Overview
Nine clubs playing the Canadian code — three downs, twelve players, a wider and longer field — for the Grey Cup.
The Canadian Football League is the top professional league for Canadian football, a related but distinct code. The field is 110 yards long and 65 wide with 20-yard end zones, teams field twelve players, the offence has three downs rather than four, and a single point — the rouge — is awarded for a kick that is not returned out of the end zone.
Nine clubs play an eighteen-game season from June to late October, followed by a playoff culminating in the Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909 and one of the oldest trophies in North American sport.
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
Canadian football developed from rugby in the late nineteenth century, and the Grey Cup was first presented in 1909 as an amateur championship. The professional CFL took its present form in 1958 when the eastern and western unions consolidated.
An attempt to expand into the United States between 1993 and 1995 added several American clubs, one of which — the Baltimore Stallions — won the Grey Cup in 1995, the only non-Canadian side to do so. The experiment ended after three seasons.
Roster rules requiring a minimum number of Canadian nationals remain a defining feature, and the three-down game continues to produce a faster, more pass-heavy style than the American code.
Governance
The league is governed by its nine member clubs under a commissioner. Two clubs — Saskatchewan and Winnipeg — are community-owned.