2013 CFL season The 2013 CFL season will be the 60th season of modern Canadian professional football . Officially , it is the 56th season of the league . Regina is scheduled to host the 101st Grey Cup on November 24 . The pre - season will begin on June 12 , 2013 and the regular season will begin on June 27 , 2013 . CFL news in 2013 . Salary Cap . According to the new collective bargaining agreement , the 2013 salary cap will be set at $ 4 , 400 , 000 . As per the agreement , the cap is fixed and will not vary with league revenue performance . The minimum team salary will be set at $ 4 , 000 , 000 with individual minimum salaries set at $ 45 , 000 . Season schedule . The 2013 season schedule was released on March 5 , 2013 , with the regular season opening on June 27 at the new Investors Group Field in Winnipeg , Manitoba . This will be the first time Winnipeg has opened the regular season since 1998 and it will be the first time that there will be a brand new stadium in the CFL since Toronto ' s SkyDome opened in 1989 . For the second time in three years , the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger - Cats will not play in their Labour Day Classic matchup , due to scheduling conflicts for both teams . Following the previous year ' s experiment , the league is not only having all division matchups in the last week , but for the final four weeks in total , leading to what they hope will be a tight playoff race . There will be 15 double headers this year , with one on a Thursday , three on Fridays , nine on Saturdays , one on a Sunday , and one ( the traditional Thanksgiving contests ) on a Monday . Bye weeks . For the second consecutive year , the teams ' bye weeks will occur in the sixth and seventh weeks of the season , earlier than the usual eighth and ninth week setup that has been in place since 2007 . These begin over the August Civic Holiday , suggesting that this was done to accommodate for fans ' vacation plans . Stadium changes . The Hamilton Tiger - Cats will take up residence at Alumni Stadium in Guelph for the 2013 season , with the exception of Touchdown Atlantic ( see below ) . The team ' s previous venue , Ivor Wynne Stadium , was demolished during the offseason , and its replacement , New Hamilton Stadium , will not be ready until at least 2014 . Because Alumni Stadium is booked for Labour Day in 2013 , the Tiger - Cats will not host the Labour Day Classic and will instead travel to Vancouver to face the BC Lions that weekend . Because Ontario University Athletics also has a tradition of playing football games on Labour Day , finding a suitable venue within Southern Ontario would have been impossible . The Toronto at Hamilton matchup will instead be played as the nightcap in the 2013 Thanksgiving Day Classic . The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will finally take residence at the new Investors Group Field . The stadium was supposed to have been readied last season , but construction delays pushed back the opening to this season . The Toronto Argonauts will host the Montreal Alouettes at the University of Toronto ' s Varsity Stadium for their preseason game . It will be the first time that the Argonauts will play at Varsity Stadium in 55 years . Return of Touchdown Atlantic . After a one - year hiatus in 2012 , Touchdown Atlantic will return for the 2013 season with the Hamilton Tiger - Cats hosting the Montreal Alouettes on September 21 , 2013 . This will be the third regular season instalment of the game and the second to feature the Tiger - Cats . This will be the first appearance for the Alouettes and it will also be the first matchup to feature division opponents . Media . On March 21 , 2013 , the CFL announced it had renewed its exclusive contract with TSN to televise all CFL games through 2018 ; the contract includes the national radio rights to the Grey Cup , which will air on TSN Radio and The Team . The contract had originally been set to expire at the end of the 2013 season . As with the previous contract , the league will have no games broadcast on terrestrial television , prolonging an absence dating to 2007 and making it the largest league in North America without over - the - air television broadcasts . No deal has been reached , as of March 2013 , for United States broadcast rights , which had rested with NBC Sports Network for the second half of the 2012 season . Rule Changes . On April 10 2013 the CFL Board of Governors approved 2 new rules . The first stated that coaches would be allowed to challenge the result of a field goal attempt or extra point attempt . The second rule gives coaches flexibility on when they can use their timeouts . Coaches can now use both of their time outs at any point during regulation time of a game , as long as they don ’ t use more than one after the three minute warning has been sounded in the second half of the game . In the past coaches were only allowed to use one time out per half . Coaching Changes . Immediately following the close of the 2012 CFL season it seemed probable that there would be no head coaching changes in the off - season . However , after a disappointing 6 - 12 regular season the Hamilton Tiger - Cats fired George Cortez . The expectations on the Ticats were very high after the off - season acquisitions of Henry Burris and Andy Fantuz which Cortez failed to live up to . The Tiger - Cats replaced Cortez with Kent Austin . Austin , who won the 95th Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders , had been the offensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi and the head coach of Cornell University for 3 years each . In mid - January , 2013 , the Montreal Alouettes lost their head coach Marc Trestman to the Chicago Bears of the NFL . Trestman won two Grey Cups in five seasons as the head coach of the Alouettes from 2008 to 2012 . On February 19 the Alouettes announced that Dan Hawkins would be the new head coach . Hawkins had been the head coach of Willamette University , Boise State and University of Colorado from 1993 to 2010 . Regular season . Structure . Teams play eighteen regular season games , playing two of the three divisional opponents three times , the other four times , and teams from the opposing division twice . Teams are awarded two points for a win and one point for a tie . The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs , with the first place team gaining a bye to the divisional finals . A fourth place team in one division may qualify ahead of the third place team in the other division ( the " Crossover " ) , if they earn more points in the season . If two or more teams in the same division are equal in points , the following tiebreakers apply : Notes : Standings . " Note : GP = Games Played , W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , PF = Points For , PA = Points Against , Pts = Points " " Teams in bold are in playoff positions . X – clinched playoff berthY – clinched first place and bye to division final