The CFL Draft (also known as the CFL Canadian Draft, CFL College Draft or the Canadian College Draft) is an annual
sports draft
A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team sel ...
in which the teams of the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
(CFL) select eligible
Canadian/non-import players, typically from the ranks of
U Sports football
U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athletic confe ...
or
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
college football. Member clubs make selections based on the reverse order of the previous year's standings, with the team with the worst record being awarded the first selection, the
Grey Cup runner-up getting the second-to-last selection and the Grey Cup champion selecting last. The draft is held once every year, approximately six weeks prior to the start of the upcoming season (typically late April or early May).
Since
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
, U Sports players become eligible for the CFL Draft three years after completing their first year of eligibility at
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
. Additionally, NCAA and NAIA players are eligible to be selected after completing their senior season of eligibility. Prior to this change, all players would become eligible four years after first attending a post-secondary institution, leading many players to return to school after being drafted. Canadian national university and college players are not permitted to enter the league without being subject to the draft and players are only eligible to be drafted once.
[Draft History](_blank)
Import/international players are not subject to the draft and are instead inducted via the negotiation list process.
Formerly held as part of annual league meetings in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, and occasionally televised, the draft was previously held via
conference call
A conference call is a telephone call in which someone talks to several people at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call or set up so that the called party merely listens into ...
. In 2007, the league began producing a free
webcast of the event. Starting in 2009, the first two rounds were broadcast live on
TSN.
History
Before the CFL Draft was implemented, teams selected players based on territorial rights. For the sake of fair competition, a draft would be held to ensure an equal representation of players and talent. An experimental draft was held in
1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
by what was then the
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
T ...
(now the East Division of the CFL); the first formal Canadian football draft was held
the next year. Selection was limited to players from five universities in Ontario and Quebec:
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
,
Queen's University,
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
,
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...
, and
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...
.
The Montreal Alouettes selected
Doug McNichol from Western Ontario as he became the first
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
player to be drafted.
In
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...
, with the establishment of the Canadian Football Council, a nationwide draft was established, with the five teams of the
Western Interprovincial Football Union
The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagu ...
now taking part and players from all Canadian universities becoming eligible. Additionally, the conference that featured the losing team in the
Grey Cup would have its team with the poorest record select first.
Two years later, the formation of the present-day Canadian Football League was complete.
Further modifications to the structure of the draft took place in the
1973 CFL Draft as Canadian players from
American schools would now be eligible for the draft. Prior to this, teams would be awarded territorial rights for non-import players from U.S.-based schools based on the territory in which he was domiciled. Because this would almost eliminate any geographical exemptions, teams would also be permitted to make two territorial exemptions per draft, regardless of school location, beginning in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
.
Territorial exemptions were abolished by
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
, introducing the modern era of the CFL Draft, though they were re-instituted in
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
. In
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
**Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal enter ...
, the draft was reduced from nine rounds to eight rounds and was further reduced to seven rounds in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
. In
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, the CFL Draft consisted of only six rounds, which was a format that was used until it was changed in
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
when it was expanded to seven rounds. For the
2016 CFL Draft, the format was changed to include eight rounds of selections.
Canadian Football League expands draft to eight rounds
/ref>
Selection order
The selection order of the draft is based on a combination of the regular season standings and post-season results from the previous season. Non- Grey Cup participants are ranked in reverse order of the previous season's standings with the team with the league-worst record being awarded the first overall pick. Any ties between teams in different conferences are decided the same way as tied division opponents: first by season series, then by other tie-breaking formulas. The losing team in the previous year's Grey Cup game selects second-last while the winner of the previous year's Grey Cup selects last in each round. The order remains the same in each round.
Teams are permitted to trade draft picks before and during the draft for either another team's draft picks or players. This is a common practice resulting in some teams having multiple selections in one round while other teams may have none. Teams may also trade conditional draft picks, meaning the transaction will only occur if a condition is fulfilled (for example, if a traded player plays enough games or signs a contract extension with his new team).
See also
* List of first overall Canadian Football League draft picks
This is a list of first overall Canadian Football League draft picks. The CFL Draft is an annual sports draft in which the teams of the Canadian Football League (CFL) select eligible Canadian/non-import players, typically from the ranks of U Sport ...
* CFL Combine
The CFL Combine (formerly known as the Evaluation Camp or E-Camp) is a three-day program in which athletes from Canadian universities and Canadians in the NCAA are scouted by general managers, coaches and scouts of the Canadian Football League (C ...
References
External links
CFL Canadian Draft
Draft results 1952–present
*
{{CFL Drafts
Canadian football
Annual sporting events in Canada
Recurring sporting events established in 1956
1956 establishments in Canada