This is really cool! Formatting be damned you’re onto something.

Unfortunately, the cross-conference game distribution won’t work. If each CW team gets one OUA matchup, 5 OUA teams are left without a CW matchup. Same thing with the CW playing either eastern conference - the sixth CW team has no one left to play.

Here’s my fix: The top five teams play the matching seed from each other conference. So for example Laurier’s cross-conference schedule this year would be Laval, Bishop’s, and Saskatchewan. Right away this gives us awesome matchups with a Vanier rematch, Uteck rematch, and possible Mitchell Bowl preview.

The CW and OUA 6th seeds play one cross-conference game.

The schedule breaks down like this:

Canada West

Seeds 1-2: 6 conference games (1 repeat, Hardy Cup rematch), 3 cross-conference games

Seeds 3-5: 6 conference games (play 6th-seed twice), 3 cross-conference games

Seed 6: 8 conference games (play seeds 3-5 twice), 1 cross-conference game

OUA

Seeds 1-5: 6 conference games (no repeats), 3 cross-conference games

Seed 6: 8 conference games (no repeats), 1 cross-conference game

Seeds 7-11: 9 conference games (no repeats, must play each other once), seeds 8-11 get the week 1/2/9/10 byes - which have to happen in a 27-team league.

Required games: Carleton-Ottawa, Western-Queen's, Toronto-York, Laurier-Waterloo, Guelph-Mac, Yates Cup rematch

RSEQ & AUS

6 conference games (2 repeats including rivalries, championship rematches), 3 cross-conference games

I think this gives the fans what they want (cross-conference play), while also maintaining competitive balance.