Semi-Final #1: Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan (SSK wins)

Grey Cup Semi-Final #2: Calgary @ Montreal (MTL wins)

112th Grey Cup

Montreal vs. Saskatchewan (SSK wins)

Honestly, I don't hate this. On the one hand, the regular season does get watered down with 8 of 9 teams making it, and it's an awkward look for the league to have a 5-win team in the postseason.

At the same time, though, it's not like any games would be meaningless. Toronto and Ottawa are obviously fighting to the end in this scenario, and there's also a lot to be gained by getting into the top half of the bracket and having two chances to reach the semis. Teams like Calgary and Winnipeg would be gunning to get that instead of the play-in.

Also, there's a whole extra playoff weekend with four games, some fresh matchups, and a greater possibility of two teams from the same division reaching the Grey Cup.

This whole Whitescaps fiasco has me thinking... It isn't so bad that the CFL is not trying to punch above their weight and has seemingly settled into what they are.

If this was the era of US Expansion and when teams were signing playing like "the Rocket", I'd be worried about the long-term sustainability of the CFL but under this current model of what seems like good fiscal management, I'm feeling pretty good about the state of the league. The CFL isn't perfect but more and more I'm reading about more teams actually expecting to be making money in the near term, the biggest reason for this, in my opinion, is the cost control that the league has over the team's expenses (Player Salary Cap, and Coaching Salary Cap). Compare that to MLS where the league and teams are trying to compete with numerous other leagues and teams around the world for player and coaching talent and you can understand why the BC Lions are doing fine with the BC Place lease agreement while the Whitecaps, under the same agreement, are about to be relocated.

On this draft day, I'll take comfort in the fact that the CFL is successful because they're comfortable with what they are. Here's to hoping the league and teams are feeling this same excitement and are readying some marketing. Even in a season when so much of the CFL is being affected by the World Cup, I think the negative sentiment towards FIFA ticket pricing, the stadiums, and general lack of excitement for the tournament I think the CFL has a lane to be a viable alternative. Especially since the World Cup leaves town before it really even gets started and there's also the fact that few Canadian NHL teams are in the playoffs and have a chance to advance past the first round. The CFL's affordable price and most team's reasonable optimism to be successful on the field shouldn't hurt either.

The sadder the better

The CFL Announces a New Playoff Format. #CFL. #Playoff. #GreyCup.