Everything You Need to Know About the CFL’s 2026 Regular-season, Preseason Schedule

Tuesday saw the CFL release its regular season and pre-season schedule for the 2026 season. With under six months to go until the preseason begins in earnest, let’s take a look at the recently released slates for all nine teams and project which teams could improve on their 2025 finishes. 

(Image Credit to Global News)

In the morning of Tuesday, December 9th, the CFL released its preseason and regular season schedule for the upcoming 2026 season. 

With the 2026 season set to see the introduction of some key and controversial rule changes, this could be a season where significant change in the regular-season hierarchy takes place, among other major shakeups. 

Here are all of the main takeaways from the schedule release. 

Week 1 features an Eastern Final rematch and a “Bottom-feeder Battle”

To kick off the 2026 CFL regular season, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who finished first in the East Division, will welcome the Grey Cup finalist Montreal Alouettes in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Final that saw the Montreal Alouettes advance to the Grey Cup on a walkoff field goal. 

In the season’s first edition of “Friday Night Football”, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who finished last season in fourth in the West Division and qualified for the Grey Cup Playoffs as the crossover team, will travel to Calgary to play the Stampeders in the first of three regular-season matchups. The Stampeders swept the Blue Bombers in regular-season play last season, so this opening week matchup should serve as an opportunity for Winnipeg to level the playing field to some degree. 

The third and final game of the CFL’s opening week slate sees the Ottawa Redblacks play host to the Edmonton Elks. Both teams finished in the bottom of their respective divisions last season; with both expected to turn their fortunes around, this game could be an early indicator as to which team is in the best position to do so in the regular season. 

FIFA World Cup sends BC across British Columbia and Toronto on a cross-country tour

With BC Place and BMO Field, the respective home stadiums of the BC Lions and the Toronto Argonauts, hosting games for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, both teams will play road/”home” games for much of their first halves of the season. 

Despite playing “home” games at the home stadiums of Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, and Hamilton (those are going to be some noisy home games), the Toronto Argonauts don’t play at BMO Field until Week 10 against Calgary. Their road games will see them play Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, and BC. 

After that point, they will benefit from playing six of their last eleven games at home, with a two-game homestand scheduled for Week 15 against the Ottawa Redblacks and Week 16 against the Edmonton Elks. 

Unlike Toronto, the BC Lions will have the benefit of playing their non-BC Place home games in British Columbia. They’ll be playing those games against Calgary and Edmonton in Kelowna in what is being dubbed “Touchdown Kelowna”, with road games against Saskatchewan, Hamilton, and Edmonton comprising the remainder of the opening five-week slate. Of the remaining thirteen games, seven will take place in Vancouver. 

Stampede Bowl set to return for second consecutive season, other special game days highlight big-name matchups

After a smashing success in 2025, the Calgary Stampeders are set to bring back the Stampede Bowl, which serves as the unofficial kickoff of the iconic Calgary Stampede, for the second season in a row. This year’s edition will take place in Week 5 and see the Calgary Stampeders play host to the Toronto Argonauts. 

Labour Day will not only feature the three traditional matchups, but it will also feature the return of another. 

The three traditional Labour Day matchups will see Winnipeg travel to Saskatchewan on September 6th, before Toronto heads down the Queen Elizabeth Way to play Hamilton in the afternoon game, while Edmonton will fly south to Calgary to take on the Stampeders in the finale. 

The fourth matchup will see the BC Lions travel to Montreal to play the Alouettes on Friday, September 4th. This will be the first time since 2023 that the Lions and Alouettes will play each other during the CFL’s Labour Day festivities. 

The final holiday-related tidbit on the league’s schedule takes the form of the annual Thanksgiving matchup. Instead of the traditional Redblacks-Alouettes game to fill the Thanksgiving afternoon slate, viewers will be treated to the first of two Grey Cup rematches between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes. The first will take on Thanksgiving in Montreal, while the return leg will follow just five days later. 

Playoff schedule will start with two contestants’ dreams being scared away on Halloween, while all the action leads up to the Grey Cup in Calgary

On Halloween, the CFL Grey Cup Playoffs will begin with the divisional semifinal games, with the divisional championship games slated for the following Saturday. Kickoff times for both sets of games are 3:00 PM and 6:30 PM EST. 

