Big changes are coming to the CFL, and it won\u2019t just impact the pros. From the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the Manitoba Bisons, right down to high school, football in Manitoba is bracing for a whole new game.<\/p>\n
The CFL announced sweeping changes this week. Starting in 2026, the rouge will be modified, benches will move to opposite sidelines, and a faster 35-second play clock will kick in by 2027. The field will also shrink to one hundred yards, end zones will be cut to 15 yards, and goalposts will move to the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some stuff you scratch your head at, but there\u2019s other things that make sense. You\u2019ll never be completely happy,\u201d said Nic Demski, a wide receiver for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
Blue Bombers quarterback, Zach Collaros, adding, \u201cThere are still 12 players, the waggle, yard off the ball, the ratio didn\u2019t change, those things to me are the CF.L\u201d<\/p>\n
While Bombers head coach Mike O\u2019Shea said, \u201cThe idea after two years the changes stop, I don\u2019t know, it would be speculation on my part, we\u2019re also not privy to the entire plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
University of Manitoba, Bisons football coach Stan Pierre was shocked when he heard the news, but he doesn\u2019t believe the rules will be adopted outside the CFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally shocked and kind of bewilderment, I am wondering what his rationale is and where are they going with this thing?\u201d said Pierre.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rules go through a rules committee, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a slam dunk that we will change our rules to match the CFL.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding, \u201cAll the infrastructure would have to change, goalposts would have to be moved, that\u2019s a significant undertaking in amateur football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Pierre\u2019s concerns, USport, the governing body of university football, says it hasn\u2019t confirmed if it will be making the changes alongside the CFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have discussions internally with our members and stakeholders such as Football Canada about the impacts of the decisions announced yesterday,\u201d said John Bower, the director of communications for U Sports.<\/p>\n
Bowers said USport only learned of the changes to the CFL hours before it was announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not know what the potential impact is at this time, including how many universities require field upgrades in the next several years, as these are major capital infrastructure investments,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Despite this, the CFL doesn\u2019t think it will have much of an impact if U Sports doesn\u2019t follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll stadiums that share with U Sports will be able to move goalposts back and forth,\u201d said Lucas Barrett, the associate vice president of communications and public affairs for the CFL.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Winnipeg\u2019s high school football commissioner says it could have a ripple effect for how the game is played and taught at every level in the future, but says that\u2019s for Football Canada to decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited, then I asked myself from the high school football standpoint what changes do we need to make,\u201d said Jeffery Bannon, WHSFL commissioner.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these turf fields right now don\u2019t have the money to change. I know how much it costs to put in a goalpost. We never researched how to change one, but it is exciting, and I think it\u2019s what\u2019s best for the game right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big changes are coming to the CFL, and it won\u2019t just impact the pros. From the Winnipeg Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-169242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}