Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

No, still three downs and 12 players, but the CFL announced major phased changes today:

• The goal posts will move to the back of the end zone in 2027.

• The end zones will now be a standard 15 yards instead of 20*.

• No more twin 50 yard lines and a 55, as the field will be shortened to 100 yards.

• The rouge will be modified so you can't have a missed field goal just sail out of the back of the end zone to win while the opponents watch helplessly.

If there are any Canadian football experts here (and I know there are) who would be up for doing a flash live stream this week to discuss these changes, love to have you. Send me a PM.



(*offer not available in Toronto and slightly different in Montreal)

No 110-yard field? Holy @#$%! I have a feeling there is going to be a lot blowback on some of these changes.

Not only all that, but players can now quaff Labatts instead of Gatorade on the sidelines.

Is it me, or could this be a subtle, precursory "warning things up" for a possible allowance of NFL entry??

Though I don't follow CFL, I clearly HOPE not!! As little as I know beneath the border, the NFL should NOT dip a finger up there at ALL! Just a simple Toronto having an NFL team and it'll all fall down like dominoes! Isn't there a Canadian "rule" against it anyway?

The only reason why I don't follow the CFL (as, also, the case with Canadian college ball; AND the WNBA) is because of the ridiculous "too many teams making the playoffs" which, I guess, all Canadian-fans are more-than fine with (don't know why). Still, it doesn't mean that I want the Tradition to go awry.

No, keep both entities unique in their own way. I like the 'twin' 50 yard-lines (with the 'C' for Centre - 're', not 'er' - in between)! Yes, 20-yard end-zone a bit weird, but its already been the case all this time so let it be. Same with 12-men and just 3 downs.

Again, two best teams in each division being the only two to get in with the playoffs being a criss-cross a la 1969 AFL, and I'm IN!!

I hope it gets immediately vetoed!

74_75_78_79_ wrote: ↑Mon Sep 22, 2025 6:08 pm I hope it gets immediately vetoed!

It was literally unanimously passed by the governors of the teams.

Fans don't get a vote and there is no one to veto it.

CFL players and coaches were not consulted about the rule changes. B.C. Lions QB Nathan Rourke calls the new rules "garbage."

“The worst part about it, honestly, is the fact that the people who play football, who have the football knowledge, were not consulted about this. Players weren’t consulted, coaches, management, nobody was consulted. This was done of [the owners’] own accord.”

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/article/lions-na ... st-tirade/

Basically NFL rules with 3 downs, 12 players and still some different field dimensions but losing some of the primary.

Moving the goal posts will eliminate a lot of rouge chances by default.

A lot of the selling points of uniquely Canadian (for those up north) and enough differences to be interesting (for those down south) get lost essentially becoming NFL-lite with one more player and one less down.

I've watched the CFL as far back as I can remember. Being in WA and getting "the Canadian channel" (CBC) as I called it growing up. Great as is.

These changes will make it more like watching the UFL, which is watched more as obligation because it's football and it's on TV, rather than enjoyment and something I look forward to.

Reaser wrote: ↑Tue Sep 23, 2025 2:02 pm These changes will make it more like watching the UFL, which is watched more as obligation because it's football and it's on TV, rather than enjoyment and something I look forward to.

The clearest and most succinct summation of the UFL I've ever seen, thank you.

IMHO, here's what makes the CFL interesting:
1) It's a more wide-open game because it pretty much has to be with three downs.
2) Games are often decided (sometimes three or four times in the same game) in the final minute, and you can never just turn it off and be sure.
3) The rules differences are just enough to make it a unique code, but not so much that it's unrecognizable as football.
4) It feels way less corporate and obvious than the NFL.
5) It starts earlier and is over by (US) Thanksgiving.

I can totally understand how these changes would make Canadians feel like they are losing some of what makes their game uniquely theirs. (Though, to be fair, they only increased the value of touchdowns from five to six in 1956, they didn't have regular-season overtime until 1985, and so it's not like they're still playing by original rules or anything, and the ill-fated US expansion was way worse an idea than this.)

I have been to three CFL games (in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa) in three consecutive years, and there was no rouge in either of them.

I will miss the larger field and the goal posts at the end zone, but I saw the CFL Commissioner explaining with highlights that the goal posts often obstructed quarterbacks (a la Billy Kilmer in Super Bowl VII) and that the width of the field will stay the same. Many people don't remember that the ball also was changed a few years ago to match the NFL ball in size (I bought a Canadian official ball at Calgary and it was rounder than the NFL ball).

Save the rouge!!