SportsCage analyst Glen Suitor supports the CFL\u00a0awarding the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Edmonton Elks with extra picks in\u00a0the 2026 CFL Draft.<\/p>\n
“Any way that we can showcase\u00a0college football in Canada and in the U.S.,\u00a0all the Canadians that are going down south to play college ball or up here in U Sports, the quality of athletes coming out of those programs is so much better every single year,” Suitor said on the SportsCage.<\/p>\n
“They’re bigger, stronger, faster every year. The coaching is better. The U of S and the U of R are great examples.\u00a0These Canadian rules, ratios, whatever you want to call them\u00a0are crucial to showcase that in front of our home fans, all their family and friends, all the college people they played with.\u00a0They’re all excited this guy has\u00a0made the pros. Any rule that would support that, I’m all for it.”<\/p>\n
3DownNation.com’s\u00a0John Hodge<\/a>\u00a0reported\u00a0why the Bombers and Elks received extra draft capital.<\/p>\n “Each year, two bonus selections at the end of the second round are given to the teams that had the highest percentage of snaps played by Canadians the previous year,” Hodge said. “These picks have been awarded to Edmonton and Winnipeg, giving them the No. 19 and 20 selections in the 2026 CFL Draft, respectively.”<\/p>\n Suitor explained the mindset of a former CFL head coach who made sure to play many Canadians.<\/p>\n “The late Don Matthews was winning games, whether he was in Toronto or wherever he was. He would try to play with two or three Canadian starters beyond the ratio requirement. The reason for that was to make sure he was covered in any areas when it came to an injury,” Suitor said. “You could make a substitution if you lost a Canadian.”<\/p>\n Suitor\u00a0elaborated further on why he appreciated\u00a0Matthews\u00a0and his thought process.<\/p>\n “You didn’t have to put a Canadian in that spot because you were playing with two or three more. You could put an American in there\u00a0and that would not put your ratio out of whack,” Suitor said.<\/p>\n “You also won’t have a drop-off if you don’t have the depth you need in that position from the Canadian side. He was always ahead of the curve\u00a0and that’s why I love this rule.”<\/p>\n Matthews is a five-time\u00a0Grey Cup Champion, winning in\u00a01985 with the B.C. Lions, 1995 with the Baltimore Stallions, and back-to-back with the Toronto Argonauts in 1996 and 1997. The last Grey Cup in his career came with the Montreal Alouettes in 2002. Alongside five Coach of the Year awards for Matthews in 1985, 1994, 1995, 1997, and 2002, he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Suitor reacted to the Saskatchewan Roughriders unveiling\u00a0tailgating for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n “It’s taken way too long, but it’s here. We’re getting there,\u00a0other stadiums are talking about it now and trying to find their spots,” Suitor explained. “It’s ideal in Saskatchewan. That whole huge parking lot and how they’re going to break it down,\u00a0I definitely will walk through it.”<\/p>\n People in Saskatchewan were not allowed to tailgate, but that\u00a0was changed with the\u00a0tailgating act<\/a>. According to\u00a0Dave Thomas<\/a>,\u00a0voice of the\u00a0Riders, season ticket holders will be allowed to enter a lottery for a chance to buy a tailgating pass for\u00a0$500.<\/p>\n For fans who win those passes, they can bring their own alcohol but must abide by provincial rules. Fans can cook their own food and\u00a0receive two side-by-side parking stalls, one for a\u00a0vehicle and one for tailgate gear.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SportsCage analyst Glen Suitor supports the CFL\u00a0awarding the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Edmonton Elks with extra picks in\u00a0the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,202800,82],"class_list":["post-509977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cflsaskatchewan-roughriderswinnipeg-blue-bombersedmonton-elksglen-suitor","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509977","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=509977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}