Saturday is playoff football day in Canada

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.

The battles for two of the most tradition-steeped trophies in Canadian sports are heating up. On Saturday, the matchup for the 110th Grey Cup game will be decided while the chase for the 58th Vanier Cup gets cut to four teams.

Here’s what to know for a big day of Canadian football playoffs:

CFL division finals: Are we headed for a Grey Cup rematch?

According to the betting markets, probably. Reigning league champion Toronto is favoured by 11 points over Montreal in the East final (3 p.m. ET), while Winnipeg is a five-point favourite to defeat B.C. in the West final (6:30 p.m. ET) and reach its fourth consecutive championship game.

Toronto looks especially tough to beat right now. Since upsetting Winnipeg in last year’s Grey Cup, the Argonauts have morphed into a juggernaut, matching the CFL single-season wins record by going 16-2 as quarterback Chad Kelly blossomed into a star.

After coming off the bench in last year’s Grey Cup, the 29-year-old nephew of Buffalo Bills great Jim Kelly capitalized (literally) on his first shot at a full-time starting job in the pros. He threw 25 touchdown passes and rushed for eight more to earn the East nomination for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award and become the league’s highest-paid player. 

The Argos, who enjoyed a first-round bye last week, won all three of their regular-season matchups with Montreal. But the Alouettes (11-7 this season) can harbour some hope of slowing down Toronto after surrendering the second-fewest points in the league and then keeping Hamilton out of the endzone during last week’s 27-12 playoff win.

The West matchup is harder to call. Winnipeg (14-4 and coming off a bye) is a deserving favourite after scoring the most points in the league (33 per game) and giving up the fewest (about 21). The Blue Bombers, who came within one point of a championship three-peat last year, can become the first team in more than four decades to play in four straight Grey Cup games. Their high-scoring offence is led by CFL passing-touchdowns leader Zach Collaros (the league’s Most Outstanding Player in 2021 and ’22) and hometown running back Brady Oliveira, the West nominee for this year’s MOP after rushing for a league-high 1,534 yards and scoring 13 touchdowns.

But the Lions have shown they won’t roll over for Winnipeg. Before last week’s 41-30 playoff win over Calgary, they went 12-6 in the regular season and were the only visiting team to win in Winnipeg. The Bombers avenged that early season 30-6 blowout with a 50-14 rout in B.C. before winning a 34-26 overtime thriller on the road in Week 18.

Lions quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. always gives his team a puncher’s chance. He led the league with 4,769 passing yards and finished second to Collaros with 33 touchdown throws before accounting for five TDs in last week’s playoff win.

U Sports conference championship games: Western is on a mission

A year ago, the Canadian university football season seemed destined to end with the perennial Ontario power hoisting the Vanier Cup on its home turf. With the national championship game set to be played on their London campus, the top-ranked, undefeated Mustangs rolled through the conference playoffs with a rushing attack averaging more than eight yards per carry. But Western lost in the national semis to Laval, which went on to win the Vanier Cup.

Fast-forward a year, and Western is back in a familiar spot: unbeaten, ranked no. 1 and preparing for its eight consecutive Ontario title game. The Mustangs’ opponent in the Yates Cup is Laurier, ranked No. 2 in the country and led by national passing-yards leader Taylor Elgersma. Watch the game live Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

The other conference championship matchups are No. 5 Laval vs. No. 3 Montreal for Quebec’s Dunsmore Cup, No. 6 Alberta vs. No. 8 UBC for the West’s Hardy Cup, and No. 7 Bishop’s vs. No. 4 St. FX in the Atlantic’s Loney Bowl.

In next week’s national semifinals, it’ll be the Atlantic and West champions squaring off in the Mitchell Bowl while the Ontario and Quebec champs meet in the Uteck Bowl. The winners will play for the Vanier Cup on Nov. 25 on the Queen’s University campus in Kingston, Ont.