With CFL commissioner Mark Cohon planning to step down next spring and league president/COO Michael Copeland declining to throw his hat into to the ring for the top job, the CFL's going to have to conduct a significant search for a new commissioner. The league announced just what that process will look like Tuesday, and the details they've announced seem positive. An extensive search seems like a good plan, especially as there's little agreement out there over what sort of background the new commissioner should have or what they should focus on.

First, the details of the search. From CFL.ca:

The league's Board of Governors has formed a Search Committee to lead the process to hire the eventual successor to Commissioner Mark Cohon, who has announced that he would not seek a renewal of his contract, which expires next spring.



The Committee will be chaired by CFL Chairman Jim Lawson, and will include several CFL Governors, while senior leadership from each CFL Member Club will have extensive input throughout the search process.



"The Committee is looking forward to a process that will result in securing the best possible candidate for this prestigious position at an important time for our league," Lawson said.



The Committee has engaged Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading executive search consulting firms, to facilitate the process.













There aren't a ton of details in there, but the ones we do have are positive. For one thing, several clubs will be directly represented on the committee by their governors, and the rest will have "extensive input". Many of the CFL's commissioners before Cohon were handicapped and eventually pushed out by infighting and power struggles amongst the clubs, who have frequently had different goals. If the league's going to continue its run of success, it needs a commissioner the clubs can agree on. That won't be easy, but directly involving the clubs in the search process is a good step there.



Hiring a top executive search firm also seems like a solid plan. While there are still internal candidates who might be good targets, Copeland's decision not to apply for the top job means there's no obvious choice within the CFL ranks already. An internal candidate could still be selected, but a wide-ranging search can collect the best external candidates and put them up against internal ones to see how they compare. This is a crucial decision for the CFL's future, so taking the time to go through a lot of candidates is well worth it.

What should the committee be looking for? Well, TSN's Glen Suitor argues they should bring in a commissioner who is "a football guy first," but from this corner, that's getting it backwards. Yes, the on-field product is important, but the league office doesn't have a huge amount of control over that. The CFL office is involved in rule changes and CBA details, which can matter, but the calibre of on-field play is much more about the job the league's general managers do in scouting and recruiting talent and the job the league's coaches do of developing and utilizing that talent.

Moreover, you don't have to have a commissioner "who at one time played the game or coached" to improve the game. Requiring someone to play in order to understand how to run the league is demonstrably false; some of the CFL's top general managers, such as Brendan Taman and Jim Barker (winners of the last two Grey Cups), never had notable playing careers, but that hasn't diminished their effectiveness as personnel bosses. Meanwhile, some top players (such as Suitor's TSN colleague Matt Dunigan) didn't work out at all as coaches or general managers. Suitor's specific suggestions for improvement, such as increasing the officiating budget, firming up media availabilities and boosting the transparency of player discipline, aren't bad, but they could all be done by someone with a business background too.

Something else that's notable? Suitor's use of "guy." If you require professional football playing experience, then yes, you're probably looking for a man, but playing experience isn't everything, and it isn't all that relevant to this job. There have been successful female executives in football on both sides of the border, including Jo-Anne Polak (the CFL's first female general manager with Ottawa in 1988; she's now a VP at Canada Post, and someone who might be worth a look here if she was interested) and Amy Trask (the NFL's first female CEO with Oakland, who's now a CBS analyst). The CFL has two female vice-presidents at the moment, Sara Moore (marketing) and Christina Litz (broadcast and media assets), and either could be a strong candidate. There are also tons of successful female business executives who might be worth a look here. That doesn't necessarily mean the CFL has to hire a female commissioner (although, if the right female candidate was found, it would be terrific to see this league shatter that barrier), but eliminating half of the candidate pool over gender doesn't seem wise. Some people will inevitably blast the idea of a female commissioner, but it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

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