The Grey Cup game - which is set for Sunday, November 13th at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium - has a slated kickoff time of 6:00 PM. 

Early standings projections:

East Division:

1. Montreal Alouettes (11-7)

2. Ottawa Redblacks (8-10)

3. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7-11)

4. Toronto Argonauts (6-12)

We all know how dominant Davis Alexander has been to start his career (he is currently 13-1 all-time as the Alouettes’ starting quarterback; his recent contract extension only serves to reinforce the belief that Montreal’s front office has in their starter. 

The big question for Montreal: what kind of potential could Davis Alexander show over the course of a full eighteen-game season? 

At his current pace, that could easily be a 15-3 year or even a 16-2 regular season if things fall the right way.

However, I do think that Davis Alexander will still need a little more adjusting if he is to play an injury-free CFL regular season. That shouldn’t be a major issue, especially with the right reinforcements. I’m giving Montreal a one-win upgrade over their 2025 record, with a home East Final as their reward.

As of this writing, the Ottawa Redblacks could be my surprise team for the 2026 CFL season; not only did they sign longtime Argonauts head coach and two-time Grey Cup champion Ryan Dinwiddie to be their head coach starting in 2026, but they are also set to reinforce their offensive depth through the addition of former Laurier Golden Hawk and reigning Hec Creighton Trophy winning wide receiver Ethan Jordan to their receiving corps. 

The Redblacks also have a fairly doable slate to open 2025. Consecutive home games, against Edmonton and Toronto, to open the season, should be an opportunity to get a win or two on the board early. In addition, five of their first seven games are at TD Place, while three of their last five also take place in Canada’s capital. 

If the Redblacks can take advantage of their home-heavy ends of the season, they will have an opportunity to at least improve on last year’s win total. Win a few of their road games and maybe we’re talking about a playoff berth. 

I do have the Redblacks second in the East in my projections, however these are mainly based on the regular-season schedule as well as tougher early-season slates for Toronto and Hamilton.

On that note, Hamilton does kind of have it tough to open their season. Playing Montreal, BC, and Saskatchewan in their first five games does them no favours, and a midseason slate of Calgary, BC, and Saskatchewan could be a recipe for disaster if the team isn’t entering in the right state of play. 

At the same time, if the offence is firing on all cylinders like it did last season, this Tiger-Cats team could easily be a playoff contender once again. 

If the defence isn’t performing? It could be a long season. 

And finally, despite their tough opening slate, I can see the Argonauts piling up some wins in the back-end of the season, especially after BMO Field hosts its allocated FIFA World Cup matches. However, those wins will only truly matter if the Argonauts can win early and often throughout their early-season road trip. 

My current projections see the Argonauts’ lone win in that seven-game span coming against Winnipeg in the team’s fifth game of the season. That could easily change if the team plays their offseason roster moves the right way, however it’s not like they’re playing the league’s worst teams every week. 

I do see the Argonauts winning far more often to end the season, however it likely won’t end up making a major difference in the standings. Ultimately, I do see Toronto slightly improving on their 5-13 finish in 2025, however they will remain in last in the division. 

West Division: 

1. Calgary Stampeders (11-7)

2. BC Lions (11-7)

3. Saskatchewan Roughriders (11-7)

4. Edmonton Elks (9-9) (crossover)

5. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-11)

*Note: Calgary wins the three-way tiebreaker courtesy of better win percentage against tied teams (BC and Saskatchewan)

Of the last eleven Grey Cup games, just two featured the host city’s team; Grey Cup 101 saw Saskatchewan beat Hamilton in Regina, while Grey Cup 108 saw Hamilton lose in overtime to Winnipeg for the second-straight championship game. 

This year’s Grey Cup game is set to take place in Calgary and while there are no guarantees the Stampeders will reach the big game, a first-place finish in the West should be a decent start for Calgary as they work towards the goal of lifting the Grey Cup on their home turf. 

