I play every year in my Canadian toy boy and fiance-in-perpetuity Archibald's non-profit Canadian Football League (CFL) pool against the spread (ATS).
In the 2021 Grey Cup, I correctly selected winterpeg -3.5 over HAMmerville. I am now 10-2 ATS picking the past 12 Grey Cups.
Including both play-off and regular season matches, I was 35-33 in 2021 with my ATS picks = 8-8 home underdogs, 15-10 road underdogs, 5-10 home overdogs and 7-5 road overdogs.
I am 52% over 12 years picking CFL winners ATS from 2009 on. I have had only 3 losing CFL years out of 12. However, I trail behind a simple all-underdogs strategy at 53% from 2009. 2014 was the only year during this period when CFL underdogs had a losing year ATS.For 2021, all-underdogs were 38-30 ATS and an all-roadies strategy was 40-28.
I did not fancy picking against the home underdog Ticats in the Grey Cup. However, Arch points out that western teams are 214-125-2 straight-up against eastern teams from 2012 through 2021 and 179-158-4 ATS including Grey Cups and other playoff matches. In 2021 including the Grey Cup result, west over east was 14-11 straight-up and 13-12 ATS. The west has won 6 of the last 8 Grey Cups and 11 of the past 16.
