CFL's Playoff Format Revamped?

Adamo Marinelli

February 19th, 2020

     Recently, the commissioner of the CFL, Randy Ambrosie started pitching the idea of a new playoff format to CFL team owners and fans. 

     The current formula sees 6 teams make the postseason. The top seeds in the East and the West division get a bye. Then, in theory, the next two best teams from each division will play in the semifinal game for their respective division; the higher seed hosts the semifinal game. The winner of the semifinal game then plays the division winner in the East or West final game for a chance to go to the Grey Cup. This can be a problem, especially if one division is better than the other. For the past four years, the West has been the better division. The fourth-place team of the West was better than the third-place team in the East, so it would receive a playoff spot and would cross over to the East Division and play the 2nd place East team in the semifinal game. The fact that the West team would have a better record than the East team, but have to play on the road in the semifinal is unattractive to many.

     The new proposed plan would ensure the top seeds in the East and the West division get a bye to the division final games. The next four teams with the best records - regardless of what division they’re in - would get into the playoffs. The 3rd place team would host the 6th place team and 4th place teams would host the 5th place team in Saturday’s semifinal game. The next day, the team with the best regular-season record in the league would get to pick which of the two semifinal winners they wanted to play in the conference final games, for a potential Grey Cup birth. 

     This new format would allow the best teams to have a shot at the playoffs and would prevent any West Division teams missing out on the playoffs or having to travel on the road to face an East Division team with a weaker record. 

     According to the commissioner, “We think [the new playoff format] could actually keep more teams in the playoff hunt longer and create more intrigue [fan engagement, and interest in later season games].”

     The commissioner said that this new playoff format could be introduced as early as the 2020 season. Personally, I would be very interested in the new format.

Why the XFL Will Succeed

By: Adamo Marinelli

February 15th, 2020

     In May of 2001, after a short 1 season stint, the XFL collapsed after owner Vince McMahon stated the league would continue even without sponsorship from NBC due to plummeting TV ratings. He planned to add more expansion teams to begin the second season despite lacking the necessary funding to do so. With disappointing ratings and a lack of funding and entertaining play, the league unfortunately folded. 

     In March of 2018, Tom Dundon founded the AAF, a football league to keep NFL fans entertained through the spring. Without even finishing its inaugural season, it shut down after week 8 as a result of many combining factors, mainly because of lackluster play in the first half of the season and because Dundon had a different vision for the future of the league than the other general managers. Dundon rushed talks between the AAF and NFLPA on allowing practice squad players to develop in the AAF. 

     Nearly 20 years after the XFL’s first attempt, it has come back better than ever. Despite only seeing only a little more than a week of action, the play has been excellent. All eight teams have several skilled players at various positions, making the game fun to watch and the various rule changes such as the new and improved kickoff, the various values of the PAT, the new overtime rules, the shortened play clock and the continuous game clock outside of 2 minutes makes for a fast-paced, entertaining game. This entertaining style of play added with considerable talent on offense and defense built up a great audience. 

     In week 1, the XFL averaged a viewership of 3.12 million people per game. That is an impressive figure: outperforming all NBA and college basketball broadcasts of the previous week and almost comparing to the NBA playoffs broadcasts which averaged 3.95 million viewers per game heading into the NBA Finals. The Super Bowl hangover was evident last weekend considering the incredible viewership.

     Another problem with the AAF was the lack of stadium attendance. There were no reported sellouts for the entire season, partially because of the lackluster play and lack of innovation in terms of rules. Darren Rovell reported that the XFL had made more money from ticket revenue before any of their games even started than the AAF made in its entire season. The XFL drew over 17,000 fans combined in the first four games, more than tripling the AAF’s total in week 1.

     The attendance in the stadium and the TV ratings plummeted in the AAF during and after week 2. Average attendance stalled at 15,293 and only drew an average of 1 million viewers after kickoff weekend. The XFL arguably has more talent and has innovated the rules more than the AAF. Also, the XFL refs have been pretty good so far, a crucial part in maintaining a loyal fanbase, which in theory should help the XFL maintain their TV ratings and stadium attendance. However, to avoid meeting a similar fate to the AAF, the XFL will need to continue to find ways to innovate and keep their viewers entertained.