Why aren't Canadians more interested in the CFL Draft?

The CFL's annual college draft is the primary way the league collects its Canadian talent, and the CFL itself is quite popular in Canada. So, why isn't the draft more popular? Other sports have a huge amount of focus around their drafts; for example, the NFL took its three-day show on the road to Chicago this year, generating a huge amount of buzz in that city and creating a massive FanFest people flocked to, and the NBA draft and NHL draft always draw big TV ratings. By contrast, when a televised CFL draft was used on The Simpsons in 1991 as an example of what only the world's biggest couch potato would watch, it was a case of art being ahead of life: the actual CFL draft wasn't even webcast until 2007, and it wasn't televised until 2009. Even in 2015, a year with tons of interesting storylines, the CFL Draft will take place in a studio in Toronto with no fans and few to no draftees in attendance. Also, only the first two rounds of Tuesday's draft will be televised (TSN2/RDS2, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern), with the remainder being webcast on TSN.ca/TSN Go. Thus, couch-loving CFL draft aficionados like Homer Simpson may need to shift to their computer:

So, why doesn't the CFL's draft draw the attention of other sports' drafts? Well, part of it is that the CFL, while popular, doesn't have as many overall fans as the NFL or NHL. That's only a smaller part of it, though; proportionally, it seems like a much smaller number of CFL fans avidly follow its draft than we see in other pro sports leagues. Here are a few reasons why that's been the case.

1. Not all drafted players wind up in the CFL: This is perhaps the most crucial one, especially in historical context. Even the biggest first-round draft busts in the NFL or NHL usually at least play in the league for several years. That's not always the case in the CFL, especially with players who wind up going to the NFL. Drafting dead players, as Montreal did in the 1996 college draft and Ottawa did in the 1995 dispersal draft, is far worse of course, but at least that hasn't happened recently; by contrast, there have been plenty of CFL first-rounders who never played a down in the league thanks to the NFL, including Nick Kaczur (ninth overall, 2005) and Danny Watkins (fourth overall, 2010). Others, such as Austin Pasztor (fourth overall, 2012), Andy Mulumba (second overall, 2013) and David Foucault (fifth overall, 2014) are still in the NFL, and may never come north of the border.

It's not just the players with obvious NFL interest, either, as those can be somewhat avoided (as discussed in point #2 below), but the ones where NFL interest arises after the draft. Linden Gaydosh, the top pick in 2013, didn't wind up with Hamilton at all that year, choosing after the draft to sign with the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Foucault did that as well (with the same NFL team) in 2014, and he's still there; Gaydosh returned to the CFL last fall. Similarly, Cory Greenwood was taken third overall by the Argonauts in 2010; he then signed with Kansas City and stayed in the NFL for years, only heading to Toronto last fall.

It's hard to get fans excited about picking players who may never play for their team. The league has done some things to improve this, including changing draft eligibility so players are taken by the CFL and NFL in the same year (which is why this year's class is so strong) and moving the draft later so teams have a better idea of NFL interest. Still, the NFL remains a clear and present danger that affects the CFL draft, as illustrated further below. That makes it harder to boost the excitement for the CFL draft.

2. The best players don't go first: A big part of the appeal of the NHL or NFL draft is seeing where the top talents wind up; the likes of Connor McDavid, Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota help to draw in viewers. Conversely, the CFL draft often sees some of the most talented players fall to the later rounds or go completely undrafted, thanks either to NFL interest or to their playing a position that's not typically filled by Canadians (such as quarterback). 2015 will likely mark the fifth-straight year where the prospect ranked #1 in the final scouting bureau rankings (an average of the teams' submitted rankings) won't go first overall, and only one of those players (Scott Mitchell, who went #2 in 2011) even went in the first round. The others, Tyrone Crawford in 2012, Boseko Lokombo in 2013, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, went completely undrafted, in the third round, and in the third round respectively thanks to the NFL's interest in them. (Crawford was drafted in the third round of the NFL draft, Duvernay-Tardif went in the sixth round, and Lokombo was a highly-touted undrafted free agent); so far, Lokombo is the only one of those players to come north.

We're likely to see this again this year on a couple of fronts. First, there's top-ranked prospect Christian Covington, who was taken in the sixth round of the NFL draft by Houston. He's almost certainly not going first in the CFL draft, and likely won't go until at least the third round, possibly later. Then there's quarterback Brandon Bridge, who didn't wind up in the NFL, but plays a position where the CFL's rules don't let him count as a Canadian; he might be the best player here, but his citizenship status not counting hurts his stock. Then there are Brett Boyko and Tyler Varga, ranked #2 and #4, who signed NFL deals as priority undrafted free agents. They probably won't go until the late second round at the earliest, and possibly substantially later, which is well below what their talent alone would indicate.

Again, this is less of a problem now than it has been historically thanks to the CFL changing eligibility restrictions and moving the draft date. If this draft was held as quickly after the NFL draft as 2014's was, we would have seen over 15 players affected by upcoming NFL minicamps instead of just a few. Still, having top players who won't go anywhere near the top of the draft is something that hurts fan interest. As TSN's Duane Forde said on his media conference call Monday, "It's the one draft in pro sports, because of the existence of the NFL, where the best prospect will never go first overall." He cited Crawford's case as a particularly egregious example: "You had a guy who was far and away the best player, and no one touched him."

