CFL COMMISSIONER THINKS TURNING UP THE HEAT IS KEY
Overhauled playoff format could provide opportunities for rivalry-stoking trash talk
When we look back at the reign of current CFL boss Randy Ambrosie, the one thing we won’t say is he sat on his hands.
The Winnipegger-turned-commissioner has never met an idea he didn’t want to take home and have coffee with.
The latest trial balloon the former O-lineman is floating involves a revamped playoff format.
What Ambrosie is proposing, and criss-crossing the country to get feedback on, would all but end the East-vs.-west component of the CFL playoffs.
Yes, we’ve kicked similar ideas around, ad nauseam.
But this one has a twist. Actually, more of a gimmick.
At the top of the season-ending standings, nothing would change: the first-place team in each division would get a firstround playoff bye.
But the other four teams to make the post-season would be the four best based on their records, regardless of what division they’re in.
The top seed in that bunch would host No. 4, while the No. 2 seed would host No. 3.
So using last season’s standings, Saskatchewan (13-5) and Hamilton (15-3) would have had the byes, Calgary (12-6) would have hosted Edmonton (8-10), while Winnipeg (11-7) hosted Montreal (10-8).
That’s not a dramatic change in the big picture.
But it would have meant a third-place team in a strong division, like the Blue Bombers, would have begun the playoffs at home instead of on the road.
After that, things get even stranger in the commish’s trial balloon.
The day after those semifinals, the first-place teams get to choose who they play in the division finals.
For our 2019 example, if the Blue Bombers and Stampeders held form and won their semis, the Tiger-cats (because of their superior record, we presume) would choose between Winnipeg and Calgary as their next opponent.
The Riders would take the other.
“This is an idea that needs oxygen,” Ambrosie told TSN radio in Hamilton.
We’re told this idea came from Bombers CEO Wade Miller.
Miller obviously looks at the meat grinder that is the CFL West and sees a better chance to host a lucrative playoff game under the proposed format.
But if the Bombers finished first overall, it would put the strait-laced CEO and his even more strait-laced head coach in the difficult position of having to choose their opponent for the division final.
So, coach, which team do you think you can beat the most easily?
You may as well ask Mike O’shea to write naughty things about the opposing team and post them on the locker-room door for the day they arrive in town.
Actually, Ambrosie is ready to encourage that very thing, too.
In the same radio interview, the Commish promoted more trash talk.
He cited the introductory news conference for Alouettes co-owner Gary Stern last month, in which Stern, a Toronto businessman, was asked why he hadn’t purchased the Argos instead when they were on the block.
“The Argos suck,” he said.
“The league needs more of that,” Ambrosie said.
“It’s really helpful to us if we end up with people being more willing to talk about their opponent, a little less of the, ‘Man they’re just great guys ... and if I wasn’t playing against them I might have them over for dinner,” the Commish continued.
Ambrosie pointed to the origins of the annual Banjo Bowl between the Bombers and Riders as an example.
It was 17 years ago that Winnipeg kicker Troy Westwood called Saskatchewan fans a “bunch of banjo-picking inbreds,” and when that didn’t light enough fires one province over, Ol’ Lefty publicly apologized by saying he was wrong, that most people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.
An already-heated rivalry went over the top: the Labour Day weekend rematch has been sold out 15 consecutive seasons.
“It was originally an insult,” Ambrosie said. “But it’s turned out to be the greatest homeand-home in our league. That was essentially bulletin-board material that got that thing started.”
Sure it was.
But it just happened. It was organic before organic was in vogue.
To force this stuff would smack of a pro wrestling smackdown.
Ambrosie’s concern is the CFL’S three biggest markets: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
The inability to sell tickets in those cites is one of the reasons he’s been busy scouring the globe for international players and drumming up interest in the CFL.
“Those cities are more international,” the Commish said.
“So we have to find a way to attract fans in those communities. Do you go back to the old marketing campaigns ... I doubt it.”
He’s hoping a Japanese running back might bring out the Japanese community, an Italian linebacker connect with the Italian community, and so on. It’s a noble effort, I suppose. Ambrosie’s end game, of course, is more eyes on the CFL.
He’s prepared to go the ends of the earth to find them.
But he’d better not turn off the ones already watching.