TSN Football Insider Suggests CFL Expansion to United States
Expansion and competition from down south have been topics of discussion for the CFL for a long time, and one of the top Canadian insiders believes the CFL might have an opportunity.
On Friday, TSN’s Dave Naylor went on Ottawa 1200 The Drive and was asked about SI.com’s Mike Mitchell’s report on some inside the UFL believing the 2025 season could be the last. While Naylor was not surprised to hear it, he believes the UFL is good for the CFL.
“I don’t think having an eight-team spring football league is bad for the CFL. In fact, I think it’s probably good because you are keeping more players active and just look at the number of players in our league right now that have UFL or USFL or XFL on their resumes. It’s a lot. And those guys wouldn’t be playing football without those leagues.”
At one point after the COVID-19 pandemic, the XFL and CFL were in discussions for some kind of partnership, but it wasn’t specified as whether it was a merger or just a partnership. Those talks ended in 2022 with the CFL moving forward with its season and the XFL playing in 2023 and eventually merging with the USFL to become the UFL.
Both leagues have had cross-over with players in both leagues, with the biggest example being Montreal Alouettes linebacker Darnell Sankey winning an XFL title with the Arlington Renegades and now starting for Montreal. Naylor discussed how players prefer to play in the CFL because of its history and tradition.
“I’ve talked to players for a bit about the experience of playing, comparing both leagues. You know what they love about the CFL? Fans, history, record books. It’s a more meaningful league to play in than it is when playing in a league where in some cases there’s almost no fans, you’re playing in one city and practicing in another, there’s uncertainty on if it’s going to be around. I mean all those things matter to the players. There’s no question there’s a certain type of players those leagues are better for. They’re trying to get into the NFL it’s because when your season ends, you can do that.”
The most eye-opening part of the interview was Naylor's suggestion that if the UFL does fail, the CFL should put a team in St. Louis.
“Here’s what I’m curious about and if this league does go the way of the dodo bird, I would be very curious to see if anybody makes this a real thing. They got a team in that league that draws like 35,000 a game in St. Louis? How are we doing on finding the 10th team in the CFL team within Canada? Not so well. I think it would behoove the Canadian Football League to try to add St. Louis as its 10th franchise if that league went down.”
From 1993 through 1995, the CFL had seven American teams that played during that span as the Baltimore Stallions were the only team from America to win a Grey Cup. The CFL abandoned the U.S. format and went back to just Canadian teams due to financial issues.
If the CFL stuck with a potential U.S. team not having to follow the seven Canadian starter quota, Naylor believes the level of competition with Americans and Canadians are close.
“I mean just look at the number of Canadians playing in NCAA football. There were 37 Canadians under contract in the NFL in early July. The talent level of Canadians is so much higher than it was 30 years ago. I think if you have teams that required seven Canadian starters going up against all-American rosters, but of course not NFL talent level, I don’t think we would have a competitive issue with that.”
Before the CFL could consider expansion into the United States, the league needs to see if they can finally land a 10th team in their home country.
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