Western Interprovincial Football Union ( WIFU ) The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League . Although the CFL was not founded until 1958 , the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues . History . Pre - 1936 . The first organized football club in Western Canada was the " Winnipeg Rugby Football Club " , later the Winnipeg Football Club , a forerunner of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers which was founded in 1879 . At the time the sport was generally called " rugby " or " rugby football " because its rules were similar to rugby union ' s , although this would change drastically in the coming decades . The first organized competition in the West was formed in 1888 Winnipeg Football Club , St . John ' s College and the Royal School of Infantry formed the Manitoba Rugby League , later re - organized as the Manitoba Rugby Football Union . Football was being played in what was to become Alberta and Saskatchewan by 1890 , and by 1907 the new provinces had organized their own respective competitions and agreed to adopt the rules of the national governing body , the Canadian Rugby Union . A provincial union was not formed in British Columbia until the 1920s . The three provincial unions then in existence soon set out to create a unified Western Canadian competition , with the view that the Western champion should be able to challenge for the Canadian Rugby Union ' s new championship trophy , the Grey Cup . To this end , the Manitoba , Saskatchewan and Alberta unions formed the Western Canada Rugby Football Union in 1911 , with the Calgary Tigers winning the first Western championship later that year . Initially , the Western champions were not allowed to compete for the Grey Cup , because the CRU believed the calibre of the new competition to be inferior to those in the East . It was not until 1921 that a Western team was finally allowed to compete in the Grey Cup game , when the Edmonton Eskimos lost 23 – 0 to the Toronto Argonauts . Initial challenges for the trophy met with futility , largely because the Western champion invariably had to travel to the East to compete in the championship game . Finally in 1935 a Western team , the Winnipeg Pegs ( soon to be known as the Blue Bombers ) captured the Grey Cup , after they defeated the Hamilton Tigers 18 – 12 . WCRFU champions Western Interprovincial Football Union ( 1936 – 1961 ) . In 1936 , the Western Interprovincial Football Union was formed , succeeding the WCRFU as the West ' s premier football competition . The Winnipeg Blue Bombers , Regina Roughriders and Calgary Bronks were the original teams . Teams from Edmonton and Vancouver also competed in some seasons prior to suspension of the competition in 1942 for the duration of the Second World War . The league resumed play on a limited basis in 1945 with Winnipeg , Regina and the newly renamed Calgary Stampeders . The competition was fully resumed by 1946 . The Regina Roughriders became the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1948 , Edmonton rejoined the league in 1949 and in 1950 the third place team was granted a playoff berth . In 1954 , the BC Lions joined the league , thus giving the West the same five teams that compete in the modern CFL as of 2005 . The regular season schedule was also expanded , from eight games per team in 1946 to 12 in 1948 , 14 in 1949 , and finally 16 games in 1952 . The West continued to play a 16 - game schedule for the next three decades . The WIFU champion was not always guaranteed a berth in the Grey Cup game at first . In 1940 the Western champions , the Blue Bombers , were disqualified from the Grey Cup in a rules dispute . Also , until the 1950s , the Western champion was often obliged to play the champion of the Ontario Rugby Football Union in a Grey Cup semi - final . However , the ORFU was eventually proven to be a much weaker league , and stopped challenging for the Grey Cup after the 1954 season . The Western champion has always been guaranteed a berth in the Grey Cup since that time , so 1954 is usually viewed as the start of the modern era of Canadian football . Since the 1955 season , the champion of what was then known as the WIFU has competed for the Grey Cup against the champion of what was then called the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or " Big Four " . In 1956 , these two leagues agreed to form the Canadian Football Council . In 1958 , the CFC withdrew from the CRU and re - named itself the Canadian Football League . Western Football Conference ( 1961 – 1980 ) . The WIFU was re - named the Western Football Conference in 1961 and agreed to a partial interlocking schedule with what was by then known as the Eastern Football Conference the same year . Although the WFC was part of the CFL , its merger with the EFC was only a partial merger for the next two