2013 CFL season

Salary cap

According to a new collective bargaining agreement, the 2013 salary cap was set at $4,400,000. As per the agreement, the cap is fixed and does not vary with league revenue performance. The minimum team salary was set at $4,000,000, with individual minimum salaries set at $45,000.

Season schedule

The 2013 season schedule was released on March 5, 2013, with the regular season opening on June 27 at the new Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was the first time Winnipeg had opened the regular season since 1998 and the first brand new Canadian stadium in the CFL since Toronto's SkyDome opened in 1989 (the Alamodome opened in 1993 with the now defunct San Antonio Texans playing there in 1995). For the second time in three years, the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats did not play in their Labour Day Classic matchup, due to scheduling conflicts for both teams. Following the previous year's experiment, the league held all division matchups not only in the last week, but for the final four weeks in total, hoping for a tight playoff race. There were 15 double headers, with one on a Thursday, three on Fridays, nine on Saturdays, one on a Sunday, and the traditional Thanksgiving contests on a Monday.

Bye weeks

For the second consecutive year, the teams' bye weeks occurred in the sixth and seventh weeks of the season, earlier than the usual eighth and ninth week setup that has been in place since 2007. These began over the August Civic Holiday, suggesting that this was done to accommodate for fans' vacation plans.

Stadium changes

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats played 2013 home games at Alumni Stadium in Guelph, with the exception of Touchdown Atlantic (see below). The team's previous venue, Ivor Wynne Stadium, was demolished during the offseason, and its replacement, Tim Hortons Field, would not be ready until at least 2014. For the first time in decades, the Tiger-Cats did not host the Labour Day Classic and instead traveled to Vancouver to face the BC Lions that weekend. Because Ontario University Athletics (of which Alumni Stadium's primary tenants, the Guelph Gryphons, are a member) also has a tradition of playing football games on Labour Day, finding a suitable venue within Southern Ontario would have been impossible. The Toronto at Hamilton matchup was instead played as the nightcap in the 2013 Thanksgiving Day Classic.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers finally took residence at the new Investors Group Field. The stadium was supposed to have been readied in 2012, but construction delays pushed back the opening to the 2013 season. The Toronto Argonauts hosted the Montreal Alouettes at the University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium for their preseason game, the first Argonauts game at Varsity Stadium in 55 years.

Return of Touchdown Atlantic

After a one-year hiatus in 2012, Touchdown Atlantic returned for the 2013 season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosting the Montreal Alouettes on September 21, 2013. This was the third regular season instalment of the game and the second to feature the Tiger-Cats. This was the first appearance for the Alouettes and it was also the first matchup to feature division opponents.

Media

On March 21, 2013, the CFL announced it had renewed its exclusive contract with TSN to televise all CFL games through 2018; the contract included the national radio rights to the Grey Cup, which would air on TSN Radio and The Team. The contract had originally been set to expire at the end of the 2013 season.

As with the previous contract, the league had no games broadcast on terrestrial television, prolonging an absence dating to 2007 and making it the largest league in North America without over-the-air television broadcasts.

On June 21, 2013, the CFL announced it had renewed its distribution deal with NBC Sports Network for United States broadcasts and that ESPN2 would also pick up five additional games for live broadcast. ESPN3 continued to serve as the league's online broadcaster.

Rule changes

On April 10, 2013 the CFL Board of Governors approved 2 new rules. The first stated that coaches would be allowed to challenge the result of a field goal attempt or extra point attempt. The second rule gave coaches more flexibility on when they can use their timeouts. Coaches could now use both of their time outs at any point during regulation time of a game, as long as they didn't use more than one after the three-minute warning was sounded in the second half of the game. In the past coaches were only allowed to use one time out per half.

Coaching changes

Immediately following the close of the 2012 CFL season it seemed probable that there would be no head coaching changes in the off-season.

However, after a disappointing 6–12 regular season the Hamilton Tiger-Cats fired George Cortez. The expectations on the Ticats were very high after the off-season acquisitions of Henry Burris and Andy Fantuz which Cortez failed to live up to. The Tiger-Cats replaced Cortez with Kent Austin. Austin, who won the 95th Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, had been the offensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi and the head coach of Cornell University for 3 years each.

In mid-January, 2013, the Montreal Alouettes lost their head coach Marc Trestman to the Chicago Bears of the NFL. Trestman won two Grey Cups in five seasons as the head coach of the Alouettes from 2008 to 2012. On February 19 the Alouettes announced that Dan Hawkins would be the new head coach. Hawkins had been the head coach of Willamette University, Boise State and University of Colorado from 1993 to 2010.

Dan Hawkins was fired on August 1, 2013, after a 2–3 start to the season. Longtime general manager Jim Popp was interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Tim Burke was fired on November 12, 2013 after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers finished last in the league with a dismal 3–15 record.

Trade deadline

The deadline for teams to complete trades was Wednesday October 9 at 3:59pm EDT.

Structure

Teams played eighteen regular season games, playing two of the three divisional opponents three times, the other four times, and teams from the opposing division twice. Teams were awarded two points for a win and one point for a tie. The top three teams in each division qualified for the playoffs, with the first place team gaining a bye to the divisional finals. A fourth place team in one division could qualify ahead of the third place team in the other division (the "Crossover"), if they earned more points in the season.[1]

If two or more teams in the same division were equal in points, the following tiebreakers applied: [2]

Notes:

Standings

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

Teams in bold are in playoff positions.
X – clinched playoff berth
Y – clinched first place and bye to division final

2013 average attendance

CFL playoffs

The Calgary Stampeders were first to clinch a playoff berth, in Week 12 of the schedule. Toronto and BC followed in Week 14, followed by Saskatchewan and Hamilton in Week 15, and the final playoff spot was clinched by Montreal in Week 17. Three of the four home playoff hosts were determined in Week 17.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders won their fourth Grey Cup championship on home turf at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field by defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 45-23. Roughriders' running back Kory Sheets was named the MVP, while Roughriders' slotback, Chris Getzlaf was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

Playoff bracket

*-Team won in Overtime.

CFL Player of the Week

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CFL Player of the Month

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2013 Gibson's Finest CFL Awards