CFL questions

[JWL]

I noticed that Ottawa made it to the semifinals and they had a regular season record of 8-9-1. If they went on to win their next two games would their W-L-T record be the worst ever for a Grey Cup winner?

Is there a reason there are two divisions?

Is there a concussion problem in the CFL?

[JohnH19]

8-10 Calgary beat 14-4 Winnipeg in the 2001 Grey Cup game. I'm quite certain they are the team with the worst winning percentage to win the championship.
Winnipeg won the 1988 Grey Cup with a 9-9 record.
5-11 Ottawa lost the 1981 Grey Cup game to 14-1-1 Edmonton by a score of 26-23. Ottawa led 20-1 at halftime.

Winnipeg, which is considered a western city, was the Eastern Division representative in the 1988, 90, 92, 93, 2001, 07 and 11 Grey Cup games because, at various times, Montreal and Ottawa didn't have teams. The Blue Bombers are the eastern-most western team so they had to switch divisions to balance the league at 4 and 4. With Ottawa returning to the league in 2014, we are back in the Western Division where we belong.

There are two divisions because the East and West used to have separate leagues with the two champions meeting in the Grey Cup game. The leagues finally merged and became the CFL in 1958. The first regular season meetings between the two conferences were played in 1961. East vs. West used to be a big deal but it now seems outdated, especially with the disparity between the two divisions. It would be better to line the teams up 1 to 9 with the top two getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs and 3 playing 6 and 4 playing 5.

Football is football so, yes, there are concussion issues.

[JWL]

Thanks for the response.

About concussions I was wondering if there was talk about how the CFL may have to be shut down someday similar to how we read and hear people talk about how the NFL may cease to exist at some point.

[JohnH19]

The only reason that the possibility of shutting down the NFL is discussed is that the 24-7 NFL media crush always needs something to talk about. Thankfully, the CFL doesn't get that obnoxiously overwhelming level of coverage.

[Andrew McKillop]

Sorry for the double post. See the post below.

[Andrew McKillop]

I noticed that Ottawa made it to the semifinals and they had a regular season record of 8-9-1. If they went on to win their next two games would their W-L-T record be the worst ever for a Grey Cup winner?

Every year you're guaranteed to see teams with .500 or worse records in the playoffs. Right now 6 out of the CFL's 9 teams make it to the postseason. I wish the CFL would get rid of the divisions and just have a 4-team playoff. The CFL's lengthy regular season (18 games per team over 20 weeks) loses a lot of meaning under their current setup.

[L.C. Greenwood]

I noticed that Ottawa made it to the semifinals and they had a regular season record of 8-9-1. If they went on to win their next two games would their W-L-T record be the worst ever for a Grey Cup winner?

Is there a reason there are two divisions?

Is there a concussion problem in the CFL?

Regarding concussions, I heard a while back, the CFL doesn't have quite the number of the NFL. Forget where I heard this, but the reason cited was the greater distance between the offensive and defensive lines at the line of scrimmage.

[74_75_78_79_]

I believe, correct me if wrong, that Canadian college football has well more than half the teams included in their National Championship tournament.

As for CFL, IMO, as soon as they get one more team make it two five-team divisions obviously and simply have top-two teams in each division play for each division's championship and then the Grey Cup.

[JWL]

There are two divisions because the East and West used to have separate leagues with the two champions meeting in the Grey Cup game. The leagues finally merged and became the CFL in 1958. The first regular season meetings between the two conferences were played in 1961. East vs. West used to be a big deal but it now seems outdated, especially with the disparity between the two divisions. It would be better to line the teams up 1 to 9 with the top two getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs and 3 playing 6 and 4 playing 5.

I looked at one team's schedule and saw that they played every team twice for a total of 16 games. Their other two games were against two teams in their division. I will assume the other eight teams had a similar schedule setup. From a scheduling standpoint, there really isn't an argument for divisions. With the current setup and the fact the league consists of only nine teams, we will see screwy things like a division winner with a losing record.

But, hey, it is better than college football where the conferences are so bloated teams cannot play against all their rivals in a given season. Alabama missed several other SEC teams this season but they did play a team from a completely different level of college football. I also saw Greg McElroy this past week state that Penn State can win their conference but miss out on making the playoffs to a couple of also-rans from the same conference.

[JohnH19]

Ottawa is the first team to ever finish first with a losing record. 8-9-1 really isn't much different than the 8-8 division winners we've seen in the NFL.

Division 1 NCAA Football has become a real mess. A sickening mess, really.