Playoff Scenarios

I suppose I should say something about playoff scenarios for the Cats. Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton are all tied with a mediocre record of 7 to 9. For the crossover, Edmonton must have more points than the third placed East team. If Edmonton wins their last two games against Toronto and BC, they get the crossover, because Hamilton and Winnipeg play each other in the last game of the year, thus only one of those two teams can win two games. If Edmonton loses both of their final games, both Hamilton and Winnipeg are in. If Edmonton wins one of their remaining two games, if either Hamilton or Winnipeg wins this week's game and then the other team wins the final game, Edmonton is out. Similarly if both Hamilton and Winnipeg win their games this week and Edmonton only wins one, Edmonton is out.

Interestingly, this week's games for Hamilton and Winnipeg do not decide who hosts the East semi-final. Whoever wins the final game hosts the semi-final. Edmonton winning their last two games would make the Winnipeg game huge; either you host the semi-final or you are out. In the event Hamilton and Winnipeg tie in the final game, assuming both teams either win or lose this week, I believe I read somewhere that Hamilton gets in. I'm too lazy to look it up, so don't count on it.

I will interested to see how many Rider fans show up this week in the Hammer. With Saskatchewan still tied with Calgary atop the West, this is a very important game for them. Winning makes it much easier to host the West final, which is generally an advantage to host the West final. As mentioned for Hamilton, this is a bit of a weird game. Win next week in Winnipeg and what happens this week doesn't matter. Hopefully a decent number of fans show up this week. The Cats don't seem to be whoring out discounted tickets like the last week, so there must be some healthy demand from crazed, watermelon wearing Saskatchewan fans.