TSN 1050\u2019s OverDrive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI think the conversation that this passionate fan base brings to a debate like this, whether you\u2019re all for it, you\u2019re figuring it out, or you\u2019re against, is a demonstration of the power of our league and the power of that fan base, the scale of it. That has been noticed. We\u2019re working with TSN and with others in discussing the next cycle of media rights. I think the fact that our fan base is so loud is a wonderful testament to what this league is and can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first round of the new playoff format will feature four matchups. Two of the games, dubbed the \u2018Division Showdowns,\u2019 will pit the two top teams from the league\u2019s two divisions against each other. The two winners will earn byes to the third round of the postseason, while the losers move on to the second round.<\/p>\n
The other two games, dubbed the \u2018Play-In Games,\u2019 will see the No. 5 seed host the No. 8 seed and the No. 6 seed host the No. 7 seed. The two winners will advance to the second round, while the two losers are eliminated. This seeding will be done based on regular-season records, irrespective of divisions.<\/p>\n
Round two of the new format, dubbed the \u2018Elimination Games,\u2019 will see the two Division Showdown losers host the two Play-In Game winners. Seeding will again be done based on regular-season records, not divisions. The two winners will advance to the third round of the postseason, while the two losers are eliminated.<\/p>\n
The third round of the playoffs will be called the \u2018Grey Cup Semi-Finals\u2019 and have the two Division Showdown winners host the two Elimination Game winners. Seeding will again be done based on regular-season records, not divisions. The two winners will advance to the Grey Cup, while the two losers are eliminated.<\/p>\n
This new format ensures that at least one West Division team and at least one East Division team reach the third round of the playoffs. However, an upset in one or both games could see teams from the same division reach the Grey Cup, something that has never previously occurred in league history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a nine team league, so getting a playoff schedule with some robust number of games is difficult as a nine team league. We decided, you know what? We\u2019ve only got five playoff games. In all of sports, you see what\u2019s going on right now in hockey and basketball, playoffs are the games of consequence, they\u2019re the most meaningful time of the season. For us to only have five games leading into the biggest championship in Canada, which is the Grey Cup, felt like it wasn\u2019t enough to build that momentum, so we borrowed a page from curling and their page playoff system,\u201dJohnston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe divisions are still in place. So in the East and the West, the top two from each division are going to play-off in the first round of the playoffs. Normally you don\u2019t have your top two teams doing that, but the reason that\u2019s so effective and such an incentive for those teams is they\u2019re guaranteed two playoff games. The winner of those games gets a bye to the third round, which is the semis, and the losers of those games move on to the second round. Then we go away from divisions, it\u2019s going to be five through eight, seated, five plays eight, six plays seven. Winners move on to the second round, losers go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
These changes were made in collaboration with the Canadian Football League Players\u2019 Association (CFLPA) as it required a change to the existing collective bargaining agreement. The CFL\u2019s new postseason format has 88.9 percent of its teams reach the playoffs, an increase of over 20 percent from the current format. North America\u2019s four major sports leagues all have significantly smaller playoff pools, including the MLB (40 percent), NFL (43.8 percent), NHL (50 percent), and NBA (66.7 percent including play-in games).<\/p>\n
\u201cI fully acknowledge that it\u2019s eight out of nine teams makes the playoffs, you don\u2019t hear that too often. We think this format rewards your regular season to such a degree that we\u2019re going to get past that. Those five through eight, which we call the play-ins, is about getting home field and moving forward. We think the end of the regular season, in fact, the entire regular season is going to take on even more meaning,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve now created nine playoff games total up from five. We think the attention on our regular season down the pike is going to be so great because as you\u2019re jockeying for position you want to be in those top two in the division, it\u2019s so advantageous, but you also want a home game. In the last five years, the home team has won 80 percent of all games in the playoffs, so getting your home field advantage with your fans behind you is huge. We think it\u2019s going to make the last month of our regular season even more dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Canadian Football League commissioner Stewart Johnston understands fans will have varying thoughts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,2602,49,943,48,7028,521,522,520,168653,206809,174315,13264,68627,237426,15655,941,14967,45083,4400,82,84996,15656,7504],"class_list":["post-635153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-bc-lions","tag-ca","tag-calgary-stampeders","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cfl-draft","tag-cfl-players-association","tag-cflpa","tag-edmonton-elks","tag-grey-cup","tag-grey-cup-playoffs","tag-hamilton-tiger-cats","tag-montreal-alouettes","tag-ottawa-redblacks","tag-riders","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-sports","tag-stewart-johnston","tag-toronto-argonauts","tag-winnipeg-blue-bombers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635153","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=635153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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