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Hi there since I can not find a thread on this came by the final cfl standings from 1981 , looks like something that could happen this year ( except for Hamilton )


Western Conf Pts PF PA Hm Aw Div
Edmonton 14-1-1 29 576 277 8-0 6-1-1 7-1
Winnipeg 11-5 22 517 299 6-2 5-3 5-3
British Columbia 10-6 20 438 377 5-3 5-3 4-4
Saskatchewan 9-7 18 431 371 3-5 6-2 2-6
Calgary 6-10 12 306 367 5-3 1-7 2-6

Western Semifinals
British Columbia 15, Winnipeg 11
Western Finals
Edmonton 22, British Columbia 16

Eastern Conf Pts PF PA Hm Aw Div
Hamilton 11-4-1 23 414 335 5-2-1 6-2 6-0
Ottawa 5-11 10 306 446 4-4 1-7 3-3
Montreal 3-13 6 267 518 3-5 0-8 2-4
Toronto 2-14 4 241 506 2-6 0-8 1-5


Eastern Semifinals
Ottawa 20, Montreal 16
Eastern Finals
Ottawa 17, Hamilton 13


Remember the 1981 GREY CUP

Well Montreal and Toronto were abysmal that season (and there was no crossover back then, otherwise Saskatchewan would likely have beaten Ottawa in the crossover game). But Ottawa was one of the strongest 5-11 teams I ever remember seeing. While Hamilton ran away with the regular season, Ottawa had a bad start and only picked it up at the end of the season. And they put a big scare into an overconfident Edmonton for the first half of the Grey Cup game, but in the end the Esks talent was too much for them.

If anything it's worse than 1981, likely the worst ever, in fact. The 1981 interdivision record came out 30-9-1 in the west's favour. This year with 23 of 40 such games in the books, we're ahead of that pace with a 20-3 record for the west. 1981 was the first year the league went to a fully interlocking schedule and the folly of it was immediately exposed.

As the divisional disparity began to widen in the last few weeks, I decided to engage in a little thought experiment.

Let's say at the dawn of the 1981 season, you started with $1000, and every time there was an east-west game, you bet 10% of your money on the west team to win, straight up. So if the west won (or lost) the first game, you'd win (or lose) $100 and end up with $1100 (or $900). Then you'd have to bet $110 (or $90) on the next east-west game, and so forth.

Question: if you started this gamble since 1981 with $1000 and continued until this very day, all the way through this Lions win today, some 33 years later, how much money would you now have? (Take Wpg to be in whatever division it's in for each given year, ignore any games with US-based teams, no money changes hands for ties, and for 1995 use the most recent all-Cdn alignment of 1992).

$50k? $100k? $500k? A million? Two million?

I'll post the answer later on tonight.

sj-roc wrote:I'll post the answer later on tonight.

Okay, as promised.

The overall interdivision record since the start of the 1981 season favours the west by a HUGE gap: 696-455-10. To pull even, the east would have to go on a 6+ year winning streak.

The dollar amount isn't even close to any of the estimates in my last post. The exact answer I crunched out comes to:

$97,645,694,211.35

Yes, that's nearly **One Hundred Billion** dollars. With a B. To put this in perspective, it would be good enough to put yourself about 60th among the world's nearly 200 nations, ranked by GDP — ahead of places like Slovakia, Ecuador and Croatia. It corresponds to an average annual ROI — sustained uninterrupted for about a third of a century — of about 73.2%. Even NFL franchise valuations don't grow so quickly!

Only problem is, where would you find the sucker to keep taking the bet for so long? LOL

sj-roc wrote:The overall interdivision record since the start of the 1981 season favours the west by a HUGE gap: 696-455-10. To pull even, the east would have to go on a 6+ year winning streak.

The dollar amount isn't even close to any of the estimates in my last post. The exact answer I crunched out comes to:

$97,645,694,211.35

Yes, that's nearly **One Hundred Billion** dollars. With a B. To put this in perspective, it would be good enough to put yourself about 60th among the world's nearly 200 nations, ranked by GDP — ahead of places like Slovakia, Ecuador and Croatia. It corresponds to an average annual ROI — sustained uninterrupted for about a third of a century — of about 73.2%. Even NFL franchise valuations don't grow so quickly!

Only problem is, where would you find the sucker to keep taking the bet for so long? LOL

Dang it! I was a fool all these years to put money into stocks and bonds while a better investment was right before my eyes.

