The CFL has lots of room to improve.

So it got me thinking; what's holding the CFL back in terms of gaining greater popularity? I follow the CFL on a casual basis so I know information about the standings, players who are playing well and general news. I'll watch bits and pieces of an occasional game and I've attended a handful of games, so I think I have a pretty good grasp of what the CFL is about.

With all that, here are some suggestions for the league:

	TSN has created an established CFL brand with Wendy's Friday Night Football.

Improve the Schedule: One look at the CFL schedule will show you games that are played throughout the days of the week with no regularity or pattern. Here are two examples of the unexplainable schedule the CFL has drawn up this year. The Ottawa Renegades had just three days of rest between their Friday, June 27th game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and their Tuesday July 1st Canada Day encounter against the Calgary Stampeders. Even worse, the Edmonton Eskimos played 3 games in the span of a chaotic week and a half: June 21st, June 26th and July 1st. These are just two examples of a schedule that confuses and beleaguers people in a way that only calculus can. The CFL desperately needs to remedy this situation and the solution is quite simple: follow the format that is already put in place by the CFL's younger and more much successful brother, the National Football League. The NFL groups all their games into a 2-day span, starting on Sunday and ending with Monday Night Football. The CFL already has a marketable and an established brand in place with TSN's Friday Night Football, which could act as a Monday Night football type vehicle that could display a feature game of the week that could kickoff the CFL's weekend schedule of games. Then the league could follow up with the rest of the teams matched up in early and late Saturday afternoon games. By grouping the schedule this way it not only allows for an easier-to-follow schedule for the average CFL fan it also allows more hype to be built into the games. Having a week between games allows for more media coverage of games and greater anticipation by the fans. Not only that, but a revised schedule would increase the interest in betting on the CFL. One of the major reasons for the NFL's popularity is the large amount of betting that occurs each Sunday and Monday night. Grouping all the games together makes it that much easier for fans to place a little money on the games and for some it helps improve the viewing experience. Plus having teams only play one game a week prevents further injuries from happening to a star-deprived league that can ill-afford to lose the handful of marketable commodities they have playing in the league. Of course for all this to work the CFL needs to round out their number of teams to an even number, which brings me to my next point.

Add Another Expansion Team: A 9-team league provides an unbalanced schedule and divisional format. The league needs to find a 10th team and fast in a LeBron James jersey sales figure way. One potential market that the CFL has yet to develop is Atlantic Canada, specifically Halifax. Halifax would be a terrific choice as an expansion team. The city has deep football roots with the great development and support of the St. Mary's University football program. Halifax has long supported and embraced Huskies football and is the annual host of the CIS Atlantic Bowl. Another pro for Halifax receiving consideration for a CFL team is the lack of major sports teams that the CFL will have to compete with in Halifax. Other than the QMJHL Halifax Mooseheads, the Halifax CFL franchise would be the only draw in town.

	My new playoff scenario may confuse you intially like the Matrix did.

Rework the Current Playoff Scenario: As it stands now 6 out of the 9 teams qualify for the playoffs. Where's the drama? Where's the uncertainty? When 66% of teams are qualifying for the playoffs it makes the regular season about as relevant as planning to watch the Tampa Devil Rays play ball in October. Playoff races in the NFL hook viewers because a large number of teams are vying for a small majority of spots. Earning a trip to the playoffs in the NFL is a true achievement and honour. In the CFL a team hypothetically could make the playoffs with a record of 3 games under .500. Rewarding teams for a lousy season is just wrong. Here's what I propose: Have the two top teams in both the East and West division automatically qualify for the playoffs. If a 5th and 6th team in either the West or East have a record above .500 then they both receive a qualification for the playoffs. The top seed in both the East and West would receive one-week byes. The 2nd place squads in both the East and West would then be pared off against the 5th and 6th seeded teams. The determination of who will play the 5th or 6th seed is dependant on which #2 ranked team has the better record. Confused? I hope I haven't lost you the same way The Matrix plot loses viewers. The Chosen One? The Matrix? Whatever. Just give me the Coles notes and I'll try to make sense of it. So hypothetically let's look a scenario in the West. Let's say the Lions were the #1 seed; they would enjoy a bye week. The number 2 team in the West, say the Eskimos, would face the 6th seed (Argos) only if the Esks have a better record than the #2 seed in the East (Renegades). If the Eskimos win their game against the 6th seeded team (Argos) then they would go on to face the Lions in the Western final to determine who goes to the Grey Cup. Here's the big if with this scenario: IF the 5th and 6th seeded teams don't both have records over .500 then only the top 2 teams in each division, basically four overall teams, would compete in the playoffs. So under this scenario two semi-finals are played with the winners of each of those games facing off in the championship game.

	Pro-Bowl linebacker Shelton Quarles is just one CFL success strory.

Improve Marketing of the League: The CFL needs to choose an identity and run with it. I mean what is the CFL? A Canadian development league? An NFL dropout/hopeful league? A minor league brand of football? The CFL has undergone enough identity crises to satisfy the writers of General Hospital. I mean the CFL expanded south to the US a few years ago in attempt to become a minor league form of football to the NFL. After that failed the CFL went back to being a Canadian professional league. I personally think that the CFL should market them self as a developmental football league that gives opportunities to Canadian university/college kids as well as their U.S counterparts. The league has developed some tremendous players that have gone on to excel in the NFL over the years. The distinguished list includes such players as Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia, Rocket Ismail and newer successful ex-CFLers such as Kansas City Chiefs WR Marc Boerighter and Pro-Bowl linebacker, Shelton Quarles from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who was playing for the B.C Lions just a few short years ago. This year, former Alouettes WR Pat Woodcock will attempt to become the next successful story when he tries to latch on with the Washington Redskins. If the CFL would do a better job of marketing the types of talent that the league helps develop, I think it would go a long way in drawing more interest to the league. I mean if you can't have the end (NFL) you might as well embrace the means (CFL).

All that I'm missing from becoming a CFL commissioner is an impressive track record with a sports company like Adidas. Give me a few more years.