Significant changes to the game to be announced tomorrow morning

[Looner]

One tweak to your summary, point is awarded also if tackled.

Overall I'm fine with all these changes with only a minor objection to the field length.

Interesting now though is that for a Field Goal to be within 50 yards, teams now need to gain to the 28 yard line. Combined with the fact that punts in the end zone may still result in the ball coming back to the 40 yard line, why wouldn't teams just gamble every single time if you are between the opposition 30 and 50. The risk/reward scenario makes gambling very attractive particularly as punters struggle getting that coffin corner at shorter distances. This is assuming they keep the rouge as a 40 yard field position change. If they drop it to 30 then I don't think it would change strategy very much.

35 second clock is awesome. Always drove me crazy how sometimes in the 4th quarter plays extended up to 40-50 seconds if the officials don't press teams to complete their changes and not close the gates quickly. So this is a great improvement to 54 minutes of the game, but it does sacrifice a lot of the excitement in the other 6 minutes per game. Hopefully they offer up more timeouts so that teams can still effectively use those last couple minutes of a game to mount a comeback.

Thats one of the reasons they are making that change, they feel like it will result in more gambles. Another thing that I thought of is that kickers seem to be getting more and more length on their kicks, making it so mid field is a target for at least an attempt, this will squash that, which I think I'm in favor of as we have lost so many games in the last few years on walk off fields goals LOL

[Mudnyereye]

I just can't get past the fact the field will look like a US field now.

[glenvb]

Thats one of the reasons they are making that change, they feel like it will result in more gambles. Another thing that I thought of is that kickers seem to be getting more and more length on their kicks, making it so mid field is a target for at least an attempt, this will squash that, which I think I'm in favor of as we have lost so many games in the last few years on walk off fields goals LOL

In the NFL, midfield is pretty much a target for an attempt these days. Crazy how kickers have such power.

Not sure what to think of these changes. The field will be 20 yards shorter, right? (2 x end zone shortening, 10 yards shortening in midfield) Does that require stadium alterations? Don't want to reject something just because it's an Americanization, so I don't have a verdict right now. If they had changed the WIDTH of the field, I would have had a few pointed comments.

[bone]

In the NFL, midfield is pretty much a target for an attempt these days. Crazy how kickers have such power.

Not sure what to think of these changes. The field will be 20 yards shorter, right? (2 x end zone shortening, 10 yards shortening in midfield) Does that require stadium alterations? Don't want to reject something just because it's an Americanization, so I don't have a verdict right now. If they had changed the WIDTH of the field, I would have had a few pointed comments.

Yeah, it's a 20 yard impact overall to the size of the play field. I doubt it will lead to any alterations in stadiums but might encourage more on field ticketing options as some will make the existing 55 yard line the new 50 yard line bringing everything closer to the middle, but some might choose to keep one end zone in the exact same spot allowing up to 20 yards of on field space to build a fan experience area like we have at Commonwealth. Some of the buildings already couldn't handle the existing size (including Commonwealth until they removed the race track so this one is fine by me

Even though I'd maybe preferred to keep the 110 yards, the upright change from a field goal perspective added 30 yards to the field size so losing 10 in the middle lessens the impact to 20 yards (upright are now 130 yards apart instead of 110).

[glenvb]

Does anyone know where 1-point converts will be taken? If they stay the same, the movement of the goal posts to the back of the end zone would make them something like 47 yards, no?

[bone]

Does anyone know where 1-point converts will be taken? If they stay the same, the movement of the goal posts to the back of the end zone would make them something like 47 yards, no?

It wasn't part of the press conference, but I'd supect this too would have to change as it should remain a kick with high percentage completion rate.

If the intent is still to keep it as 32 yards, they'll scrimmage from the 10 but maybe they'll consider going to PAT and 2pt play scrimmaging from the same spot which could create scenarios for fakes again. Scrimmaging from the 3 for a PAT would still be essentially a 25 yard attempt and I suspect kicking percentages from 25 yards vs. 32 yards are virtually identical and that missing it is moreso from the trajectory completely from those distances.

