Quote Originally Posted by paulwoods13 View Post
Quite possible. But what would the alternative schedule be? One game against each western team and 13 against the other teams in the East? I'd get very sick of seeing the same opponents over and over. Or totally unbalanced, i.e. two against some western teams and one against others? Then we'd end up with strength-of-schedule issues, one area that the CFL is better than the NFL IMO. Everyone plays the same schedule as everyone else, more or less.

The old unbalanced schedule worked when the East played 14 games and the West played 16 -- each team played one game against teams outside the division and three games against teams inside the division. But the 18-game schedule in a nine-team league pretty well requires home-and-home, with two extra intradivision games thrown in. Even if the league had a 10th team in the East, going to 13+5 would mean playing one team four times a season. Too many IMO.
You can do 12 and 6 with a a rotation of which western team you play twice in that year. I think building rivalries are more important than playing home and home with every team in the league.