[quote="dupsdell1"]Hi there since I can not find a thread on this came by the final cfl standings from 1981 , looks like something that could happen this year ( except for Hamilton )


Western Conf Pts PF PA Hm Aw Div
Edmonton 14-1-1 29 576 277 8-0 6-1-1 7-1
Winnipeg 11-5 22 517 299 6-2 5-3 5-3
British Columbia 10-6 20 438 377 5-3 5-3 4-4
Saskatchewan 9-7 18 431 371 3-5 6-2 2-6
Calgary 6-10 12 306 367 5-3 1-7 2-6

Western Semifinals
British Columbia 15, Winnipeg 11
Western Finals
Edmonton 22, British Columbia 16



Eastern Conf Pts PF PA Hm Aw Div
Hamilton 11-4-1 23 414 335 5-2-1 6-2 6-0
Ottawa 5-11 10 306 446 4-4 1-7 3-3
Montreal 3-13 6 267 518 3-5 0-8 2-4
Toronto 2-14 4 241 506 2-6 0-8 1-5


Eastern Semifinals
Ottawa 20, Montreal 16
Eastern Finals
Ottawa 17, Hamilton 13


Remember the 1981 GREY CUP





Also I remember how close bc almost beat the high powered eskimos in the WF that year.

Looks like a real good year to finish with the 4th seed in the West, get the crossover and the easier path to the Grey Cup.

I'm calling it now: two Western teams will be competing for the Grey Cup in November. Book it.

When the Lions finished first 3 or 4 straight years under Wally the key for the most part was their domination of the east and doing just enough against the west to stay in front. Now everybody is doing it.

The lack of parity is absolutely brutal never mind the sputtering offensive performances in so many games. The homestretch in the West will be terrific but overall not a good year so far for the CFL's on field product.

This season the schedule has loaded up most of the inter-division matches in the front half of the season. That makes sense because the last month of the regular season features mostly games within your own division. Great for a playoff stretch run. BUT, considering how obvious the disparity between east and west is, I wonder if the CFL will go back to scheduling more games between teams in the same division in the early part of the season to create the optics of parity at least until mid-season. At least a few east teams would have respectable records at this point if they played more games within their own weaker division. Easier to sell tickets both at home and on the road in the west if a team is 5-3 instead of 1-7.

If I was a Bomber fan, I would feel snake bitten once again, as the timing of the move from East to West puts them in a difficult division even to make the crossover, wheras they would be the shining star had they stayed in the East.

Next game against the Riders is critical. If the Lions win, they win the season series.

Belize City Lion wrote: BUT, considering how obvious the disparity between east and west is, I wonder if the CFL will go back to scheduling more games between teams in the same division in the early part of the season to create the optics of parity at least until mid-season. At least a few east teams would have respectable records at this point if they played more games within their own weaker division. Easier to sell tickets both at home and on the road in the west if a team is 5-3 instead of 1-7.

The Ottawa novelty factor will help to a small degree this year but the Lions can count on two more small crowds with the Red Blacks and Argos visits. The two Red Black games replaced divisional games which given the disparity sure seem way more appealing right now. The Bombers are the only Western team visiting the Lions twice this year. Think they wouldn't mind another visit from either the Riders, Eskimos and Stamps as well? Weird to think they are done with the Riders after Sunday.

Hopefully just a one off thing this season as having 4 of your 9 regular season games in a season ticket package not be very appealing can make it a tough sell.

Hawkballer 14 wrote:Looks like a real good year to finish with the 4th seed in the West, get the crossover and the easier path to the Grey Cup.

I'm calling it now: two Western teams will be competing for the Grey Cup in November. Book it.

I don't know. I still think a healthy Toronto team is good enough to be competitive and pull off an EDF win at home.

Belize City Lion wrote:This season the schedule has loaded up most of the inter-division matches in the front half of the season. That makes sense because the last month of the regular season features mostly games within your own division. Great for a playoff stretch run. BUT, considering how obvious the disparity between east and west is, I wonder if the CFL will go back to scheduling more games between teams in the same division in the early part of the season to create the optics of parity at least until mid-season. At least a few east teams would have respectable records at this point if they played more games within their own weaker division. Easier to sell tickets both at home and on the road in the west if a team is 5-3 instead of 1-7.

There's a more practical reason for having inter-divisional games early in the season, historically. When teams relied primarily on gate revenue, they would use the season ticket money to fund the expense for the East/West trips. Television money makes this less of a factor now, of course.

Hawkballer 14 wrote:Looks like a real good year to finish with the 4th seed in the West, get the crossover and the easier path to the Grey Cup.

I'm calling it now: two Western teams will be competing for the Grey Cup in November. Book it.

I won't speak for the other eastern teams but as an Argo fan I am optimistic that Toronto will be a strong contender by the end of the regular season once they get some of their injured receivers back. The Argo defence is getting better by the week so if they can get the likes of Owens, Durie, Chiles, and Barnes back to full-strength, they will be a force to contend with and no easier an opponent in a potential East Final than whomever will be hosting the West Final this year.