[Moose Head]

For what it’s worth, Farhan just said Nathan Rourke thinks the rule changes are “garbage” and isn’t impressed with the new commish. And based on Sean Whyte’s Twitter post, he isn’t thrilled either. Oh boy. This is the start of something.

[bone]

For what it’s worth, Farhan just said Nathan Rourke thinks the rule changes are “garbage” and isn’t impressed with the new commish. And based on Sean Whyte’s Twitter post, he isn’t thrilled either. Oh boy. This is the start of something.

Naturally the kickers don't like it. The field just got 20 yards longer for them. Would have been 30 yards without the shrinking of the field.

Typical "great" (sic.. horrible) move by the CFL though by not getting in front of this with the players to help make them proponents of change rather than opponents. If they are reacting this way, I'm suspecting the players weren't given much notice on this. You'd think at minimum you'd have the CFLPA sign off on this which doesn't appear to be the case.

[Mudnyereye]

Naturally the kickers don't like it. The field just got 20 yards longer for them. Would have been 30 yards without the shrinking of the field.

Typical "great" (sic.. horrible) move by the CFL though by not getting in front of this with the players to help make them proponents of change rather than opponents. If they are reacting this way, I'm suspecting the players weren't given much notice on this. You'd think at minimum you'd have the CFLPA sign off on this which doesn't appear to be the case.

When was the last time the CFL handled something by getting in front of it and ensuring buy in from players and supporters?

[bone]

When was the last time the CFL handled something by getting in front of it and ensuring buy in from players and supporters?

That's a really good question.

[Moose Head]

I love this league. And sometimes it’s hard to love this league. Imagine trying to promote it to young people who didn’t grow up loving this league. Today doesn’t help.

[Sectionq]

For the rules:
- Benches on either side - Seems like a no brainer.
- 5 yards removed from each end zone. When he first said it, I was like what the hell. Then he explained the reason. I didn't realize there was a few stadiums that didn't have full size end zones so it makes perfect sense to standardize. Teams would practice plays on a 20 yard end zone, then come to certain field and all of a sudden you are missing a few yards.
- 35 second play clock that resets right away. I had no idea it was manually set and I can see how having it standardize makes sense and speeds things up. So I don't have a problem. On Gregor's show today he said he asked some teams who knew this was coming, they have been timing it and they said over 60% of their plays took way longer than 35 seconds. That's a lot and if that's the case for all teams, having the set time should speed things up a lot.
- Goal posts moving - Big change. It does kind of make sense as there have been times when the goal posts stopped sure TD's plus there is definitely plays teams don't run due to the posts and when you are in the red zone, those posts kind of neutralize part of the field. It's going to impact kicking but maybe it will force OC's to be more aggressive on 3rd downs.
- 10 yards removed from the middle of the field. I am on the fence about this one and I missed the reason why.

- No rouge on missed FG. Very happy about this one. I know it's "Canadian" but I hate the rouge. I really dislike rewarding teams for missing a field goal and I absolutely hate being able to win a game by punting a ball through the end zone. To me, that's not a great football play and a brutal way to lose a game.

[Beerfish]

After seeing this my mouth just hung open and I literally said 'What the ****????' out loud with no one else around.

To say I am stunned would be a huge understatement.

[Beerfish]

I guess I just watch the NFL now unless the Elks are actually good and real contenders.

[glenvb]

Unhappy about the rouge changes. The CFL provides lots of ways to score, which makes close games more interesting. Now they'll be less interesting. And I'm tired of hearing that the rouge on a missed FG rewards failure. It doesn't reward failure any more than a FG does. In both cases, a team fails to make it to the end zone. In both cases, the team had some success moving the ball down the field. They get rewarded with fewer points than a TD; in the case of a rouge, a lot fewer.