{"id":637666,"date":"2026-04-30T02:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637666\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:42:10","slug":"cfl-star-brady-oliveira-criticizes-new-playoff-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637666\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL star Brady Oliveira criticizes new playoff format"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/p>\n

One of the CFL\u2019s biggest stars took a shot at the expanded playoff format the league plans to implement in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cEight out of nine teams in the Canadian Football League playoffs takes away from what makes those games special,\u201d Brady Oliveira posted to X on Wednesday. \u201cPlayoff football is supposed to be earned. If anything, grow the league by adding more teams, not the number of automatic spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old made the comment in reply to TSN analyst and Hall of Fame receiver Milt Stegall, who suggested players would unanimously be in favour of the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk CFL players how they feel about this new era of playoff football,\u201d Stegall wrote. \u201cI guarantee 100 percent of them love it. More games, more exposure, more chances to put extra coins in their pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-time All-CFL strong-side linebacker C.J. Reavis, who signed with the Ottawa Redblacks in free agency after four seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, agrees with Oliveira, replying to his post with the word, \u201cBingo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliveira is one of the league\u2019s most prominent stars, leading to the creation of his new television show Must Love Dogs. He has one of the league\u2019s largest social media followings, including almost 250,000 followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n

The five-foot-ten, 229-pound ball-carrier became one of the league\u2019s highest-paid players this offseason, signing a three-year contract extension worth almost $900,000<\/a>. He has won two Grey Cups, two CFL rushing titles, two Most Outstanding Canadian awards, and one Most Outstanding Player award with his hometown team, recording 7,310 yards from scrimmage and 27 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the CFL announced the playoffs will be expanded to eight teams starting in 2027.<\/p>\n

The first round will soon 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

Oliveira is no stranger to the postseason, having reached the Grey Cup five times over his six-year career. Evidently, he doesn\u2019t think highly of the new CFL playoff format.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Oliveira and Stegall\u2019s statement have been lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers One of the CFL\u2019s biggest stars took a shot at the expanded playoff format…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,22070,22936,110975,49,48,7028,521,522,520,527,65970,36547,64388,82,22073],"class_list":["post-637666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-blue-bombers","tag-bombers","tag-brady-oliveira","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-football","tag-format","tag-playoffs","tag-postseason","tag-sports","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637666","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=637666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}