{"id":640154,"date":"2026-05-01T05:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/640154\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:52:13","slug":"cfl-commissioner-stewart-johnston-attends-dogs-breakfast-discusses-2027-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/640154\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston attends Dogs\u2019 breakfast, discusses 2027 changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after announcing major changes to the CFL<\/a>, the league\u2019s commissioner was in the heartland of the league for a celebration of football.<\/p>\n

CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston was in Saskatoon for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies\u2019 annual Dogs\u2019 Breakfast event on Thursday. The event is one of the top football fundraisers in the country.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to come out because I heard what a celebration this was of football and an incredible program with the Huskies. I heard about this thing called the Dog\u2019s Breakfast \u2013 little bits and pieces. I\u2019m glad I got here because what a vibe,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cCelebration is the right word. It\u2019s just a celebration of all things that are great in this province and all things that are football.\u201d<\/p>\n

The visit comes days after the announcement that not only would the 2027 CFL regular season begin earlier in the year, but it would be expanding playoffs to include eight of the nine teams. The change will increase the amount of postseason contests from five to nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to plant a flag on Victoria Day and say that is the unofficial start of summer and the official start of the CFL season. Make that a tradition, make all long weekends throughout the summer a tradition around the CFL and our great game. We can\u2019t wait to build events off of those<\/a>,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe announced a new playoff battle where we are going to have an even longer battle to get into the greatest championship in Canada \u2013 the Grey Cup \u2013 and teams are battling it out in an interesting format. We think it\u2019s going to resonate well.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the concerns around summer weekends in Saskatchewan is that there are many people who travel or go to their cabins or cottages during those warmer months.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess what they do when they are there? They watch. If they are not going to be at a venue, then be there in front of a TV and soak it in. We want to turn what could be seen as a negative and make it a positive,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cJust embrace it and make an event out of it \u2026 These are just places we can celebrate and have it resonate with fans as real CFL traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the criticisms about the changes to the playoffs is it will reduce the importance of the 21-week regular season to only eliminate a single team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t know until we get there, but we believe it will make the interest in the CFL season even greater down the stretch. Right now, we have times in the month of October when it\u2019s a little light when someone knows they\u2019re not going to make the playoffs, there isn\u2019t a lot of interest,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThe importance of seeding will be so incredibly high. Getting into those first two spots in the division will be rewarded. We believe the battle down the stretch will intensify, not the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, this week, the CFL held its annual Canadian draft. The Riders selected Michigan State Spartans defensive back Malcolm Bell<\/a> in the first round, the ninth-overall pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a moment that is, welcoming a new crop of players to our league,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

CFL training camps are expected to get underway on May 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after announcing major changes to the CFL, the league\u2019s commissioner was in the heartland of the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-640154","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640154","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=640154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}