Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely against the CFL; it operates and does fairly well in its own niche. The league has the potential to do so much more and simply needs a little tweaking to get there. I wrote about this a year and a half ago and since the ideas are still relevant let's delve into the archives:

	The CFL already has a marketable TV brand established. (Source: TSN.ca)

Compact 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. Consistency and building a TV brand around a pre-determined and set schedule is one major factor that propels the NFL to the great heights of popularity it garners. The NFL groups all of 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 to kickoff the CFL's weekend schedule of games. The league could then follow up with the rest of the teams matched up in early and late Saturday afternoon games. Saturday is an optimal timeslot for the majority of games because the CFL could avoid a head-to-head match-up with the NFL and only risks competing against Saturday afternoon baseball in the summer and NCAA football in the fall - two manageable competitors for the CFL. Plus having teams play only 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 happen the league needs to find a 10th team whether it be Halifax or Quebec City to round out the current number of odd teams.

Embrace Gambling - 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. 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. The league could further promote betting and even fantasy sports by having one of the leagues official networks produce a show handicapping the games and creating greater buzz for the weekend contests. This CFL has already made giant steps to acknowledge the presence of gambling within the football realm when they reached a deal earlier this year with Bowmans, a British-based on-line sports book and casino. The two-year sponsorship agreement includes advertising signage at all CFL stadiums as well as a free on-line promotional parlay contest where fans can win cash without betting any money. So the business revenue is obviously there and the CFL unlike other leagues is not adverse to dealing with gambling companies so why not examine ways to maximize this avenue of interest.

	The CFL's salary cap is a bigger joke than the weekly prizes handed out on The Amazing Race. (Source: CBS.com)

Address Salary Cap Issues - Another area the league needs to clean up in order to gain legitimacy amongst fans like myself is the joke of a salary cap the league currently holds teams to. I'm not sure what's a bigger joke; the fact that contestants who win the weekly leg on Amazing Race are rewarded with more travel, airport hassles and international language barriers or the fact that the CFL can call their current CBA a salary cap system. Hey, if you don't enforce the cap then it's as effective as having a jail without walls. The league has set a supposed team cap of $2.55 million CDN and by all accounts each and every team has violated the limit. Some like Toronto, B.C. and Montreal have done so blatantly while others like Ottawa have gone over by a pedestrian amount; but still a cap violation is a cap violation. The Renegades even held up their slightly failed efforts at meeting the cap as if there was something to be revered about it. Here's a thought, if the business of the CFL is improving and each and every team needs to exceed the cap to fill out rosters then just increase the cap amount inline with the CFL's economic model.

The CFL is riding a wave of success, setting some real solid TV numbers and appropriately filling the void for Canadian sports fans in the absence of the NHL. The TV numbers are all the more remarkable because some of the league's broadcasts look like they're being shot by a European tourist's Sony Handicam. Take the opening touchdown of the Grey Cup as an example; the cameraman followed the RB on the play action pass and missed the entire touchdown. At times the CFL reminds me of an elementary school Christmas play: it has moments of entertainment, a look of complete disorganization at times, unintentional moments of comedy and that cumulative feeling of "Ahh, that's cute. Look how hard they're trying."