The CFL unveiled the winners of its year-end divisional awards on Wednesday, illustrating yet again why it’s time to change the format by which these awards are conducted.
Under the current format, four regional voters from each CFL city cast ballots for the local team’s awards along with the club’s head coach. The winners in each respective category become eligible for the same awards at the division level, after which the final two emerge as candidates at the league level.
The first level of voting doesn’t need to change much. Team awards are important as there are decades of history associated with players being recognized at the club level. The problem is that team awards preclude multiple players from the same club from being eligible for the second round of voting.
This could be rectified by slightly tweaking the first round of voting. Instead of holding a vote resulting in one winner, voters could make three selections using a ranked ballot. The player who finishes with the strongest tally would win the team award but the top three vote recipients would each be eligible for the second round of voting.
This would provide voters in the next round with 27 candidates for each award (three per team) where they would again complete a ranked ballot. The top three vote-getters would move on to the final stage at the league level, resulting in three finalists. This would allow multiple players from the same division (and the same team) to be up for the final round of league awards, adding to the intrigue on awards night.
The CFL puts a lot of resources into its annual awards show with this year’s event featuring a performance from Shaggy. It’s a first-class event that’s often let down by the majority of the winners being a foregone conclusion two weeks before the show takes place.
Last year’s vote margins were laughable. Zach Collaros received 94 percent of the vote to win Most Outstanding Player over Eugene Lewis, Dalton Schoen won Most Outstanding Rookie over Tyson Philpot with a 96 percent vote share, Mike O’Shea won Coach of the Year over Ryan Dinwiddie with an 88 percent vote share, and Nathan Rourke won Most Outstanding Canadian over Kurleigh Gittens Jr. with an 82 percent vote share.
The only race that was remotely close was Most Outstanding Defensive Player, which saw Lorenzo Mauldin IV win over Shawn Lemon by a tally of 32-18. The margin still wasn’t tight but at least it wasn’t obvious who was going to win, unlike so many of the other awards.
If the prospective system outlined above was used for awards this year, this is how I imagine the final slate might have looked.
Most Outstanding Player
QB Zach Collaros, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
QB Chad Kelly, Toronto Argonauts
RB Brady Oliveira, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Most Outstanding Defensive Player
DL Mathieu Betts, B.C. Lions
LB Wynton McManis, Toronto Argonauts
LB Adarius Pickett, Toronto Argonauts
Most Outstanding Canadian
DL Mathieu Betts, B.C. Lions
REC Nic Demski, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
RB Brady Oliveira, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman
OL Dejon Allen, Toronto Argonauts
OL Jermarcus Hardrick, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
OL Ryan Hunter, Toronto Argonauts
Most Outstanding Special Teams Player
K Boris Bede, Toronto Argonauts
KR Javon Leake, Toronto Argonauts
K Sean Whyte, B.C. Lions
Most Outstanding Rookie
QB Dustin Crum, Ottawa Redblacks
DB Quan’tez Stiggers, Toronto Argonauts
DB Reggie Stubblefield, Montreal Alouettes
Five of the six awards feature multiple finalists from the same team. Most Outstanding Canadian features players exclusively from the West Division, while Most Outstanding Rookie features players exclusively from the East Division. If the goal is to ensure that the most deserving players are recognized as finalists, these are the types of slates the league should be presenting its voters.
The CFL’s awards were originally structured by division because voters couldn’t reasonably be expected to keep up with every team across the country. The format made perfect sense during an era in which games were rarely televised and the internet didn’t exist.
These days, there’s no excuse for voters not to keep up with all nine teams. Every game is on national television and statistics and highlights are readily available online. Awards should be conducted irrespective of team or division as doing so turns what should be an exciting, marquee event into something that feels antiquated and boring.
There was plenty of debate regarding whether Brady Oliveira or Zach Collaros deserved the Blue Bombers’ nomination for Most Outstanding Player. In the future, similar debates will hopefully occur on a national level ahead of the CFL’s glitzy awards show rather than in Winnipeg during a random week of the regular season.
