| 2026 CFL season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | June 4 – October 24, 2026 |
| 113th Grey Cup | |
| Date | November 15, 2026 |
| Venue | McMahon Stadium, Calgary |
The 2026 CFL season is scheduled to be the 72nd season of modern professional Canadian football. Officially, it would be the 68th season of the Canadian Football League. Calgary is scheduled to host the 113th Grey Cup on November 15, 2026. [1] The regular season will start on June 4 and end on October 24. [2] [3]
According to the new collective bargaining agreement, the 2026 salary cap was scheduled to be at least $6,162,365, largely as a result of the revenue sharing increase from 2025. [4] [2] [5] [6] Including non-football related services of $110,000, the total salary expenditure cap was to be at or above $6,272,365. [4] This will be the third season that players will receive revenue sharing, which will be set at 27% this season. [2] On January 23, the CFL and CFLPA announced the cap will be $6,280,514 ($139,567 per active roster spot). Under the revenue share formula in the collective agreement, the CFLPA elected to allocate $50,000 per club preseason veteran bonus payment and $218,149 increase in each clubs salary cap. The minimum player salary was set at $70,000, which remains unchanged since 2023. [2] [5]
On September 22, 2025, league commissioner Stewart Johnston announced that a series of significant rule changes would come into effect for the 2026 season. [7]
The home stadiums of the BC Lions and Toronto Argonauts are scheduled to host 2026 FIFA World Cup games from June 12, 2026, to July 7, 2026, resulting in those stadiums being unavailable for most of June and July. [8]
On August 15, 2025, it was announced that the Argonauts would play one home game in each of Hamilton Stadium against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Mosaic Stadium against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Princess Auto Stadium against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers while the World Cup is being played. [8] These games are scheduled to be played in the first half of the season. [8] The team's remaining six home games are scheduled toward the second half of the season. [9] The Argonauts will also play their preseason game in Guelph at Alumni Stadium for the fifth season in a row. [10]
With the Roughriders hosting ten regular season home games, the team announced on August 15, 2025, that they would play this season's home pre-season game in Saskatoon at Griffiths Stadium. [11]
On September 26, 2025, the Lions announced that they would play their first two regular season home games in Kelowna at the Apple Bowl with an expanded capacity of 17,500 seats. [12] The Lions also announced that their pre-season game would be played in Langford at Starlight Stadium for the second consecutive season. [12]
| Team | 2025 HC | 2026 HC | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa Redblacks | Bob Dyce | Ryan Dinwiddie | Bob Dyce served as head coach of the Redblacks since being named interim head coach on October 1, 2022. [13] While he led the team to the playoffs in 2024, the team disappointed the next season with a 4–14 record and Dyce was fired at the end of the season. [14] He finished his tenure with Ottawa with an 18–39–1 record. [14] After receiving permission to speak with Toronto Argonauts head coach, Ryan Dinwiddie, he was named both head coach and general manager of the Redblacks on November 5, 2025. [15] |
| Toronto Argonauts | Ryan Dinwiddie | Mike Miller | Dinwiddie was the head coach of the Argonauts from 2021 to 2025 where he had a 51–35 record and led the franchise to two Grey Cup victories. [15] After a difficult 2025 season where the team had a 5–13 record, he was approached by the Ottawa Redblacks and became their head coach and general manager. [15] The team's quarterbacks coach, Mike Miller, was named as his replacement on December 2, 2025. [16] |
The 2026 free agency period will officially begin on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. ET. [17] Pending free agents and teams are able to negotiate offers for one week starting Sunday, February 1, 2026, and ending Sunday, February 8, 2026. [18] All formal offers to a player during this time are sent to both the league and the players union and cannot be rescinded. [18] [19]
In Canada, this is the final year of the league's exclusive contract with TSN (in English) and RDS (in French). [20] [21] Games will be broadcast in the United States by CBS Sports Network with a deal also set to expire after this season. [22] Johnston stated in January 2026 that the league was seeking to finalize an extension with TSN prior to the start of the 2026 season, and that the league refused to consider any competitors' offers. [23]
Outside of North America, the league's streaming platform, CFL+, will stream all regular season games for free (along with games not carried by CBS Sports Network in the United States). [24] Most pre-season games will be streamed worldwide for free on CFL+. [24] Radio broadcast rights belong to team's local stations and SiriusXM. [24]
