The CFL kicks off a new season — and a new era

The canadian river football game conference begins a young chapter, in sir thomas more ways than one, tonight as the 2026 regular season kicks off with the East Division champion Montreal Alouettes visiting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Since taking over as commissioner in April of last year, former TSN president Stewart Johnson has introduced a series of major reforms. They'll roll out over the next two seasons in an apparent effort to make the CFL more attractive to broadcast partners, advertisers and casual viewers at a time when interest in the league has declined and the competition for eyeballs is more fierce than ever. They include an overhaul of the rulebook, an expanded playoff format and a lucrative new television- and streaming-rights deal.

Let's start with the rules changes, which Johnston accurately described last fall as "the most significant in decades" for the league. They begin this year with the elimination of the single point for the kicking team for missed field goals, punts or kickoffs that go through the back of the endzone, though the so-called "rouge" will still be awarded when the returner fails to get the ball out of the endzone or takes a knee. Also, to improve game flow, a 35-second play clock will automatically start when the previous play is blown dead — except in the final three minutes of each half, when a 20-second clock is manually initiated by an official once the ball is spotted.

The biggest rules changes arrive next year, when the length of the field will be reduced from 110 yards to 100 (same as the NFL), while the endzones tighten from 20 yards to 15. Also, the goalposts will move from the goal-line to the back of the reconfigured endzones.

These moves, especially the smaller field, angered some traditionalists. But Johnston sold them as "trading field goals for touchdowns" and said they were "necessary… to win in the attention economy."

The commissioner's second major overhaul came in late April, when he unveiled an expanded playoff structure that begins next season. Eight of the league's nine teams will qualify (up from six under the current format) and there will be three rounds before the Grey Cup game instead of two. The first round will include a pair of non-elimination games as the top two seeds in each division square off for a bye to the semifinals. The losers of those matchups advance to the second round, where they'll face the winners of two "play-in" games involving the No. 5-8 seeds. Also, the 2027 season will start a couple weeks earlier, on the Victoria Day weekend.

Then, last week, Johnston announced a new broadcast rights agreement with Bell Media (the parent company of TSN), DAZN (a streaming service that shows NFL games in Canada) and YouTube. The deal, which begins in 2027, will pay the CFL a reported $500M over six years. That's an average of about $83M per season — a nice bump from the $50M per year the league is making under its current contract.

But it's not just the broadcasters who will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets. After nearly two decades of being able to watch every game — up to and including the Grey Cup — on TSN, fans will now have to buy a DAZN subscription if they want to see everything. Similar to how Amazon Prime is the only place for U.S. Viewers to watch the NFL's Thursday Night Football, DAZN will be the exclusive broadcaster of a weekly Saturday night game and will also get two of the nine games in the expanded playoffs (YouTube will carry some pre-season games and an "all-access" series).

TSN keeps the rest of the playoffs, including the Grey Cup, and 60 of the 81 regular-season games. But that means about a quarter of the games will go behind a new paywall. A DAZN subscription currently costs $25/month for the cheapest package.

No clear Grey Cup favourite

Turning to what we'll see on the gridiron this season, it's shaping up as a wide-open race to the 113th Grey Cup game in Calgary this November. 

After defeating Montreal to win their first Grey Cup in 12 years, and just the fifth in the 115-year history of the club, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are trying to go back-to-back for the first time ever. Grey Cup MVP Trevor Harris, who celebrated his 40th birthday last weekend, remains among the league's most efficient quarterbacks, while running back AJ Oullette ranked second in the league in rushing yards last season.

But the Riders are listed at just 6/1 odds to repeat, trailing co-favourites Montreal and B.C., who are both around 3/1.

The Alouettes are hanging their hat on a healthy Davis Alexander, who is 13-0 as a starting quarterback in the regular season after going 7-0 and adding a pair of playoff wins last year. However, a bad hamstring caused the 27-year-old to miss 11 games and hampered him in Montreal's Grey Cup loss to Saskatchewan after he was reinjured in the East final against Hamilton.

The Lions feature 28-year-old Nathan Rourke, who last year became the first Canadian quarterback to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Player award since Russ Jackson in 1969. Rourke threw for 5,290 yards and 31 touchdowns (trailing only Hamilton's Bo Levi Mitchell in both categories) and led the league in passer rating while also rushing for 564 yards and 10 TDs. In the playoffs, he had B.C. On the verge of reaching the Grey Cup game before Harris engineered a 74-yard drive in the last minute of the West final.

Rourke has some great offensive weapons with the likes of Keon Hatcher, who led the league with 1,688 receiving yards last season, and running back James Butler, who was third in rushing yards. The Lions also boast the CFL's reigning Most Outstanding Defensive Player in pass rusher Mathieu Betts, who topped the league with 15 sacks.

Hamilton should also be in the mix again with Mitchell still going strong at age 36, while Winnipeg hopes 37-year-old Zach Collaros can turn back the clock after the two-time MOP threw a career-high 16 interceptions and only 17 touchdowns.

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