EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS:
The Canadian Football League has just announced a plan to expand the league across the nation and add 23 teams, boosting the total number of teams in the league to 32.
In preparation for adding the new teams, two current teams will change their geographic identifiers to accommodate new teams. The BC Lions will become the Vancouver Lions, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders will revert to a historic version of their name, the Regina Roughriders.
Five of the new teams have nicknames already prepared for this announcement: Victoria Islanders, Saskatoon Plainsmen, Prince Albert Royalty, Brandon Flood, and Kingston Fortress. The remaining eighteen cities are: Kelowna, Kamloops, Red Deer, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, London, Niagara, Sudbury, Kitchener, Mississauga, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Laval, Moncton, Fredericton, Halifax, Charlottetown, and St. Johns’.
The league also put forward their new organizing structure. The 32 teams will be split into 2 conferences of 16 teams each. Those being named the Historic and Canadian Conferences. Each conference will be split into 4 divisions with four teams each, labelled West, Central, East, and Atlantic. The teams will be divided as follows:
Historic Conference
West Division: Vancouver Lions, Kelowna, Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders
Central Division: Regina Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Windsor, Niagara
East Division: Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa RedBlacks, Kingston Fortress
Atlantic Division: Montreal Alouettes, Laval, Moncton, Halifax
Canadian Conference
West Division: Victoria Islanders, Kamloops, Red Deer, Saskatoon Plainsmen
Central Division: Prince Albert Royalty, Brandon Flood, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury
East Division: London, Kitchener, Mississauga, Quebec City
Atlantic: Sherbrooke, Fredericton, Charlottetown, St. John's
The schedule will be formatted as follows: each team will play each team in their division twice,
all teams from one intra-conference division on a three-year rotational basis, all teams from one intra-conference division on a four-year rotational basis, each team in the conference that finished the same rank in their respective division that they do not play based on the intra-conference schedule, and a classic matchup that will remain the same each year.
Commissioner Ambrosie was excited about this venture for two reasons. This would allow an influx of players from the global market to come and play. “This will really help the game in that there will be so many more opportunities for players to come in from around the globe and grow this great league.” Ambrosie was also very excited about the classic matchups. “Labour Day Weekend is hugely important to the CFL, and we wanted to keep that importance. That is why we added the classic matchups. These games will not change year to year and will always be a home and home series. All original nine teams will play their games unrivalled, in that they will not be up against any other game that weekend. The matchups are as follows: Calgary/Edmonton, Regina/Winnipeg, Hamilton/Toronto, Ottawa/Montreal, Kelowna/Kamloops, Red Deer/Saskatoon, Vancouver/Victoria, Prince Albert/Brandon, Sault Ste. Marie/Sudbury, Windsor/London, Kitchener/Mississauga, Quebec City/Laval, Moncton/Fredericton, Sherbrooke/Halifax, and Charlottetown/St. John's.
More details will be passed on as they are released to Drew's Football Take.
La Cheeserie, Littles
Fight On, Sleepers
April Fools
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