Stadium projects are a hot topic in many CFL cities at the moment, but the situations in Hamilton and B.C. have drawn much of the attention. Winnipeg wound up back in the national stadium spotlight yesterday on the eve of their final 2010 game, thanks to a piece from Gary Lawless of The Winnipeg Free Press that reported the new stadium proposed for the Blue Bombers and the University of Manitoba Bisons is now expected to cost $160 million—$45 million more than originally budgeted.

The stadium's original price tag was $115 million, but the original deal also included $22.5 million for recreation improvements at the university, making the total cost of the project $137.5 million. It appears the $160 million figure also only covers the stadium. If the recreational improvements are still part of the project and still expected to cost the same amount, that would raise the total project cost to $182.5 million.

This could get quite messy. Excavation on the site is already underway, so

There are plenty of CFL teams and players involved in significant charitable work, and that's very cool to see. From Adriano Belli (pictured, right) donating his entire paycheque while he's injured to the Hospital For Sick Children to the players involved in the Pepsi Refresh Project to Marwan Hage distributing Thanksgiving dinners to families in need to the Riders encouraging fans to donate blood to former CFL players donating their brains for concussion research, there are so many great stories that it would be impossible to cover them all. There was a particularly interesting one today, though, and it features the Argonauts offering some terrific charitable support and building football in Canada in the process.

Robert MacLeod has a neat feature in The Globe and Mail on the Argonauts' "Level The Playing Field" initiative, which has provided funding for seven Toronto-area high schools to launch or bring back football programs. The initiative began in 2008, and the team has so far

Most of the coverage of yesterday's release of the CFL's top award nominees is focusing on Calgary quarterback Henry Burris (and his anti-Eastern media stance) and Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo (and his quest for a third straight most outstanding player title). That's understandable, as both are quarterbacks on 12-5 teams, and both have had strong seasons statistically. They seem like the most likely most outstanding player finalist pairing (as one finalist is selected from each division), so leading media reports on the awards with them makes sense, even if it overlooks other interesting candidates like league rushing leader and Toronto running back Cory Boyd (who'd be my choice), the league's leader in passing yards (Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant), the league's receiving leader (Winnipeg receiver Terrence Edwards) or outstanding Edmonton receiver Fred Stamps.

However, the most interesting nominee for the CFL's top award is one who's almost certain not to win it.

We're clearly well into awards season in the CFL, even if there's a ways to go before the major awards banquet on Thursday, November 25. TSN's player poll came out with some interesting results Tuesday, and each team's nominees (as selected by the Football Reporters of Canada and the CFL's head coaches) for the league's major awards were announced today. However, one of the nominees for the league's top honour, the Most Outstanding Player award, has apparently already written off his chances.

According to The Calgary Herald's Allen Cameron, Stampeders quarterback Henry Burris (pictured, right) didn't sound too thrilled about his nomination as the team's most outstanding player, and wasn't high on his prospects of claiming the overall award. That wasn't out of humility, though, or recognition for the efforts of some of the league's other top players. Nope, it's apparently all about geography.

Burris told Calgary reporters that "the eastern media, they think a football is a round puck".

In any sports league, you wind up with situations at the end of the regular season where games matter for one team and don't for their opponent, thanks to having already locked up a playoff berth or already being eliminated from postseason contention. That's going to happen twice in the CFL this coming week, with B.C. facing Hamilton Saturday afternoon and Edmonton taking on Saskatchewan Saturday evening. The Lions and Eskimos are locked in a battle for the final playoff spot in the West Division, while the Tiger-Cats and Roughriders have both clinched second place in their respective divisions.

That doesn't mean that Hamilton and Saskatchewan are just going to roll over and play dead, as both teams are coming off tough road losses and will be eager to head into the playoffs on a good note. They're also both playing in front of their home fans, and that might provide some extra incentive to play well. Still, neither team has comparable motivation to their opponents, and that might

TSN came up with a cool idea this year, polling the CFL's players on which of their peers best fit certain descriptions. They released the results online this morning, and they'll be talking about them tonight on the 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) edition of SportsCentre. There's some interesting stuff in there; they received responses from 218 players, or over half of the league's players, and there was quite a bit of consensus on many of the categories. One of the most notable results was the selection of Calgary Stampeders' defensive back Dwight Anderson (pictured at right knocking a pass away from Montreal's S.J. Green in an Oct. 1 game) as the league's top trash-talker.

It's reasonably surprising to see Anderson picked here, especially by such a decisive margin. He received 37.3 per cent of the vote, which would be around 81 ballots (presuming every player who responded voted in every category, which isn't necessarily the case). Anderson hasn't even been in the CFL for that long, as he

It's very early to be talking about the CFL in 2011, considering that there's still one week of the 2010 regular season left. There's one aspect of the 2011 season that has been prominently in the news over the last few days, however, and that's the renovations to B.C. Place (pictured at right, with the old roof at top and a picture of the ongoing renovations below), which will be hosting the Grey Cup game next November.

There was a big press conference this morning on the 2011 Grey Cup, and Jim Morris of The Canadian Press has the details. The most important part of that conference might be the comments by David Podmore (chairman of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the Crown corporation that oversees B.C. Place) on exactly when the new stadium will be ready for use by the Lions and Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps. Those comments directly conflict with ones made Sunday by David Braley, owner of the Lions and the Toronto Argonauts. We'll get to Braley's comments below, but

Welcome to Monday's Point After, a feature we'll be running here at the start of every week. Here's your breakdown of all the best and worst moments from the past weekend's games. Score links go to video highlights of each game on the league's home page. If you've got suggestions for something you'd like to see covered here, get in touch with me by Twitter or e-mail.

Game of the Week: B.C. 23, Saskatchewan 17: B.C. continues their unprecedented four-week stretch of appearing in the game of the week, keeping their playoff hopes alive with a thrilling home win over Saskatchewan Sunday. Montreal-Toronto made a strong bid to take the game of the week slot thanks to the ridiculous ending, but that game ultimately didn't mean much. Edmonton-Winnipeg was also considered thanks to its implications, but it wasn't a great display of football for the most part. It's great that three of the four CFL games this weekend were legitimate contenders for this slot, though (Calgary 55, Hamilton 24 would