2016 CFL season

2016 CFL season
Regular season
Duration	June 23, 2016 – November 5, 2016
Playoffs
Start date	November 13, 2016
104th Grey Cup
Date	November 27, 2016
Site	BMO Field, Toronto
2015 ← CFL seasons → 2017

The 2016 CFL season will be the 63rd season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 59th season of the league. Toronto is scheduled to host the 104th Grey Cup on November 27. The regular season will begin June 23 and end on November 5.

CFL News in 2016

Salary cap

According to the new collective bargaining agreement, the 2016 salary cap will be set at $5,100,000. As per the agreement, the cap is fixed and will not vary with league revenue performance. The minimum team salary will be set at $4,500,000 with individual minimum salaries set at $52,000.^[1]

Season schedule

On February 18, 2016, the 2016 season schedule was released, with the regular season opener taking place at BMO Field hosted by the Toronto Argonauts on June 23. This will be the first time that the Argonauts have hosted a season opener since the 2008 CFL season and the first time a new stadium opened the season since Winnipeg's Investors Group Field opened the 2013 season. For the third consecutive season, week 1 will feature a Grey Cup rematch, with the defending champion Edmonton Eskimos hosting the Ottawa Redblacks. This will also be the first time since 2012 that all member clubs will play all pre-season and regular season games at their regular home stadiums.

This season will feature eight home-and-home series, with three of those featuring Saskatchewan and/or Winnipeg while the Montreal Alouettes will play none. There will be 21 double headers this year, with three on Thursdays, eight on Fridays, eight on Saturdays, and two (the traditional Labour Day and Thanksgiving contests, with the Ontario Labour Day game being played in prime time for the first time ever) on Mondays. There will also be a triple header for the first time since 2007 with three games on the final day of the regular season on Saturday, November 5. For the second consecutive season, the last week of the regular season will feature inter-divisional games. This will be the second straight season to showcase Thursday Night Football with 10 of the first 11 weeks featuring Thursday night games and three of those weeks featuring the aforementioned Thursday night double headers. Every CFL team will host at least one Thursday game this season with Montreal hosting the most with three Thursday home games.

Toronto Argonauts stadium and ownership

After spending 27 seasons at Rogers Centre, the Toronto Argonauts will move to BMO Field following renovations that will make the stadium suitable for Canadian football.^[2] The move was prompted by the 2013 announcement by Rogers Communications of their intention of installing natural grass and having the Argonauts removed before the 2018 season.^[3] On May 20, 2015, it was announced the team had been sold to Larry Tanenbaum and Bell Media (Rogers's partners in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the company that also operates BMO Field) and that the team would be making the move to BMO Field. The stadium underwent renovations in the off-season between 2014 and 2015, raising stadium capacity for soccer to 30,991. Further renovations will take place in the off-season between 2015 and 2016 to add canopy roofs and retractable seating in the endzones for a Canadian football field. The Toronto FC will continue to be primary occupants of the stadium and have first choice of game dates.^[4]

New uniform supplier

Adidas, who has held the contract for CFL uniforms since acquiring Reebok in 2005, will switch those uniforms from the Reebok brand (which was used for the uniforms the previous twelve seasons, dating to 2004, the season before Adidas's purchase) to the Adidas brand.^[5] The Ottawa Redblacks announced that they would release their new jerseys on May 12; the other eight teams will also unveil their new Adidas-engineered uniforms that day.^[6][7]

Coaching changes

On December 2, 2015 Jeff Tedford announced that he had resigned his position as head coach of the BC Lions. In his lone season with the Lions, Tedford led them to a medicore record of 7-11, losing in the first round of the playoffs. Wally Buono will resume the head coaching duties. On December 7, 2015, a mere week after winning the 2015 Grey Cup, it was announced that Chris Jones would be the new general manager and head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. After starting 0-9 during the 2015 season, the Saskatchewan Roughriders fired Corey Chamblin. Bob Dyce was the intern head coach for the remainder of the 2015 season. In response to losing Chris Jones, the Eskimos named former Redblacks offensive coordinator Jason Maas as their new head coach on December 14, 2015. Jason Maas had played quarterback for the Eskimos for 10 seasons from the 2000 CFL season until the 2011 CFL season.

Following this fury of coaching changes new CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge announced on December 16, 2015, that any coach who is currently under contract with a CFL team must contact the CFL head office for approval, prior to announcing any movement. The reason for this moratorium was to prevent CFL teams from tampering with coaches under contract, and also to hold coaches honorable to their contracts (unless the general manager of said franchise voids the contract allowing the coach in question allowing them to become a free agent).^[8] In April 2016 commissioner Orridge ruled that the Eskimos did not owe the Redblacks any financial compensation for their hiring of Jason Maas.^[9]

Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach and vice president Kent Austin, who had also served as general manager for his first three seasons in Hamilton, promoted Eric Tillman to general manager for the 2014 season. Tillman had served as a consultant with the Tiger-Cats since the 2012 season.^[10]

New Drug Policy

On April 21, 2016 the CFL and CFLPA announced an agreement on a new drug strategy. There was no drug testing last year after the CFL severed its partnership with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES), which had conducted the tests. The relationship has since been mended, and CCES will once again resume its role of administering testing on players. Under the terms of the agreement, the number of tests conducted will be equal to 100 per cent of the players in the league. However, because testing will be random, it's possible some players will be tested twice while others won't be tested at all. The new system will also recognise sanctions from Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Football League (NFL) and other World Anti-Doping Association tested sports. The teams and league will provide appropriate National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) certified supplements to their players, with the list to be developed by mutual agreement and based on professional advice.^[11]

