The CFL season is less than a month away, and it’s starting to look like the West will be a dogfight once again. The likelihood of a West Division crossover seems very high, with Ottawa and Toronto rebuilding. As with last season, we’ll be going through the entire season and predicting playoff matchups…way too early. So join us as we predict the season.

West Division
1) B.C. Lions 14-4
2) Calgary Stampeders 10-8
3) Saskatchewan Roughriders 10-8
4) Winnipeg Blue Bombers 9-9
5) Edmonton Elks 5-13

Starting off with the mighty West Division, the Lions, with perennial Most Outstanding Canadian Award winner, Nathan Rourke, take the entire division by storm and waltz into hosting the West Final without a fight. Behind them and hosting the West Semi-Final, the Calgary Stampeders hold the tiebreaker over the defending Grey Cup Champion Roughriders. For the Bombers, we’ll finally see the decline of a future Hall of Famer in Zach Collaros in what could very well be his final season in the CFL. While the Elks made moves in the off season that has drawn a lot of praise, the culture continues to be an issue as the Elks miss the playoffs once again.

East Division
1) Montreal Alouettes 16-2
2) Hamilton Tiger-Cats 9-9
3) Toronto Argonauts 7-11
4) Ottawa REDBlacks 2-16

The East continues to be the weaker division, with the Alouettes running away from the rest of the CFL with future Most Outstanding Player winner Davis Alexander under centre. Alexander does have some injury concerns regarding his left hamstring, having suffered injuries in back-to-back seasons. Meanwhile, in Hamilton, Bo Levi Mitchell continues his Hall of Fame career, with only a slight dip in his production compared to 2025. The Argo’s are getting Chad Kelly back for this season after being suspended for the majority of last season following a broken leg he suffered in the 2024 East Final. Ottawa has struggled, and they remain without a franchise quarterback and are likely not going to do very well this season, even with the change at head coach the made at the end of last season.

Which leads us to the playoff matchups, and with the fourth-place team in the West beating out the third-place team in the East, we have a crossover once again. Here’s how the playoffs look with this model, along with way too early predictions.

West Semi-Final
Saskatchewan Roughriders 18
Calgary Stampeders 20

East Semi-Final
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 14
Hamilton Tiger-Cat 17

West Final
Calgary Stampeders 17
BC Lions 21

East Final
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24
Montreal Alouettes 21

113th Grey Cup
BC Lions 38
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 35

The 113th edition of the Grey Cup is scheduled for November 15th, 2026 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta.