Your granddaddy’s CFL this is not. At this point next year it may barely resemble even your older sister’s CFL.
And Saskatchewan Roughriders president and CEO Craig Reynolds is here for all of it.
The CFL announced Tuesday that, starting in 2027, the regular season will begin on Victoria Day weekend and end on Thanksgiving weekend, shifting the entire schedule ahead three weeks.
In addition, playoffs will be expanded to eight teams and adopt something similar to the Page playoff system used in curling.
Tuesday’s announcements followed other significant changes announced in September that will see field sizes, end zone sizes and the location of the goal posts shifted, among other tweaks to the game.
“There’s a number of folks who are concerned with the potential impact of the rule changes and then there are a number of folks that are excited by them and understand that the league needs to evolve,” Reynolds told media at a recent business luncheon in Saskatoon.
“We’re in the attention economy and so you need to be able to have a product that’s relevant and can grab attention nowadays. As we know that’s hard to do.”
The first round of the new playoff format will pit the top two teams from each division against each other, with the winner receiving a bye to the semifinals while the losers will be forced to play a quarterfinal match.
Additionally, the fifth-place team will play the eighth seed while the sixth-place team will play the seventh seed.
The winners of those two games will advance to quarterfinals while the losers are eliminated.
All seeding for playoffs will be done on the basis of regular season standings regardless of divisional status, and all teams will be re-seeded after each round, rather than having a straight-ahead bracket. (In other words, the highest-seeded remaining team will always play the lowest-seeded remaining team throughout playoffs.)
The format also opens up the prospect of two teams from the same division playing for the Grey Cup, which would be a first in CFL history if it came to be.
“(CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston) has been tasked with growing the league. He’s looking at how do we grow revenue? How do we move this league forward? That’s what you’re seeing,” Reynolds told reporters Tuesday. “It’s an effort by the league to move this league forward, make sure it’s successful and grows.
“This, we believe, will do that. It’s not just gate, it’s sponsorship revenue from a league perspective, so there’s lots of revenue sources. There’s more potential to host home playoff games, which is good for business.”
As for the schedule, despite the unpredictability of Saskatchewan weather – well, pretty much any time of year – Reynolds is in favour of that as well,
“We’re a big proponent of shifting the season up,” he told media Tuesday. “I think you have to recognize the trends that are out there in terms of, certainly that the home experience is really good, and in terms of the television, your ability in the season to watch the games at home and make that choice. Obviously with the weather that much better earlier in the season it’ll help to fill stadiums.
“And yeah obviously Saskatchewan weather you don’t know what you’re going to get, whether it’s going to be 26 degrees or you’re going to get a snowstorm so logistically we’ll have to be prepared for all of that.”
