{"id":634964,"date":"2026-04-28T21:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/634964\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T21:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:31:08","slug":"cfl-to-change-season-start-playoff-format-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/634964\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL to change season start, playoff format in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CFL will kick off its 2027 season earlier than ever, over the Victoria Day weekend in May, and revamp its playoff format, according to Dan Ralph of the CP. Victoria Day is observed on the last Monday preceding May 25. This season opens June 4. But the \u201cbigger change revolves around the CFL playoffs format,\u201d which will see eight of the league\u2019s nine teams making the post-season and three rounds before the Grey Cup rather than two. Starting next season, the first- and second-place teams in each division will square off, with the winners earning a bye to the semifinals and home-field advantage. The losers will move to the second playoff round. The fifth and sixth seeds will host the seventh and eighth seeds in play-in games, with the winners advancing to the second round while the losers are eliminated. The division showdown losers will host the play-in victors. The winners go on to the Grey Cup semifinals while the losers are eliminated. The division showdown winners will host the elimination game winners, with matchups based on regular-season records. The winners advance to the Grey Cup game, which will be held Nov. 7 at Regina\u2019s Mosaic Stadium<\/a>. The CFL and CFLPA \u201cboth agreed upon the changes.\u201d These moves come as the CFL is already set to undergo changes to its playing field<\/a> in 2027 (CP, 4\/28<\/a>).<\/p>\n

CREATING INTEREST: B.C. Lions VP\/Football Operations Neil McEvoy conceded the CFL advancing eight of its nine teams to the playoffs starting in 2027 is \u201cgoing to bring on the skeptics,\u201d but he insisted that \u201cin the end the change will do much more good than harm.\u201d McEvoy said, \u201cThese are extra games that add more entertainment value for the fans. I understand people are going to say, \u2018One team doesn\u2019t make the playoffs,\u2019 but we don\u2019t live in a world where we have 32 teams. We have nine and we\u2019re trying to make the best of it.\u201d He added, \u201cI really like the way the NBA has the play-in, where they have those four teams fighting for the playoffs. It creates more interest in more cities, and that\u2019s exactly what you want.\u201d McEvoy: \u201cPeople are going to complain. But in the end, we\u2019re trying to make the game more accessible to more people and trying to get people to like it more.\u201d In Vancouver, Steve Ewen notes the phasing in of the new rules and the playoff format \u201cdoes give the CFL time to communicate with fans and get them accustomed to the changes.\u201d It will be \u201ccontingent on the league and its teams getting the why across\u201d (Vancouver PROVINCE, 4\/28<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CFL will kick off its 2027 season earlier than ever, over the Victoria Day weekend in May,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,77,82],"class_list":["post-634964","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-international","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634964","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=634964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}