Group makes ‘very credible’ pitch for Halifax CFL franchise

[S.A.C.]

My point is that, in a league that supposedly has separate divisions and gives first round playoff byes to the division winners, part of that type of arrangement is having an unbalanced schedule. They could no longer realistically get away with pretending to have separate divisions if every team in the league is playing each other the same number of times. It would be difficult to justify arbitrarily designating the team that was in 4th or 5th place in the 10-team league to inexplicably be a "division winner" and give them a first round playoff bye and then a home game in the league's semi-final.

[R.J]

My point is that, in a league that supposedly has separate divisions and gives first round playoff byes to the division winners, part of that type of arrangement is having an unbalanced schedule. They could no longer realistically get away with pretending to have separate divisions if every team in the league is playing each other the same number of times. It would be difficult to justify arbitrarily designating the team that was in 4th or 5th place in the 10-team league to inexplicably be a "division winner" and give them a first round playoff bye and then a home game in the semi-final.

I don't think the League would have each team playing each other twice, inter divisional match-ups would still be prominent in the schedule. When people talk about schedule balance it has nothing to do with teams playing each other an even numbers of times, it's to balance out the bye weeks and the time teams have between games. I personally think the whole one division thing is way over blown, and I don't think people really understand how important East vs. West is during the playoffs, also when's the last time we had an all West Grey Cup ? Winnipeg's tenure is the East doesn't count.

The West had been stronger in the NHL and NBA for years, and they didn't change anything.

[argotom]

Absolutely the league will have a balanced schedule of each team playing the other twice.
That is one of the major reasons for bringing in a new team so we can get 5 great games every week.
No one wants to see 3 or 4 games when it used to be an 8 team league against the same team.

[paulwoods13]

My point is that, in a league that supposedly has separate divisions and gives first round playoff byes to the division winners, part of that type of arrangement is having an unbalanced schedule. They could no longer realistically get away with pretending to have separate divisions if every team in the league is playing each other the same number of times. It would be difficult to justify arbitrarily designating the team that was in 4th or 5th place in the 10-team league to inexplicably be a "division winner" and give them a first round playoff bye and then a home game in the league's semi-final.

A completely balanced schedule wouldn't be dramatically different that what we have now, where every team in both divisions plays 10 games against the west and eight against the east. If we ever get to 10 teams, I would still want to see all teams in the league once a year in Toronto, and I definitely wouldn't want to see three games against every team in my division. But I'd still retain the two divisions, and I expect the league will do that despite the current noise emanating out of the west for a single division.