In Week 8 in the Canadian Football League, a rare feat happened, something we rarely see. It happens once a year or so, but never in the same form or colour: a CFL team, this time the Toronto Argonauts, played two games in one week. Toronto came off their bye week to play a rare Tuesday night game against Winnipeg at home at the Rogers Center, winning 38-21; then they played again just five days later, without moving locations, against the B.C. Lions, a game they lost 33-17.
Toronto wasn’t the only team in the league rushed into Week 8. The Blue Bombers also played their Week 7 game five days earlier, a Thursday night clash right at home. So over the week, two teams played two games within five days of each other. In a professional sports league like the CFL, rushing players into games just a few days apart is absolutely unacceptable.
Up here in the CFL, soon-to-be former commissioner Mark Cohon and his schedule-making staff didn’t get that memo about resting players. CFL teams have had an average of 5.7 days of recovery between games this year, factoring in the additional week’s rest team with bye weeks. Calgary has had the lowest number of rest days with 5.25 while Winnipeg and Montreal both average 6.125 days off between games.
The CFL is trying to draw more attention to the league, especially in the US through their TV contract with ESPN where they’re broadcasting a number of games, including the Grey Cup, on their main feed. However, an odd number of teams, teams playing twice a week, and two bye weeks for each team will surely not draw attention from NFL fans, who are used to having their football mainly on the same day and only one week where their team doesn’t play.
The obvious answer to resolve this situation is to expand to ten teams. Ten teams would simplify the schedule; certain weeks where two or four teams get the bye, so the CFL would be able to narrow the already long season down to 19 weeks, with no team playing twice. It could also mean each team plays each other twice, regardless of the division. Having ten teams in the league sounds much better to foreigners learning about the CFL as opposed to eight or nine teams, once the double digit platform is reached, it could receive a big league status.
With Mark Cohon stepping down as the commissioner in the spring of 2015, the new commish, whoever it may be, will hopefully be open to expansion. CFL editor Matthew Bin examined earlier this year where the CFL could expand to in the coming years, if all goes well with the expansion club in Ottawa. Halifax and Quebec are the choices which make the most sense at the moment, five teams in the West, four in the East, time to expand East of Montreal. Quebec may be the front runner of the two, being closer to the core of Eastern Division teams- better economically for the league, and having a strong fan base in football, already supporting the powerful Laval Rouge et Or of the CIS.
Should the CFL expand in the coming years, it will drastically help out the CFL schedule and give less headaches to the CFL schedule makers. Next year there will be another team who will have the unlucky fortune of having to play two games in a week. Maybe the league will make some rule changes to the team who plays twice, like having a bye week before AND after such week and allowing the practice roster players to play in the one of the games. This is an safety concern for the players as fatigue could easily facilitate or re-aggravate an injury, some injuries may ruin players careers.
Until a tenth team is added to the Canadian Football League – and that might seem a matter of when, not if – one team each year will have the gruelling task of playing twice in the same week. Let’s just hope serious injuries don’t occur because of this irrational schedule.
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