The Canadian Football League can be a comfort, because it doesn鈥檛 really change. A bankrupt owner here, the QB-coaching-GM carousel there, Ottawa coming and going and coming back, sure. But for as long as most people remember the bones of the league 鈥 the fundamentals of Canadian football, from teams to rules to the field itself 鈥 have stayed pretty much the same.
No more. When Stewart Johnston was named commissioner last summer he made clear he didn鈥檛 want to be a caretaker; he wanted to be consequential, and the owners gave him the power to make real change. Monday in Toronto, the former TSN executive unveiled the biggest changes to the CFL in recent memory. Or maybe just memory.
鈥淭his is a clear step forward in the evolution of our game, not only in how it’s played but also in how it’s enjoyed,鈥 said Johnston.
Starting in 2027, the field will be reduced from 110 yards long to an NFL-matching 100 yards. End zones will be reduced from 20 yards deep to 15 yards. And the goalposts will move to the back of end zones.
And that鈥檚 not all. In 2026, the rouge will be all but eliminated to a single point only if the ball is kicked into the end zone and stays there, rather than bounces out of bounds. And the play clock that helped the league become a last-three-minutes chaos factory will change. Instead of the discretionary 20-second clock that restarts when officials deem everything to be in order, it will be an automatic 35-second play clock.
The play clock change could be significant. Comebacks will require more urgency, in a league where spiking the ball to stop the clock is almost always too costly in a three-down game.
But changing the CFL field to 100 yards, shallowing the end zone and moving the goalposts feels ... American. The width of the field 鈥 65 yards versus 53 down south 鈥 won鈥檛 change. And it should be said, the end zones used to be five yards deeper; that was altered in 1986.
The 110-yard field, however, was first established by the Canadian Rugby Union in 1896, so this is a sea change in CFL history. Johnston said the goal was more end-zone options 鈥 ergo, moving the posts 鈥 and therefore more incentive to chase touchdowns rather than field goals. Move the posts and you have to shrink the field. And the limitation of the beloved rouge is mostly to avoid the spectre of a Grey Cup being won on a missed field goal, a mindless booming punt or a kickoff, as much attention as that might bring the league.
In truth, the league has always been reticent to change because the league was scared it would alienate its stable core of customers, and now they will find out. Go to a Grey Cup 鈥 seriously, you should, go for the whole week 鈥斅燼nd you will see this league has an aging, dedicated fan base.听
But Johnston is clearly less concerned with uncertainty than he is that the CFL could become a living museum in what he has described as a vicious fight for attention. Traditionally, rule changes have been in the hands of coaches, GMs and front-office men. But this was driven almost entirely by Johnston, along with senior league staff and some statistical underpinnings. The board of governors 鈥 the owners or chairs of the CFL’s nine teams 鈥 unanimously approved the moves.
So there is risk here. Yes, the owners are on board. But this is a TV executive 鈥 albeit a seasoned one with extensive sports experience who loves the CFL 鈥斅爉onkeying with the very nature of Canadian football within months of taking office, in a league where tradition runs from Calgarians bringing a horse into the lobby during Grey Cup week to the football fields which have contained the game for over 100 years in stadiums across this country.
When asked if he would rule out going to four-down football, Johnston didn鈥檛 come close to saying never. When asked if any rule was sacred, he didn鈥檛 say yes. You get the distinct idea that Johnston won鈥檛 stop here.
鈥淲e as a league are going to move at pace,鈥 said Johnston. 鈥淚 want urgency on the field and I want urgency in our business and we are going to push forward, and I saw no reason to delay ... I came to this job with a message to the league governors, and they gave me the same message back: the status quo is unacceptable.鈥
Now comes the reaction. Canadian QB Nathan Rourke of the B.C. Lions registered strong disagreement with the changes and process 鈥 he called it “garbage” 鈥 while issuing a passionate defence of the CFL as it has been. More reaction will come.
“How many more ways can you change the game and keep it unique?” asked one longtime Canadian football source, who requested anonymity in order to fully digest the changes.
It’s risky business, and how these changes land may determine what comes next. This will make the CFL less unique and more American, and there鈥檚 no hiding that. Maybe it works or maybe it鈥檚 a failure, or maybe it makes no real difference to the trajectory of the league in the end. Maybe this just makes the CFL look more like a smaller, paler imitation of the NFL.听And no, the CFL couldn鈥檛 stay a static thing forever.
But it鈥檚 changing now. And it may never be the same.
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