Ticats “huge supporters” of CFL’s large slate of “most significant changes in decades”
The time was ripe, so why wait?
“There is no reason to avoid changes,” CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston said bluntly.
At a well-attended media conference in Toronto Monday afternoon, Johnston unveiled a two-phase plan to revolutionize some major aspects of the CFL product.
“Our game has to modernize,” Johnston said. “Some idiosyncrasies have been in our league a long time but that doesn’t have to be the case.”
He said the two-phased changes to league rules and on-field infrastructure, which are to be spread between the 2026 and 2027 seasons, will “mark a major evolution of the game.”
There are several “football” changes being made for the 2026 season, and “structural” modifications will follow in 2027, in a process unanimously approved by CFL Lead Governors.
The announcements have the entire three-down world—and let’s address that first: it’s still and almost certainly always will be a three-down league—abuzz. The already mushrooming analyses and discussions on social media, and on various football platforms of broadcast and individual-team partners should continue right through November’s Grey Cup in Winnipeg. Not a bad thing.
“These changes are the most significant in decades,” Johnston acknowledged. “We are retaining the unique elements upon which our traditions stand but innovating where change is needed to evolve our world-class game.”
In 2026, most notably, the single point or “rouge”—unique to the Canadian game—will still be an integral, and game-altering, part of the CFL. But a point will no longer be awarded to the kicking team unless the returning team chooses to concede that point, or is tackled without advancing the ball out of the end zone. A point will not be credited if the kick sails through the end zone or bounces over the end line or the sidelines which border the end zone. Johnston correctly noted that league critics have long characterized that kind of point as “rewarding failure.”
“The rouge is an active play,” he said of the change.
And an automatic play clock timer will be instituted and triggered the moment the officials’ whistles stop the previous play. The maximum time between plays will increase from the current 20 seconds to 35 seconds, but the countdown will begin immediately rather than waiting for the officials to retrieve the ball, place it in position and then signal for the play clock to start.
In a third change, the players’ benches will be on opposite sides of the field. That will mean that the visitors’ bench will be moved from the west sideline at Hamilton Stadium to the east sideline. The Ticats’ bench will stay on the east sideline.
Then, in 2027, the field of play will be shortened from the traditional 110 yards to 100 yards, moving offences closer to the end zone—and closer to touchdowns, CFL statistics project—and making midfield the 50-yard-line not the 55.
The same year, goalposts will be moved from the goal line back to the rear boundary of the endzones to open up the whole playing field—currently, stats show, offences are using the sides of the field more than the middle portions as they move into the red zone—remove visual obstructions for fans and players, improve player safety by shifting the posts to a lower-traffic area and reduce chances of a pass or kick “doinking” off an upright or crossbar.
Shifting the goal posts “will allow passing offences to work the middle, making going for a touchdown more attractive.”
In 2027 all end zones will be standardized at 15 yards deep. Currently, they’re 20 yards deep but with no consistency: the Argos’ home at BMO Field has 18-yard end zones, and at Montréal’s Percival Molson Stadium, where the Alouettes play, the end zone corners are sharply rounded off to accommodate an athletics track.
Johnston emphasized that the width of the field, one of the distinguishing features of Canadian football, will remain at 65 yards.
Taken cumulatively, he predicted, the changes should lead to more touchdowns while still retaining the potential for field goals because offences will require fewer yards to get within three-point range. Models forecast a 10 per cent increase in major scores.
“Ultimately what we’re doing is trading touchdowns for field goals,” Johnston said, with a nod to the 21st Century sports and entertainment landscape. “More touchdowns create more highlights and more highlights drive all forms of media.”
Scott Mitchell, the Managing Partner of Hamilton Sports Group which owns the Tiger-Cats, praised the slate of revisions which were announced by Johnston, the league’s 15th commissioner who is among the most experienced and perceptive broadcasting executives in this country after his long tenure at Bell Media and TSN. Johnston spent the first 150 days of his tenure analyzing data, surveying the product on the field and listening to a broad array of suggestions.
“We’re huge supporters,” said Mitchell, who headed a large contingent of Ticats executives and content personnel who attended the announcement at a hotel near BMO Field. “We have a terrific commissioner who’s thinking about things through the lens of entertainment and media. When you look at all these changes, it’s about making the product faster, more entertaining, more high-scoring. I think Stew has a phenomenal brain for a strategic approach, and we’re very supportive of that.
“Stew was provided with a mandate to be creative, innovative and progressive and I think he’s clearly done that in very short order. He brought some thoughts to the league governors’ table and had unanimous approval and support…I think you’re going to see more and more of that as time goes on.”
Mitchell said moving the opponents’ playing bench to the other side of the field –“we were one of the original culprits to move them both to the same side, for commercial purposes”—wouldn’t have a tangible effect at Hamilton Stadium and would probably afford each side of the stadium more opportunity to interact with both teams. He said the bench re-positioning is more about game flow, so players can get on and off the field more quickly, especially when the ball is deep in one end.
While alterations to the rouge, play clock and location of the players’ benches can be implemented next season, another full year was required for many league stadia to shorten the field, and re-configure the end zones and goal posts. It will also give the CFL time to talk about the new rules packages with U Sports and Canadian amateur football leagues and provide those feeder institutions an opportunity to study whether they want to follow suit. The league had alerted them in advance so they weren’t blind-sided by today’s announcements.
Johnston said that none of the changes were made because of any kind of comparison to the NFL.
With a new commissioner and relatively new owners in four of the CFL’s nine cities, the timing for this re-calibration seems logical. The league will closely monitor the effects of the changes over the next two seasons and perhaps some tweaks will be made, or other changes instituted.
“It’s a canvas for our game,” Johnston said. “Twelve players and three downs. We have cleaned up our canvas to make it more open to creativity.
“I came to the job with a message to the league governors and they gave the same message back to me: status quo is not an option.”
