{"id":644161,"date":"2026-05-03T01:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644161\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T01:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T01:32:21","slug":"general-managers-deem-earlier-cfl-start-date-extremely-challenging-for-football-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644161\/","title":{"rendered":"General managers deem earlier CFL start date ‘extremely challenging’ for football operations"},"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: Neil Noonan\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

CFL fans are looking forward to more summer fun in 2027, but an earlier start to the season won\u2019t mean cold beer in the sun for the league\u2019s football operations departments \u2014 even if they could use a few.<\/p>\n

With Victoria Day long weekend pencilled in as the league\u2019s official start date<\/a> going forward, every other component of the offseason has to be bumped up to match. This means next year\u2019s CFL Canadian Draft will take place on April 13, well before its NFL counterpart, adding more guesswork to a process that already involves a fair bit of prognostication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll make it extremely more difficult,\u201d Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters recently told reporters. \u201cI said to the guys (on draft night), \u2018Imagine next year, when we\u2019re doing this two weeks before the (NFL) Draft.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely challenging and in two parts, because you\u2019ll see maybe some players that were on the verge, that you\u2019re not sure they were going to get (NFL) undrafted grades. You saw Malick Meiga and Kevin Cline were kind of in that boat, \u2018We\u2019re not really sure (if they\u2019ll get signed in the NFL).\u2019 A year from now, they would have gotten drafted (in the CFL) a lot earlier, and then it would have been, \u2018Oh, crap.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the other end is maybe guys that you thought were going to get big deals that maybe didn\u2019t, and so you didn\u2019t draft them early enough. That\u2019s another, \u2018Oh crap.\u2019 That just makes it far more challenging a year from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meiga and Cline both signed surprise undrafted free agent contracts following the NFL Draft, which affected their stock north of the border. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats still took Meiga with the 14th overall pick, believing his opportunity with the Carolina Panthers<\/a> to be more tenuous, while Winnipeg bet on Cline with the 20th overall selection despite him having a contract with the Miami Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In future years, CFL teams won\u2019t have nearly as clear a picture as to how long they\u2019ll have to wait for those potentially impactful players.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d better have very, very good contacts in the NFL,\u201d B.C. Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden echoed. \u201cYour scouting staff had better have good information, because it\u2019s going to be more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The added challenges for CFL front offices won\u2019t stop on draft day. Under the new tentative schedule, rookies will be expected to report to CFL teams on April 21, with veterans beginning training camp on April 24. The NFL Draft process still won\u2019t be resolved at that point, and any prospect with the slightest hint of interest won\u2019t be available until the conclusion of NFL rookie mini-camps.<\/p>\n

This season, that date is set for May 10, but it could be even later next year. Five of the top 12 picks in this year\u2019s CFL Draft class are already going to be late to report for that reason, but the ripple effects in the future could be even more substantial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you develop a player is going to change everything. Let\u2019s say Nate DeMontagnac had an NFL mini-camp. OK, well, that\u2019s fantastic, and I\u2019m never going to tell a player to not take that opportunity, but that means by the time we get him, training camp may be over,\u201d Rigmaiden explained, referencing B.C.\u2019s first-round selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you keep him active on your roster if he hasn\u2019t even taken a snap in camp? That\u2019s where it becomes a little bit challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even for players who won\u2019t get a passing glance from NFL teams, there will be external factors limiting training camp participation. At many universities, final exams are not completed until the end of the month of April. Given that CFL money isn\u2019t life-changing, draft picks will mostly want to wrap up their academic requirements before beginning their professional careers. This means rookie camps may be scarce on rookies under the new model.<\/p>\n

Everyone else could also be seriously affected by this dynamic, as most CFL teams host their training camps on university campuses to take advantage of cheap and plentiful accommodations in empty residences. Those dorms will now be filled with students cramming for exams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at Thompson Rivers University and (under the new CFL schedule), they\u2019re still going to be in school. There\u2019s a ton of stuff that we\u2019ve got to figure out,\u201d Rigmaiden said. \u201cThe good news is we\u2019ve got a really good president, and Neil (McEvoy) and these guys are terrific at what they do. We\u2019ll figure it out. But are there challenges moving forward? For sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with 3DownNation, Lions\u2019 president Duane Vienneau acknowledged that there would be difficulties with the team\u2019s current training camp setup in Kamloops under the CFL\u2019s new timeline, but that they are not seen as insurmountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not going to be harder than getting kicked out of BC Place and building a stadium in Kelowna,\u201d he joked, referring to the team\u2019s current eviction due to the FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s a consequence that I personally didn\u2019t prethink of. OK, we\u2019re starting the season now, and then you do the rollback, and this is the date we start, but it never really kicked in like, \u2018Holy smokes, school\u2019s still going to be in at TRU.\u2019 We\u2019re going to have some challenges there, but we\u2019ll figure out what the solution is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where there aren\u2019t students, there may be snow. A spring storm dropped 10 centimetres on parts of the prairies last week, which raises questions about how teams will adapt if forced to evaluate 100 pro football hopefuls in a blizzard.<\/p>\n

Decision-makers understand that challenges await them due to the earlier start date in 2027, but believe they pale in comparison to the potential revenue growth opportunities that come from playing more games in the more profitable summer months. Football operations departments will be asked to adapt to the new normal of uncertainty and delays because the business side demands it, as is so often the case.<\/p>\n

GMs are concerned, but they won\u2019t lose sleep over the issues \u2014 too many other things are already keeping them awake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll deal with it. Honestly, I haven\u2019t thought too much about it,\u201d Walters admitted. \u201cAs soon as (Bombers president Wade Miller) was going over it, and I heard \u20182027,\u2019 I sort of stopped listening and said, \u2018That sounds like a next year thing to worry about.\u2019 We\u2019ve got our own things to worry about in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

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J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.<\/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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Neil Noonan\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. CFL fans are looking forward to more summer fun in 2027, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,902,22070,22936,49,48,7028,521,522,520,168653,239981,527,191784,2002,169042,6381,239982,174830,82,2001,1722,22073],"class_list":["post-644161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-bc","tag-blue-bombers","tag-bombers","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cfl-draft","tag-duane-vienneau","tag-football","tag-kyle-walters","tag-league","tag-leos","tag-lions","tag-rookie-mini-camps","tag-ryan-rigmaiden","tag-sports","tag-summer","tag-training-camp","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644161","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=644161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}