Regarding player violations, those testing positive will face a two-game suspension for a first violation. This will increase to a nine game suspension (half the regular season) for a second violation and a one-year ban for a third offence. A fourth violation will result in a lifetime ban. Violations will now be publicly disclosed once all appeals have been exhausted: Whereas in the former system a player charged with a first time offence was able to have his identity remain confidential. The CFL commissioner can reduce a suspension based on exceptional circumstance.^[12]

NFL-CFL Officiating Development Program

On April 22, 2016 the CFL and the NFL announced a landmark joint-partnership involving their officiating staff. NFL-trained referees will officiate preseason and regular-season games in the CFL. Refs from the CFL will attend NFL training camps and education sessions before working pre-season games in the NFL. NFL referees working CFL games will mostly be side and field judges to minimize the rules differences between the two leagues. Several CFL officials will participate in the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, which will include working NFL mini-camps, training camps and preseason games. Analysts see this as the first step towards having U.S.-trained officials work in the CFL full-time. Previously, one of the major stumbling blocks for U.S.-born officials working in the CFL was it took them off the track to the NFL. But a development program between the two leagues could lead to officials graduating from the CFL to the NFL.^[13][14]

Rule changes

In March the CFL’s Rules Committee submitted a variety of rule changes to the Board of Governors be implemented for the 2016 season.^[15] The proposals were reviewed by the CFL's Board of Governors and almost all of them were put into effect for the upcoming season.^[16]

Accepted

• An additional Video Official in the Command Centre (in Toronto) with a mandate to quickly fix obvious errors that are not challengeable by replay
• The following plays would be reviewable:
  • Passing Plays - offensive pass interference, illegal contact and illegal interference
  • Special Teams - no yards, illegal blocks on kick plays, contacting/roughing the kicker or passer, and illegal interference at the point of reception on kick off attempts
• Unsuccessful two-point convert attempts are automatically reviewed by the Replay Official
• Prohibiting players from pushing blockers through gaps in the offensive line on single point convert attempts and field goal attempts
• Expand the definition of a “peel back” block to make it illegal for any offensive player to block an opponent low anywhere on the field when he is moving towards his own goal line, not just those players that start the play in the Close Line Play Area, commonly referred to as the tackle box
• Modifying the standard for Illegal Procedure penalty to now allow line players to move slightly, point, or make signals for blocking assignments while in a three-point stance before coming to a set position for one second prior to the snap
• Administrative and Technical changes:
  • The concept of off-setting penalties would be created for some scenarios, such as when the defense is offside and the offence commits holding on the player who is offside, which would result in no yardage difference being applied and the down being replayed
  • No longer allowing a team that gives up a field goal in the last three minutes of a game to choose to scrimmage the ball instead of receiving a kick off
  • A player who gives an opponent’s offensive ball to a fan after a turnover is ruled on the field would no longer be flagged for objectionable conduct, which had been an unintended consequence of allowing offences to use their own footballs

Rejected

• A rule pertaining to how far downfield offensive linemen can block on a pass play. The proposed rule will be reconsidered next year

Regular season

Structure

Teams play eighteen regular season games, playing two divisional opponents three times and all of the other teams twice. Teams are awarded two points for a win and one point for a tie. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs, with the first place team gaining a bye to the divisional finals. A fourth place team in one division may qualify ahead of the third place team in the other division (the "Crossover"), if they earn more points in the season.^[17]

If two or more teams in the same division are equal in points, the following tiebreakers apply:^[18]

1. If a third-place team finishes in a tie with the fourth place team in the other division, the third place team automatically gets the playoff spot and there is no crossover.
2. Most wins in all games
3. Head to head winning percentage (matches won divided by all matches played)
4. Head to head points difference
5. Head to head points ratio
6. Tiebreakers 3–5 applied sequentially to all divisional games
7. Tiebreakers 4 and 5 applied sequentially to all league games
8. Coin toss

Notes:

• 1. If two clubs remain tied after other club(s) are eliminated during any step, tie breakers reverts to step 2.

Standings

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

Teams in bold are in playoff positions.
X – clinched playoff berth
Y – clinched first place and bye to division final

West Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pts
BC Lions	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Calgary Stampeders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Edmonton Eskimos	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Saskatchewan Roughriders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Winnipeg Blue Bombers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details

East Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pts
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Montreal Alouettes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Ottawa Redblacks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details
Toronto Argonauts	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Details

References

1. New five-year CBA ratified by CFL and CFLPA
2. Argonauts announce sale, move to BMO Field
3. Toronto Argonauts' days at Rogers Centre numbered after signing new lease
4. Argonauts sold to Larry Tanenbaum and Bell
5. Adidas to become the official outfitter of the CFL
6. 16 new things at TD Place in 2016
7. http://news.sportslogos.net/2016/04/25/cfl-to-launch-new-adidas-uniforms-may-12th/
8. Rishaug, Ryan. "Orridge pushes pause on CFL coaching carousel". TSN.
9. "No compensation owed to RedBlacks for Maas hiring". TSN. 2016-04-01. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
10. http://ticats.ca/tiger-cats-promote-tillman-to-general-manager-allemang-burke-appointed-assistant-general-managers/
11. "CFL, CFLPA announce expanded drug testing". TSN. 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
12. "CFL, CFLPA agree on new drug policy for the 2016 season". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
13. "CFL, NFL partner up to form officiating development program". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
14. "CFL, NFL announce officiating partnership". TSN. 2016-04-22. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
15. "CFL Rules Committee Recommends 'Eye in the Sky' Video Official". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
16. "CFL Board of Governors approves 'eye in the sky' for 2016". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
17. CFL.ca staff. "The Crossover Explained". The Canadian Football League. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
18. "The Game". CFL.ca. The Canadian Football League. Retrieved November 9, 2014.