The CFL unveiled its 2025 schedule on Thursday morning which means the Montreal Alouettes know exactly what’s to come in the coming months.
The Als will play two Thursday home games, three on Fridays, three on Saturdays, and one on Thanksgiving Monday. Unlike last season, they’ll open this year at home in Week 1 in an East Final rematch against the Toronto Argonauts.
Here are the three things that stood out most about the 2025 schedule from an Als perspective:
– Starting with a heavy dose of East Division football:
Jason Maas’ team began last season with back-to-back games against the West Division. This year, they’ll get a steady dose of East Division football right off the jump.
Not only do the Als go head-to-head against the Argos in Week 1, but they’ll also get to face them at Percival Molson Stadium again in Week 7. Two home dates against Toronto in the first six games? Sure. Sign me up.
It’ll be interesting to see what the status of Argos quarterback Chad Kelly is for those games. Kelly suffered a brutal lower-body injury in last year’s East Final in Montreal, and his availability could very well be in question for those games.
Three of Montreal’s first four contests are against East Division rivals. They’ll face every team in the East by Week 4. So, we’ll get a good idea of what the competition will look like in the conference.
Here’s the head-to-head breakdown vs. the East in 2025:
Vs. the Argos: two home games, one away
Vs. the Redblacks: one home, two away
Vs. the Tiger-Cats: one home, one away
In the CFL, it’s not about how you start but more about how you finish, but those early divisional games will go a long way in determining playoff seeding.
– Managing short weeks:
We know that in the CFL, every team will have to deal with short weeks (less than a full week between games). In 2025, the Als will have five short weeks, which is the third most in the CFL behind the Argos (six) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (six). Last season, they went 2-2 coming off short weeks.
The shortest turnaround will come in August, as they’ll head to Vancouver for a game on Saturday, Aug. 16 before flying back across the country to host the Blue Bombers on Thursday, Aug. 21. Short weeks are difficult enough to manage, but adding lengthy travel in between makes it even more difficult. A similar situation occurred in 2024 when the Als beat Ottawa on a Monday before playing Vancouver on a Saturday.
The Als have five “regular” weeks (full week between games) which is behind Edmonton (eight), Calgary (seven), BC (six) and Hamilton (six). The Argos and Ottawa Redblacks each have one regular week, but they have 10 and 11 “long” weeks (more than a week between games) respectively.
– Hitting the road early:
Last season, the Als opened with back-to-back road games in Winnipeg and Edmonton. They won both those outings, so an early road trip isn’t always a bad thing. This year, they’ll be tested early again, as they’ll open the season at home in Week 1 before embarking on a three-game road trip that will take them to Ottawa, Edmonton, and Hamilton. In two seasons under Maas, the Als have a 16-0-0 record against those three teams. That will be the longest stretch of games away from home in 2025. The Als will play consecutive games at home just once (Week 9 and 10 against the Roughriders and Elks).
The Als will also play their final two regular season games of the season on the road in Ottawa and Winnipeg. The Alouettes were the only team to hit the six-win mark on the road, as they went 6-2-1 away from home.
