Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym/RFB Sport Photography
The CFL has announced the expansion of its playoff format to eight teams and nine games, including the Grey Cup, with the changes set to take effect in 2027.
Without rehashing the convoluted new postseason structure — the details of which can be found here — it seems a little ridiculous.
For one, having eight teams make the playoffs in a nine-team league is undeniably silly. One might argue that six playoff teams — literally two-thirds of the league — was already too many.
Eight is absurd. The optics are terrible.
Come 2027, a team could theoretically make the playoffs with one just win.
If two clubs were to split a home-and-home during the regular-season and lose the rest of their games, one of them would qualify for the postseason at 1-17.
The chances of this happening are obviously extraordinarily unlikely, but the fact that it’s possible is a damning indictment of the format.
Teams with losing records sometimes make the postseason under the CFL’s current structure, which is far from ideal but not a disaster. It happens in the NFL, too, albeit less frequently.
Since the crossover rule was implemented in 1996, the worst record a CFL playoff team has had is 6-12. This has happened twice: 1999 (Edmonton) and 2023 (Calgary).
Under the league’s new format, there will be 6-12 teams in the playoffs almost every year.
If the new postseason format was in effect in 2025, the Argonauts would have qualified at 5-13, which is borderline unthinkable. No reasonable person who watched all of Toronto’s games last year would have said, “Man, this team deserves a shot at the Grey Cup.”
The names the league has given the new playoff rounds also don’t make much sense.
The second round of the playoffs will now be dubbed the ‘Elimination Games,’ which is odd since rounds one and three also include games in which teams will be eliminated. With the third round of the playoffs now called the ‘Grey Cup Semi-Finals,’ why not call round two the ‘Grey Cup Quarter-Finals’? This would be far more intuitive.
One of the talking points CFL leadership has touted to justify these changes is that seeding is exceptionally important, since home teams have won 80 percent of playoff games since 2021. While this statistic is true, it’s also a sample size of only 20 games.
Between 2000 and 2019, home teams went 50-30 in the playoffs for a winning percentage of 62.5. This is still significantly better than 50 percent, but it’s a far cry from 80 percent.
CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston has cited curling as inspiration for the league’s new playoff format. Events like the Scotties and Brier have pitted top teams against one another in non-elimination playoff games since 1995, a change made to maximize matchups between elite squads.
This concept works well for a sport like curling, which has relatively short tournaments and little to no risk of injury.
Football couldn’t be more different.
The CFL’s regular-season is five months long. The sport also carries a high risk of injury.
By the end of the year, many players are held together will little more than athletic tape and adrenaline. Adding an extra game just seems cruel.
For what it’s worth, the CFL Players’ Association seems thrilled with the concessions it negotiated to agree to the new format. Training camp and playoff pay has increased, practice rosters have been permanently expanded, and each team will have two new fully-paid reserve roster spots, effective immediately.
There’s at least one positive with the new playoff format, which is more inter-division playoff races (or, at least, seeding races, since basically everyone makes the playoffs).
Under the league’s current playoff format, everything is divisional. Two teams might have the same record late in the year, but they’re not necessarily competing for a playoff spot because they’re not in the same division (barring a crossover).
The new format will partially fix this issue, which is great. However, the playoffs would be even more compelling if the league scrapped the divisions entirely.
Under the new format, there’s still no reason for the top team in the West Division and the top team in the East Division to compete for the best record in the league. Their paths to the Grey Cup remain the same whether they’re the overall No. 1 seed or not.
If the league has to add playoff games, why not give the No. 1 seed a bye to the Grey Cup Semi-Finals, then have No. 2 host No. 7, No. 3 host No. 6, and No. 4 host No. 5 in three Grey Cup Quarter-Finals? This would increase round one of the playoffs from two games to three.
Seven is still too many playoff teams, but it’s more palatable than eight — especially if the CFL is going to get to 10 teams by 2030.
If the league wants to generate buzz, they could even borrow a wrinkle from the PWHL: after the Grey Cup Quarter-Finals, the No. 1 seed could choose their opponent for the Grey Cup Semi-Finals. It’d be fun.
It’s clear that adding to the playoffs is all about money. Postseason games draw approximately double the television audience of regular-season games, and the league can charge more money for corporate partnerships and advertisements.
The best way for the CFL to add to its playoff format would be through expansion. It’s not unreasonable to have eight playoff teams in a 12-team league.
This, however, illustrates a catch-22: it’s tough to grow league revenue without expansion, and it’s tough to expand without showing prospective owners that revenue is growing.
Rich people don’t want to invest in something that might grow. They want to invest in something that’s growing.
The CFL needs to increase its revenue and no reasonable person would argue otherwise.
It’s commonly stated that seven of nine CFL teams lose money, though there’s little hard reporting to substantiate this claim. It seems fair to speculate that Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa lose money based on their relatively small crowds. The other four? It’s tough to say.
Danny Maciocia, Montreal’s senior vice-president of football operations and general manager, recently indicated the Alouettes are “extremely close” to breaking even. If the Alouettes can be close to profitable in the league’s smallest, oldest stadium, there’s no excuse for anyone else.
Though none of the CFL’s leaders have come out and said it, another reason for this format change has to be the meagre crowds in Edmonton and Ottawa, both of which have been strong markets in the relatively recent past.
The Elks haven’t made the playoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic with official attendance down 42.5 percent since 2019. The Redblacks have missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons with official attendance slipping by 19.8 percent over that same timeframe.
By artificially expanding the playoffs to include eight teams, the league doesn’t have to worry about the same franchise missing out year after year after year. Granted, a postseason berth doesn’t mean much when only one team doesn’t get one, but the league won’t have multiple squads with playoff droughts ever again. It’ll be mathematically impossible.
When Johnston was hired as the CFL’s commissioner last spring, he repeatedly said he considered the integrity of the game to be the most important thing.
One year later, it feels like his top priority has shifted — or, rather, it’s been sold.
