{"id":198829,"date":"2025-10-09T00:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198829\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T00:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:37:07","slug":"calgary-coach-great-falls-native-dave-dickenson-weighs-in-on-cfl-rules-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198829\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary coach, Great Falls native Dave Dickenson weighs in on CFL rules proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREAT FALLS \u2014 The Canadian Football League has announced sweeping rule changes<\/a> set to take effect in two phases across 2026 and 2027, drawing a mix of curiosity and concern from players and coaches across the league \u2014 including Calgary Stampeders head coach and Great Falls native Dave Dickenson.<\/p>\n

For 2026, the league will:<\/p>\n

Modify the rouge (single point):\u00a0Teams will\u00a0no longer receive a point when a missed field goal goes wide of the uprights or when a punt or kickoff sails through the back or sides of the end zone\u00a0without being touched\u00a0by a returner. The rouge still applies if a returner cannot or does not bring the ball out.Adopt a 35-second play clock, which starts automatically once the previous play is whistled dead (replacing the current 20-second clock that is manually started by officials).\u00a0Require team benches on opposite sidelines, eliminating lengthy substitution runs across the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO:<\/p>\n

Dave Dickenson weighs in on CFL proposed CFL rule changes<\/p>\n

For 2027, more dramatic changes take effect:<\/p>\n

The\u00a0field will be shortened\u00a0from 110 yards to\u00a0100 yards\u00a0(goal-line to goal-line) while retaining the 65-yard width.\u00a0End zones shrink\u00a0from 20 yards deep to\u00a015 yards.\u00a0Goalposts will be moved\u00a0from the goal line to the\u00a0back of the end zone, removing them from the middle of play and opening up the middle third of the end zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

League projections suggest these changes could yield 10% more end-zone completions and an extra 60 touchdowns per season. The goalposts \u2014 traditionally located on the goal line in the CFL \u2014 will move to the back of the end zone. <\/p>\n

During a recent Stampeders media availability, Dickenson, a former C.M. Russell and University of Montana standout who has played or coached in the CFL for nearly 30 years, said he understands the league\u2019s goal to modernize the game \u2014 but hopes the changes don\u2019t erase what makes Canadian football unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like our game. I love the motions, I love our three downs, I like the yard off. I like our kicking rules,\u201d Dickenson said. \u201cBut we still are employees of the league. I work for other people, and whatever they give us we\u2019ll deal with and try to find an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickenson said coaches are already studying how the new rules could affect clock management, substitution patterns and special teams strategy once they take effect in 2026.<\/p>\n

The CFL says the adjustments are aimed at improving game flow, increasing scoring opportunities and aligning the field with more stadium configurations across Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind change and trying stuff,\u201d Dickenson said. “One thing I caution is when you make too much change, you don\u2019t know which one works. So I want to make sure we don\u2019t get too much change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREAT FALLS \u2014 The Canadian Football League has announced sweeping rule changes set to take effect in two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,943,48,521,522,520,98250,16337,56297,82],"class_list":["post-198829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-calgary-stampeders","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cmr-rustlers","tag-dave-dickenson","tag-montana-grizzlies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198829","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=198829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}