LAS VEGAS

There wasn't much hard news to come out of the boardroom this week at the league's annual meetings involving presidents and general managers.

There was plenty of action happening in the hallway outside the boardroom, however, at The Signature at MGM Grand, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats organization was right in the middle of it.

The issue was Ticats defensive co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer, who has now been granted permission to speak to the Edmonton Eskimos about their vacant head coaching position even though his contract has a year remaining on it and a no-move clause in it.

It was probably no coincidence Ticats head coach and GM Kent Austin was overheard having a long, heated phone conversation with someone on Wednesday afternoon. Then on Thursday the team's two presidents, Edmonton's Len Rhodes and Hamilton's Scott Mitchell, came out of the meeting room three times to have hallway conversations about Steinauer.

In other words, it appears Steinauer had to fight for the right to interview for the Eskimos job, and the Ticats finally let him do it.

Stay tuned.

MOSTLY STATUS QUO

Unlike last winter, this CFL off-season promises to be much quieter when it comes to rule changes.

The league went all out last year in an effort to boost scoring and speed up the pace of their games, and there was marginal improvement in both areas. The rule book will stay mostly the same in 2016, and there's a reason for that.

“The board of governors gave us direction to come into this whole process this year trying to stabilize and build on some of the changes from last year while still looking at player safety,” CFL vice-president of officiating Glen Johnson said.

Johnson and the general managers, many of whom are on the rules committee, met during this week's league meetings in Vegas, and the main topic of discussion was keeping players -- especially quarterbacks -- on the field. CFL teams used 28 starting quarterbacks this season, or an average of more than three per squad.

“We spent a fair bit of time discussing roughing the passer, low blocks and other types of things to see if we can make those rules better, stronger,” Johnson said.

Johnson also reported a 30% improvement this season when it came to replay officials getting defensive pass interference reviews correct. Knowing the standard for pass interference is the key to success, Johnson said, and the league's replay officials are getting better at it.

The reason why being allowed to challenge offensive pass interference was tabled last season was because the league wanted to establish the DPI standard first. So once the DPI reviews become consistent, the league will look at expanding replay.

“We are looking for ways to better use video to try and get more calls right,” Johnson said. “Generally that's a theme heading into 2016. We've got the infrastructure in place. We got better on our predictability of outcomes on DPI when we reviewed DPI.

“So we proved that we could get better at it by working at it longer. So yeah, we're looking at ways to expand the use of video without slowing the game down.”

COOL NEW RULE?

One rule change idea a fan recently submitted to the league calls for teams to be required to go for it on third down inside the 20-yard line, also known as the red zone.

If the offence fails to produce a first down or a touchdown if it gets inside the 10, it would then be allowed to kick a field goal at a set distance from outside the red zone.

TV TALK

TSN president Stewart Johnston was one of three Bell Media executives who attended this week's meetings in Vegas following a season in which TV ratings dipped a whopping 15%.

Bell Media, who is the CFL's broadcast partner until the end of the 2021 campaign, agrees with the league's assessment that a perfect storm of Women's World Cup, Pan Am Games and the Toronto Blue Jays resulted in some “unusual competition for eye balls,” Johnston said.

“We're going to keep a very close eye on ratings,” he added. “However, we do believe there's a reason for optimism next year. We think that those prairie teams (Saskatchewan and Winnipeg) are going to bounce back and have stronger seasons.

“The league is moving towards more parity, which helps us in terms of no one falling out of the race, and we have the Toronto Argonauts moving into a new stadium, hopefully creating a brand new field of excitement for that fan base.”

LATE HITS

The topic of compensation for GMs and head coaches who move teams with term left on their contracts came up Thursday during meetings involving presidents and CEOs. The discussion revolved around whether a formal policy is needed. No conclusion was reached, but it will likely be discussed again ... The Calgary Stampeders finalized their coaching staff on Thursday. Receivers coach Pete Costanza, whose name had been rumoured as a potential offensive co-ordinator elsewhere, will remain in his position, while defensive tackle Corey Mace is retiring to become the team's defensive line coach. DL coach DeVone Claybrooks will move up to the defensive co-ordinator position, and Ryan Dinwiddie was announced as the quarterbacks coach ... The CFL will reveal its second CFL Scouting Bureau top 20 list on Friday.

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

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