Stewart Johnston

You don't hear of that too often.

We think this format rewards your regular season to such a degree that we're going to get past that.

And really, the five through eight, which we call the play-ins...

is about getting home field and moving forward.

So we think the end of the regular season, in fact, the entire regular season, is going to take on even more meaning.

Well, look, I think that, yeah, I think we're going to have lots of opinion, lots of reaction, and certainly lots of people might say, hey, things are working great.

And we are.

We're in a really good position.

We've got a lot of great momentum with the league.

But we're looking forward.

And I think the conversation that this passionate fan base brings to a debate like this, whether you're all for it, you're kind of just figuring it out, or you're against it,

is a demonstration of the power of our league and the power of that fan base, just the scale of it.

And that has been noticed, and we're working with TSN and with others in discussing the next cycle of media rights, and I think the fact that our fan base is so loud is a wonderful testament to what this league is and can be.

Look, I love the entertainment value of that to start, and I think that the teams are going to realize, hey, I battled my way into top two, and now's my chance to get a bye all the way to the semis.

So let's take a look at, we're a four-round playoff system now, and I get to take a bye if I win this game.

I think that's going to be the incentive here that I could possibly move on to the Grey Cup.

And by the way, that's another piece to this, right?

In the current format,

A team can win one game and get to the Grey Cup.

And now you have to win a minimum of two, which we think is actually a way to battle test these teams and really make the road to the Grey Cup that much more special.