Editing Canadian Football League (section)

==Season structure==
[[File:Anthony Calvillo game action, 93rd Grey Cup.jpg|thumb|right|[[Montreal Alouettes]] quarterback [[Anthony Calvillo]] looks down field with the ball during the [[2005 Grey Cup]] game against the [[Edmonton Eskimos]] at [[BC Place]].]]
Since [[2022 CFL season|2022]], the CFL season has included:
* A two-game, three-week exhibition season (or pre-season) in late May to early June
* An 18-game, 21-week regular season running from early June to late October
* A six-team, three-week [[single elimination]] [[playoff]] tournament beginning in early November and culminating in the [[Grey Cup]] championship in late November. Championship teams will play either two or three playoff games, including the Grey Cup game, depending on their standing at the end of the regular season. The division leaders at the end of the regular season receive byes in the first round of the playoffs.

===Preseason===
Team training camps open 28 days prior to the first regular season game of the season, a camp solely devoted to first year players is allowed the three days before the main camp opens. The pre-season exhibition schedule is two weeks long with each team playing two games against teams from its own division.

===Regular season===
The regular season is 21 weeks long, with games beginning in early June and finishing by late October. With 18 regular season games being played, each team gets three bye weeks. The CFL's nine current teams are divided into two divisions: the [[East Division (CFL)|East Division]] with four teams and the [[West Division (CFL)|West Division]], with five teams.

From the 1986 season until the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] (other than during the U.S. expansion when the league had twelve and thirteen teams) each team played two games against each of the other eight teams, plus two or four additional divisional games with opponents rotating each season. This format was changed when the league resumed play in 2021 to create a greater emphasis on divisional play. Under the eighteen game format, each Eastern team played ten games within their division and eight games against Western opponents, thus playing two of the Western teams once (one at home and one on the road) and the other three Western teams twice, while playing two Eastern opponents three times and one division rival four times. Three of the Western teams played each division rival three times, two Eastern teams twice and two Eastern teams once. The remaining two Western teams played three of the Eastern opponents twice and one of the Eastern opponents once, while playing each other twice and the other Western teams three times. The CFL returned to the previous more balanced format beginning in the [[2024 CFL season|2024 season]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://winnipegsun.com/sports/football/cfl/back-to-balanced-sked-for-cfl-commish |title=Back to balanced sked for CFL: Commish |work=winnipegsun |access-date=January 19, 2024 |publisher=CFL.ca |date=November 14, 2023}}</ref>

The most popular featured week in the CFL season is the [[Labour Day Classic]], played over the course of the Labour Day weekend, where the matchups feature the first half of home-and-home series between the traditional geographic rivalries of Toronto–Hamilton (a rivalry which began in 1873<ref name="Football Canada timeline"/>), Edmonton–Calgary (see [[Battle of Alberta#Elks vs. Stampeders|Battle of Alberta]]), Winnipeg–Saskatchewan, and Ottawa–Montreal. In years that Ottawa or Montreal were not in the league, BC played against one of these teams.<ref name="2007 schedule announcement">{{cite web |url=https://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=newser&func=display&topicnum=&nid=15128&writer=0 |title=CFL Game Schedule Announced |access-date=May 21, 2007 |publisher=CFL.ca |date=February 14, 2007}}</ref> The following week's rematch of these games is a popular event as well, especially in recent years, where the rematch of the Saskatchewan–Winnipeg game has been dubbed the [[Banjo Bowl]].

