If this continues, the fastest-growing minority group in this country will be football players who haven't dressed for a CFL game.

And all indications are that this will indeed continue, 'this' being the spectacular increase in the number of players each Canadian Football League team goes through in a season.

Everyone around the Hamilton Tiger-Cats knows the 88 players who dressed for at least one game in 2013 season is an all-time league record.

But what people don't know is that the next-highest turnover total, 77 players, also came during 2013 and that two teams, Toronto and Winnipeg, reached it. Or that Montreal was only three back at 74.

And what only the cognoscenti - such as CFL head statistician Steve Daniel, who worked out the numbers - know is the average number of players per team dressing for at least one league game has gone up from 52.9 for the decade of the 1980s, through 57.3 for the '90s, to 61.5 for the first decade of the 2000s, and is already at 67.6 for the first four years of the 20-teens.

That recent increase represents a 10-per-cent hike in just four seasons.

There are a number of factors involved in cranking up the revolving door of players to such a dizzying level, but the most impactful is probably the CFL's earnest commitment to the salary management system, which began in 2006.

"I think with the enforcement of the salary cap," Argo general manager Jim Barker says of the tight controls since 2006, "that if a player a player isn't producing, you're better off cutting him."

Over time, salary caps tend to increase parity among teams, which often means fewer things, and players, separate a great season from a bungled one. Every Cat fan is familiar with former GM Bob O'Billovich's mantra, "Better is better," even if it's only marginally. So teams are constantly trying to upgrade wherever they can, and in personnel the only way to do that besides "coaching up" players is to replace them.

"You've got a player making quite a bit of money but not producing at the level the dollars dictate," one CFL general manager offers as an example. "You make that change quicker with a cap."

Rosters themselves have grown since the 1980s, when rosters were limited to 36 players, compared to the 42 who can dress for a game today. So there are more jerseys to fill, and therefore an increased number of candidates to review.

But the on-field roster has remained at 42 since 2006, and the average number of players a team used that year was only 63.5, compared to 71.6 for last season.

A hidden component in the increased number of players suiting up for games is that the number of import players has gone up and so has their percentage of the roster. In the 1980s, game-day rosters were limited to 18 Americans. It's now 22, a rise of 22 per cent.

Since there is more liquidity among imports - there's an almost inexhaustible supply, while the Canadian pool is much smaller - an increase there means more traffic for those jobs.

"You might find that the number of injuries has also increased," says Ticats GM and coach Kent Austin.

That's a notion seconded by Barker, who reminds us that injured players have to be replaced.

"Players are trained differently now," says Barker. "They're getting injured more often, just with the size and speed of the athletes. Plus they are so much more aware of their own bodies. They're in great shape, but they're like thoroughbreds.

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"In the old days, if you had a headache, you went off for a play or two. Now you have a headache, you are off two weeks. If your knee hurt, as soon as you could walk again you played. Now, we send them for an MRI."

Along that line, some teams use the one-week and nine-week injury lists "liberally," allowing them looks at more players while the others are "recovering".

Austin points out that different teams take different approaches when it comes to evaluating and keeping players. B.C., for instance, has dressed significantly fewer players than other teams over the past 10 years, suggesting that Wally Buono and his staff like to pay fewer players, but pay them more.

And no team has gone through more players in the past 10 seasons than the Cats have. In half of those years, they've dressed 70 or more. But nothing came close to last year's 88, which represented more than two full different game-day rosters.

"Our situation was unique, not just because it was our (staff's) first year and we were in last place when we took over, but because of all the injuries," Austin says.

"And our philosophy was to find out earlier rather than later if a guy can play."

That was a gamble - you might find out a guy actually can't play, which can cost you a game - but in the long run it paid off in a Grey Cup berth.

Teams that dressed the most players in a season never used to get anywhere near the Grey Cup, because an airlift was usually the sign of serial losing, scouting weaknesses and desperation.

Now it's the sign of daily CFL business.

By the numbers

Average number of players per CFL team dressing for games in a season

1980-89 52.9

1990-99 57.3

2000-09 61.5

2010-13 71.6

Ticats players dressing for games

2013 88

2003 59

1993 56

1983 50

Number of teams using 70 or more players in a season

Prior to 2006���8

Since 2006���16

CFL