3. Even when players do come to the CFL, they often come late: Another factor that's helped boost the profiles of the NFL, NBA and NHL drafts is that the top draft picks are in the league almost immediately and often contributing quickly. By contrast, the CFL draft is similar to baseball's draft, where many players aren't with the big club for a few years. In the CFL, though, that's not about them spending time in the minors; it's about them exhausting their NFL options. A case in point here is Greenwood, who came to the CFL four years after he was initially drafted. Other examples are Gaydosh (first overall in 2013, but didn't wind up in the CFL until last September) and Tyler Holmes (seventh overall in 2011, came to the CFL in 2013).

Before the eligibility rule change, this delay was also about players finishing their college eligibility, which added to the challenge of judging NFL interest (as the NFL wouldn't draft them until a year later). Even when teams did judge that interest correctly, it took a while for them to reap the benefits. Consider Philip Blake, who was ranked first in the first two CFL rankings in 2011, then fourth in the final one. He fell to the last pick of the third round in the 2011 CFL draft, which turned out to be smart; he had a good senior senior season and was drafted in the fourth round by the NFL's Denver Broncos in 2012. Blake didn't wind up coming to the CFL until this January, almost four years after he was drafted.

Keep in mind too that even those who do come to the CFL immediately have often been worked in slowly, and primarily on special teams. That's been particularly true for skill-position players, who haven't gotten much of a chance to show what they can do for a couple of years. This gradual adjustment may have benefits, but it doesn't help sell the draft. It's difficult to get fans excited about a player who might or might not wind up with your team several years down the road, or one who may make only minimal contributions for his first season or two.

4. It's hard to sell linemen: This ties in with several of the other factors, but many of the top prospects in the CFL draft have traditionally been offensive linemen. As Forde noted Monday, that's at least partly because the gap between Canadian and American linemen was historically seen as smaller than the gap at the skill positions. That probably also helped reinforce the situation; it was seen that Canadian linemen could have long CFL careers, so "CFL offensive linemen" was a desirable path for athletes to pursue. That's not necessarily so much the case any more, as we're seeing Canadians succeed at skill positions and we're seeing teams use more American linemen as a result, but this year's draft's top prospects are still probably the group of offensive linemen. While the guys in the trenches are crucial to team success, though, they often don't draw a lot of fan excitement. It's much easier to sell a quarterback (who's almost never taken in the CFL draft, as discussed above in #2) or a star defender or receiver, but smart drafting in the CFL is often about building the line.

5. This is only a source of less than half the CFL's players: Most of the CFL's Canadians come in through the draft (a few enter as undrafted free agents), but less than half of a CFL 44-man active roster is Canadian. The current breakdown is 21 Canadians, 20 Americans, and three quarterbacks (who are almost always American). American players aren't drafted into the CFL; they're brought in through the secretive negotiation list process, or as free agents, or through free agent tryout camps. Thus, there's a lot of incoming CFL talent that's not touched by the draft. That makes it harder to sell the draft.

How can this change? What can the CFL do to change these factors and make its draft a destination? Well, there are a few things. The changes the league's already made to eligibility rules, national status and the draft date should help, expanding the pool of available players, making those players more immediately available (at least they won't have a year of college left), and making it easier for teams to judge NFL interest in particular players. That's part of why this year's draft should be special, and worth watching. More can be done, though.

First, TSN needs to be persuaded to televise the entire draft and not just the first couple of rounds. They have five channels now; they should be able to make room for the full draft on one of them. They should also promote it more. TSN's a huge partner of the CFL these days thanks to the new TV deal (through 2018) and perhaps even their parent company Bell's reported interest in buying the Argos; growing the CFL is good for them, and promoting the draft is a smart way to do that.

Second, the CFL needs to make it even more worthwhile for teams to draft players at skill positions. Quarterback in particular is a key one here; the current rule provides even a counterincentive to take Canadian quarterbacks, which is insane. Other positions could be bolstered too, though. A current issue with using Canadians at skill positions like running back or linebacker is you need a good Canadian backup in case they get hurt so you don't have to dramatically adjust your ratio. The CFL could potentially loosen the in-game ratio rules for injury replacements in particular to encourage teams to play Canadian stars without worrying so much about them getting hurt.

Third, the American issue could stand to be addressed. Secret negotiation lists are problematic; they're no way to build interest. Perhaps a separate draft could be done for American players' rights, or perhaps they could even be rolled into the main draft. That would still carry some of the challenges discussed above (as neg-listed American players are often even less likely to come to the CFL quickly), but it would help build more interest than the secretive negotiation list process.

Beyond that, the CFL needs to do more to promote its incoming wave of prospects. There have been positive steps on this front, inclduing the league's regular prospect rankings, the amount of CFL combine content they push out and the expansion of the combine to regional events, but there's more that can be done, especially with covering these guys while they're still in the college ranks. The league could work to revitalize the relationship with CIS and build a stronger relationship with the NCAA. The CFL, its broadcast partner in TSN, and the independent media who cover it could focus more on promoting what top prospects are doing each week. If these guys are talked about all year, it gets easier to become excited about the draft.

We've seen some positive steps on this front. Kent Ridley's draft guide is always a valuable resource, TSN's Tony D'Archi has done terrific work profiling all of the top 20 prospects, Justin Dunk has been providing excellent draft coverage for Sportsnet and CFL.ca, and Scott Mitchell has been doing great work on prospects in The Calgary Sun. There are others who have been covering the draft more than usual, too. Still, like anything, coverage corresponds to popular interest. The interest in the CFL draft is rising, but it still has a ways to go. That's why even the league is embracing the Simpsons' reference.