Other features of the regular season schedule are the [[Canadian Football Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]] Game and the [[Thanksgiving Day Classic]], the one or two games held on [[Thanksgiving (Canada)|Thanksgiving]] where the match ups usually do not feature traditional rivalries. From 2010 to 2013, a neutral site regular season game was played in [[Moncton]] under the name [[Touchdown Atlantic]]. The neutral site games returned in 2019 and were also played in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

The league awards points based on regular season results (much like in most ice hockey leagues, but unlike the NFL, which strictly uses winning percentages to determine their standings; two points are awarded for a win, one for a tie and none for a loss). As of the 2021 season, in the event two or more teams in a division finish the season with the same number of points, the tie is broken based on the following criteria (in descending order), with coin tosses used if all such tie-breaker steps fail:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_tiebreak |title=The Game |access-date=November 25, 2013 |publisher=cfl.ca |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022103352/http://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_tiebreak |archive-date=October 22, 2013 }}</ref>
* Number of wins in all games;
* Winning percentage in games between the tied teams;
* Net ''aggregate'' of points scored (i.e. total points scored less total points conceded) between the tied teams;
* Net ''quotient'' of points scored (i.e. total points scored divided by total points conceded) between the tied teams;
* Winning percentage in divisional games;
* Net aggregate of points scored in divisional games;
* Net quotient of points scored in divisional games;
* Net aggregate of points scored in all games;
* Net quotient of points scored in all games.

===Playoffs===
The [[playoff]]s take place in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home berth in the division final, and a bye week during the division semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the division semifinal, unless a fourth-place team from one division finishes with a better record than a third place team in the other (this provision is known as the ''crossover rule'', and while it implies that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the Grey Cup, only five crossover teams have won a semifinal since the rule's 1996 inception, and none of them have advanced to the Grey Cup). The winners of each division's semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the division finals. The two division champions then face each other in the [[Grey Cup]] game, which, since [[109th Grey Cup|2022]], has been held on the third Sunday of November; for 2021, the game was played in December, which was the first time this had happened since [[60th Grey Cup|1972]].

===Grey Cup===
[[File:Grey Cup circa 2006.jpg|thumb|right|125px|The [[Grey Cup]]]]

{{main|List of Grey Cup champions}}

The [[Grey Cup]] is both the name of the championship of the CFL and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The Grey Cup is the second-oldest trophy in North American professional sports, after the Stanley Cup. The Grey Cup game is hosted in one of the league's member cities. In recent years, it has been hosted in a different city every year, selected two or more years in advance. The Toronto Argonauts have won the most Grey Cups with 19 wins total, most recently in 2024. In 2013, the Grey Cup was won at home for the third consecutive time (by the [[Saskatchewan Roughriders]]), which had not been done since [[Toronto Argonauts|Toronto]] won at home from 1945 to 1947. In 2016, the Grey Cup was won on the natural grass turf of [[BMO Field]] by the [[Ottawa Redblacks]] beating the heavily favoured [[Calgary Stampeders]] 39–33 in overtime; the first Grey Cup championship for any Ottawa CFL team in 40 years.

As the country's single largest annual sporting event, the Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian autumn festival generating national media coverage and a large amount of revenue for the host city.<ref name="Houston 2006-12-20"/> Many fans travel from across the country to attend the game and the week of festivities that lead up to it.

Since 2015, the Grey Cup game's presenting sponsor is [[Shaw Communications]].<ref name="global-shawgreycupdeal">{{cite news|title=Shaw, CFL announce Grey Cup sponsorship deal|url=http://globalnews.ca/news/1988297/shaw-cfl-announce-grey-cup-sponsorship-deal/|access-date=October 2, 2015|work=Global News|publisher=Shaw Media|date=May 8, 2015}}</ref>

===Awards===
Following the Grey Cup game, the [[Grey Cup Most Valuable Player]] and [[Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian]] are selected. A number of league individual player awards, such as the [[CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award|Most Outstanding Player]] and [[CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award|Most Outstanding Defensive Player]], are awarded annually at a special ceremony in the host city during the week before the Grey Cup game; this ceremony is broadcast nationally on [[The Sports Network|TSN]]. The [[Annis Stukus Trophy]], also known as the Coach of the Year Award, is awarded separately at a banquet held during the off-season each February. While the CFL has not held an [[all-star game]] since [[1988 CFL season|1988]], an All-Star Team is selected and honoured at the league awards ceremony during Grey Cup week.