CFL expands draft to an eighth round, but this draft is still under the radar

The rising numbers of talented Canadian players have prompted yet another change in the CFL draft. The draft was only six rounds from 1997 to 2012, but was expanded to a seventh round in 2013, and now, it's been expanded to an eighth round. The league announced Wednesday that the draft will also take place starting at 7 p.m. Eastern this coming Tuesday (May 10), and that the first hour of the draft will be aired on TSN2 and RDS2 (with subsequent rounds airing on TSN Go). That's not great TV coverage, but it's understandable given that interest in this draft still isn't huge despite its significance; it's only even been broadcast at all since 2007 and only televised since 2009, despite what The Simpsons would have you think. Here are more details from the CFL's release:

The draft expansion makes sense on several levels. The numbers of legitimate Canadian CFL prospects out there have been rising substantially in recent years, fueled by both the growing numbers of Canadians playing at top NCAA schools and by the increasing calibre of CIS competition. That's why the league went from just a single national combine (with an alternate one run by TSN analyst Duane Forde, evidence that the Canadian talent outstripped the available combine spots even at that point) to two regional combines in 2013 and three starting in 2014, with tremendous numbers (17 players in total) moving on from those this year and some of them making big splashes at the national combine.

There are plenty of talented Canadians out there for teams to take in an eighth round, and this means more will be chosen in the draft rather than signed as undrafted free agents. While the latter scenario has the advantage of giving those players more options, it has the downside of making them count against the camp numbers, so many teams don't sign a lot of undrafted free agents. Having an extra player who doesn't count for that purpose should be quite helpful, and it should also help these players' development in the event they choose to return to school for a fifth year after camp.

On the broadcast side, this draft will be the third straight one in the evening, and the second-straight one on TSN2/RDS2. The evening draft is likely better for the CFL rather than the previous noon Eastern start, as many potential viewers will be at home rather than at work (it's still a 4 p.m. start for those on the West Coast). However, the challenge is that evening TV time is more valuable to networks: televising only the first hour (with the remainder streamed) certainly isn't ideal, and having this on TSN2 rather than the main TSN network also isn't ideal, but both are understandable moves, as the main TSN network is carrying a NBA playoff game (Hawks-Cavaliers) that will probably draw more viewers. The CFL draft, unlike its NFL counterpart, isn't a huge spectacle at this point.

It would be great to see the CFL draft get to that level, and the league's done a good job of promoting its prospects and promoting its draft, but there's still a ways to go before this becomes a mainstream phenomenon. It's a highly-important one for CFL fans, though, as the players chosen here have a huge impact on their teams' success. Fans can vote with their eyeballs and with their social media accounts; the more people who tune in for this draft and talk about it, the more likely TSN is to highly prioritize the draft going forward. The expansion of the draft shows that there's even more talent out there, and that this draft will be highly significant. We'll see how many people tune in for it, though.