decades . During this time , the conferences maintained considerable autonomy — for example , the West had a different playoff format until 1973 and a longer schedule until 1974 . During this time , attendances increased substantially for most clubs and television revenue gained prominence and importance . By the 1980s , CFL clubs were ready to proceed with a complete merger of the two regional conferences . West Division ( 1980 – 1994 , 1996 – present ) . In 1980 , the CFL ' s two conferences agreed to a full merger and a full interlocking schedule . Although the WFC has carried on since that time as the CFL ' s West Division , full authority is now vested within the CFL . The decision to create a full interlocking schedule meant that the teams were playing fewer divisional games , consequently the league decided add two extra divisional games per team , thus extending the schedule to 18 games per team starting in 1986 . The West Division has undergone major changes since the dissolution of the WFC . In 1987 an East Division team , the Montreal Alouettes , folded . Consequently , Winnipeg was transferred to the East Division to keep the divisions equal in size . This led to the first " all - Western " Grey Cup in 1988 when the Blue Bombers won the East Division championship for the first time . In 1993 , the CFL decided to expand to the United States , leading to the addition of the league ' s first American - based team , the Sacramento Gold Miners . In 1994 , the division added a sixth team , the Las Vegas Posse . Following the 1994 season , the Posse folded while the Gold Miners moved to San Antonio and became the Texans . For the 1995 season , all eight Canadian teams competed in the North Division . Prior to the 1996 season however , all of the American clubs disbanded , with one ( the Baltimore Stallions ) returning to Montreal . The pre - 1987 divisional alignment was restored , only to see Winnipeg return to the East after one season when the Ottawa Rough Riders folded . The Blue Bombers returned to the West in 2002 after an expansion franchise was granted in the nation ' s capital . With the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades for the 2006 season , the Blue Bombers moved back to the East . Grey Cup record . Prior to 1954 , Western clubs found limited success in the Grey Cup . Since 1954 however , the West has generally been on an equal footing and in recent decades has often dominated the East in the regular season . Since 1954 the West has won 31 Grey Cups and lost 24 . If the 1995 season is counted , the West has lost 26 . It should also be noted that two of the West ' s Grey Cup losses were to the Blue Bombers , who have played in the West for most of their history . Playoff format . For most seasons since 1950 , the top three teams in the West have made the playoff s . For many years , the semi - final and final was a two - game or even a best - of - three game series , but this was abandoned in the 1970s in favour of one - game play - offs . Quite often a fourth - place team in the West had a better record than the third - place team in the East , with the western team out of the playoffs . This was rectified beginning in 1986 when the CFL instituted a rule that permitted a fourth - place team in one division to make the playoffs provided it had more points in the standings than the third - place team in the other division . That year in the West the first - place Eskimos ( 13 – 4 – 1 ) defeated the fourth - place Stampeders ( 11 – 7 – 0 ) by a score of 27 – 18 . The second - place Lions ( 12 – 6 – 0 ) defeated the third - place Blue Bombers ( 11 – 7 – 0 ) by a score of 21 – 14 . The Eskimos then demolished the Lions in the West Final 41 – 5 and advanced to the Grey Cup . In the East the first - place Argonauts ( 10 – 8 – 0 ) played a two - game total point series against the second - place Tiger - Cats ( 9 – 8 – 1 ) . The Argonauts won the first game 31 – 17 , but the Tiger - Cats won the second game by a score of 42 – 25 and so the series with of course a berth in the Grey Cup final . The Tiger - Cats , in their third consecutive Grey Cup game , were victorious over the Eskimos 39 – 15 . With the demise of the Montreal Alouettes on the eve of the 1987 season the playoff format reverted to the top three teams in the respective divisions making the playoffs . In 1997 , the present cross - over rule was implemented , allowing the fourth - place team from one division to take the play - off place of the third - place team in the other division , should the fourth - place team earn a better record . Since 1997 , the fourth place team in the West has taken advantage of the cross - over rule five times , but not be until 2008 did a Western team ( Edmonton ) advance to the Eastern final . As of 2010 , no team from the East has crossed over into the Western playoffs .