Calgary does benefit from a home-heavy opening and middle-season slate; eight of the team’s first fourteen games are played in Calgary, while the team opens the season with two-straight home games. The Stampeders also have a three-game homestand from Week 11 to Week 14 (including their Week 12 bye). 

While BC doesn’t play at BC Place until their sixth game of the season, they have the benefit of playing their two “home” games in-province, which should all but neutralise any advantage lost due to BC Place playing host to the World Cup. I do see the Lions sweeping those two games, which should give them a confidence boost of sorts as they ramp up their in-season play.

As for Saskatchewan, they have the benefit of playing the league’s bottom-three teams from 2025 (Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton) four times in their first nine games. However, they don’t necessarily get to enjoy that same luxury in the second half of their slate, which will see them place the BC Lions and the Montreal Alouettes twice each in addition to playing a home game against Calgary. 

Considering that the Roughriders haven’t exactly been immune to the late-season slip-up, there is a chance that a strong first-half of the season could be neutralised by another second-half slide.

While Ottawa is set to be the most improved team in the East Division, Edmonton is set to take that same honour in the West Division. I project that the Elks will finish 9-9 and earn their first postseason trip since 2019.

I make this projection with a few key conditions in mind. The first of these conditions is that Cody Fajardo, who finished the 2025 CFL season with a 6-7 (please don’t give me that meme) record after filling in for the struggling Tre Ford, is the team’s starter for the 2026 season. With the team recently announcing that Cody Fajardo would be receiving a contract extension, it’s safe to say that this condition is half-filled. 

Secondly, as the Elks started their 2025 season with a 1-6 record, Edmonton has to ensure their record in the first seven games of 2026 is better than that of the season prior. As the Elks play Ottawa twice in that span, with BC (twice), Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Montreal comprising the other four teams in that slate, there is a route for Edmonton to finish 3-4 or better over their opening seven games.  

As for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, their 2026 season is set to be two games worse than their 2025 campaign, which saw them finish 9-9 and barely qualify for the playoffs as the crossover team. Their loss in the East Semifinal to the Montreal Alouettes meant that 2025 would be the first season since 2018 in which the Blue Bombers failed to qualify for the Grey Cup. 

While the Blue Bombers did successfully retain head coach Mike O’Shea despite him interviewing for the Toronto Argonauts’ head coach opening, their roster is starting to show its age and star running back Brady Oliveira is a free agent this offseason. Should Winnipeg fail to improve its roster, they’re looking at a schedule that sees them play the Calgary Stampeders, who swept their regular-season series three games to none, twice in the opening seven games; that stretch is immediately followed by a game against BC. The second half of their slate isn’t exactly easier; six of the final nine games will see them play Montreal (twice), Saskatchewan (twice), Calgary, and BC. 

While I could be completely missing the mark on this projection, there is a very good chance that the Blue Bombers miss the postseason for the first time since 2015. 

Finally, a brief note on the preseason:

The 2026 CFL preseason will open on May 18th when the Calgary Stampeders play host to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the lone “Week 1” warmup contest. 

Week 2 of the CFL preseason will see the Ottawa Redblacks travel to Montreal for the first of two contests against the Alouettes, while the Toronto Argonauts will play their local rivals the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Elsewhere, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ home preseason game will take place at Saskatoon’s Griffiths Stadium rather than at the Riders’ traditional home venue, Mosaic Stadium; the team will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on the University of Saskatchewan’s campus in what will be their second of two preseason games. To close out the Week 2 preseason slate, the BC Lions will host the Edmonton Elks at Langford’s Starlight Stadium; this will mark the second consecutive season that the Lions host a preseason contest on Vancouver Island. 

The final week of preseason action will see the Hamilton Tiger-Cats travel to Guelph to play the Toronto Argonauts; the University of Guelph’s Alumni Stadium has served as the Argonauts’ preseason grounds for the past few seasons. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Redblacks will welcome the Montreal Alouettes to TD Place, while the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will host the BC Lions in their second preseason contest. The preseason slate will conclude in the evening of Friday, May 29th when the Edmonton Elks host the Calgary Stampeders in their home preseason contest.  

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Article written by Noah Guttman

© Noah Guttman