No CFL teams cheated last year.
At least in terms of the Salary Management System, none of the nine franchises exceeded the $5.15 million cap on players’ salaries in 2017. Overspending teams can be disciplined by paying fines or losing players. The cap increases to $5.2 million this year.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have exceeded the cap more than any CFL franchise. Rider fans insist it’s because the CFL doesn’t like the Riders. Fans of other teams insist the Riders are pathological cheaters. But even the Riders kept their spending in check last season.
It didn’t cause much of a ripple when the CFL announced full compliance with a rule designed to make its teams equally competitive. To make the league even more fair, the CFL next has to implement a spending cap for each team’s coaches, scouts and administrators.