The field
The 2026 rulebook sets the field at 110 yards by 65 yards. The dead-ball line is 20 yards behind each goal line. That strip is the goal area.
CFL
CFL
A 110-by-65-yard field, three downs, 12 players a side, and a single point the rulebook calls a rouge.
History · Teams · Grey Cup · Contact
A short history
The 2026 CFL Guide says the league was established at meetings from January 17 to January 19, 1958, in Winnipeg, when the Canadian Football Council was renamed the Canadian Football League. G. Sydney Halter was named the first commissioner.
The same guide traces today’s East Division to the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in 1907, and the West Division to the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1936. Those leagues merged as the CFL in January 1958.
Current teams
9 clubs from the published list. Open a club for its desk. Names and logos come from the CFL scoreboard.
Grey Cup
The 2026 guide traces the title game to the Dominion Senior Championship in 1892. In 1909 Governor-General Lord Albert Grey donated the trophy that still bears his name.
The guide’s 112th Grey Cup was played at Winnipeg in 2025. Its cover shows Trevor Harris raising the Grey Cup for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the club’s first since 2013. The 113th Grey Cup is listed for Sunday, November 15, 2026, at 4 p.m. MT at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
Contact
Head office
The Canadian Football League
50 Wellington Street East, 3rd Floor
Toronto, ON M5E 1C8
(416) 322-9650
cfl.ca
How the league plays
Three downs
Team A has three downs to gain 10 yards. If it does not, the other team takes over where the ball is dead.
Twelve players
It is illegal for either team to have more than 12 players in the formation.
Scoring
A touchdown is 6. A field goal is 3. A safety touch is 2. A convert is 1 or 2. A single point, the rouge, is 1.
The rouge
A rouge is scored when a kicked ball becomes dead in the receiving team’s goal area, or when a player there touches it and the ball then goes out of bounds in the goal area. A kick through the opponent’s goal area that no one touches is scrimmaged by that team at its 40-yard line.
Grey Cup
The rulebook treats a playoff or Grey Cup game differently from the regular season: if overtime is still tied, mini-games continue until there is a winner. Regular-season overtime can finish with alternating two-point converts.
Sources
2026 CFL Official Playing Rules