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![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4190656_web1_CKL118_20251101_012159.JPG\")
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Christopher Katsarov \/ THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira in a social media post: \u201cPlayoff football is supposed to be earned. If anything, grow the league by adding more teams\u2026 not the number of automatic spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the pro level, the National Football League (2020) and Major League Baseball (2022) each added two wildcard spots, lowering the bar for entry. The National Basketball Association took a different approach, introducing a play-in tournament in 2020 involving the No. 7 through 10 seeds to decide the final playoff spots.<\/p>\n
The obvious difference in what the CFL is doing is scale.<\/p>\n
This \u201crefresh\u201d is a leap to where nearly 90 per cent of the league qualifies for the playoffs. The current format \u2014 six of nine teams \u2014 is already higher than most at 66 per cent. Inviting two more to the party to make it eight out of nine makes next to zero sense from a football standpoint.<\/p>\n
Rather than sidestepping that reality, CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston has seemed to lean into it. The league could argue that the four teams \u2014 seeds five through eight \u2014 in the play-in round are technically not in the playoffs as they still need to win to get in.<\/p>\n
And if they look to the hardwood, they would have an argument, too. The losers of the NBA\u2019s play-in round do not get credited with an official playoff berth in the record books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fully acknowledge that eight out of nine teams make the playoffs. You don\u2019t hear that too often,\u201d Johnston said Tuesday on TSN OverDrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think this format rewards your regular season to such a degree that we\u2019re going to get past that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everyone is buying it.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg Blue Bombers star running back Brady Oliveira, one of the faces of the league, strongly disagrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cEight out of nine teams in the Canadian Football League playoffs takes away from what makes those games special,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cPlayoff football is supposed to be earned. If anything, grow the league by adding more teams\u2026 not the number of automatic spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadian Football League Players\u2019 Association is singing a different tune. They understand players\u2019 wallets will benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing was ensuring that this is creating new revenue opportunities for our members and how they could share in that growth,\u201d said CFLPA rep and Hamilton Tiger-Cats safety Stavros Katsantonis.<\/p>\n
League expansion would help legitimize the plan for 2027, if only it were that simple. The CFL has been itching to add a 10th team for years, but the current business model hasn\u2019t led to anyone investing to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Add in the fact that the league is on the final year of a television deal with TSN that generates $50 million annually, and it should come as no surprise that the CFL is doing what it can to be more attractive to potential broadcast partners and owners.<\/p>\n
In 2025, CFL regular season games averaged 555,000 TV viewers. In the four playoff games leading up to the Grey Cup, that nearly doubled to 1,048,000. Add four more playoff games, and the financial upside is evident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve only got five playoff games (two division semifinals, two finals and the Grey Cup)\u2026 I just felt like it wasn\u2019t enough to build that momentum,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n
The concern is what gets sacrificed in the process.<\/p>\n
Critics argue this format will make the regular season feel meaningless. Seeding will, of course, be important \u2014 home teams have won 16 of the last 20 playoff games after all \u2014 but the door will be open to shenanigans. There\u2019s certainly a scenario where a 5\u201313 team gets hot at the right time and ends up playing on championship Sunday.<\/p>\n
Is that likely to happen? No, especially considering that no crossover team has managed to win back-to-back road tilts to reach the Grey Cup, but it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n
And if the CFL\u2019s version of a Page playoff ends up resembling curling\u2019s model, there\u2019s another wrinkle.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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You see it in the sport with sweepers all the time when the loser of the Page 1-2 game (essentially what the CFL\u2019s Division Showdown games will be) go on to win the rematch in the final. That was the case for both Matt Dunstone (Brier champion) and Kerri Einarson (Scotties champion) in their respective nationals this season.<\/p>\n
How do you think a place like Bomberland or Riderville would react to winning the Division Showdown only to be eliminated two weeks later against the same team they beat in the first meeting?<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the CFL that current fans grew up with, and Johnston\u2019s actions have made it clear \u2014 through this and the upcoming set of rule changes \u2014 that tradition won\u2019t stand in the way of experimentation.<\/p>\n
The league can frame their latest announcement as a push for excitement, but the true driving force is hard to miss: this is about the bottom line.<\/p>\n
winnipegfreepress.com\/taylorallen<\/p>\n
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Taylor Allen Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree\/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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