{"id":666619,"date":"2026-05-13T12:09:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666619\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:09:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:09:32","slug":"no-more-ties-cfl-ratifies-rule-changes-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666619\/","title":{"rendered":"No more ties: CFL ratifies rule changes for 2026"},"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 courtesy: David Friederich\/B.C. Lions<\/p>\n

Ties are officially a thing of the past in the Canadian Football League.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s board of governors has approved several rule changes, it was announced on Tuesday, including the elimination of tie games.<\/p>\n

Previously, regular-season games would end in a tie if the score remained even after two overtime mini-games.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, teams will now alternate two-point converts from the three-yard line until a winner is determined. These attempts will each take place on the same end of the field.<\/p>\n

Since 2016, the CFL has had four regular-season games end in a tie, two of which occurred in 2024. There were no ties in 2025.<\/p>\n

This change was recommended by the CFL\u2019s rules committee in January<\/a>. The rules committee is comprised of head coaches, team presidents, the Canadian Professional Football Officials Association (CPFOA), and the CFL Players\u2019 Association (CFLPA).<\/p>\n

With the league adapting a new 35-second play clock in 2026<\/a>, the rules committee also recommended switching back to a 20-second clock that must be whistled-in by an official during the final three minutes of both halves.<\/p>\n

This recommendation was also approved by the board of governors. As a result of this decision, the league has provided what it termed \u201cadditional direction\u201d to the replay centre.<\/p>\n

When the new 35-second play clock is in effect, replay officials are to \u201cavoid slowing the game down, unless a critical ruling is in question.\u201d When the 20-second play clock is in effect, the replay centre is to \u201csupport on-field officials during natural breaks in play \u2026 such as after a penalty has been called on the field, or in automatic review situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other minor changes approved by the board of governors, including:<\/p>\n

-turnover on downs rulings will result in automatic review from the replay centre<\/p>\n

-if a kick goes out of bounds through the end zone with no point awarded, or a field goal attempt strikes the goalpost and no points are scored, the ball will be scrimmaged from the 40-yard line<\/p>\n

-prior to the game, teams may provide officials with a third ineligible number capable of reporting and lining up in an eligible position<\/p>\n

-an incomplete pass will be added to the possible outcomes available to the defending team when an ineligible receiver penalty is called<\/p>\n

-with team benches now on opposite sides of the field, bench violations will be a point of emphasis for officials and will result in in-game penalties and defined supplementary discipline<\/p>\n

-a half or the game may end on a single kneel if all of the following conditions are met:<\/p>\n

The defence does not possess a timeout
\nIt is first down and the offence wishes to end the half or game
\n40 seconds or fewer remain on the game clock<\/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<\/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 courtesy: David Friederich\/B.C. Lions Ties are officially a thing of the past in the Canadian Football League.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,7028,521,522,520,119924,245880,527,245881,123129,1627,7338,41816,4553,82],"class_list":["post-666619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-clock","tag-final-three-minutes","tag-football","tag-kneels","tag-overtime","tag-qb","tag-quarterback","tag-rule-changes","tag-rules","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666619","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=666619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}