In a move straight from the files of the Department of Advance Planning, the CFL held a press conference Monday not about November's Grey Cup in Vancouver, but rather on the following Grey Cup in Toronto in November 2012. Of course, that Toronto edition isn't going to be your typical Grey Cup, as it will mark the 100th presentation of the storied trophy, and it's already received plenty of discussion. It makes sense to start talking about some of what will happen around that Grey Cup, and it particularly makes sense to unveil specific new elements of the festival that have already been decided upon, such as a longer festival than normal (starting on the Friday before Grey Cup Week), "an interactive family zone" in Yonge-Dundas Square, a football film festival and plans for a street festival on John Street and a tailgate party on Bremner Boulevard. However, the conference also sparked plenty of questions and controversies, and not all of them have seen answers so far.

One particularly

The CFL's a very different league from the NFL, and those differences extend just beyond the bigger field, extra players and Canadian content north of the 49th. They also apply to the realm of contracts, and that appears to be what's responsible for the latest delay in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' attempts to sign top overall draft pick Henoc Muamba. As Sportsnet's Arash Madani reported Friday, Muamba's camp apparently came to terms with the Bombers on a deal, but that deal was then scuttled over a misunderstanding around the terms of the deal's team option year. Team options are quite standard in CFL contracts, and the option itself doesn't appear to be the issue. However, Mumba's group reportedly thought the offered deal was two years including an option, when in reality it was two years plus a team option (or essentially three years). Here are some of Madani's tweets on the matter yesterday in chronological order, demonstrating how things went wrong and how unusual this situation is:

Continuing our series of training camp previews, here's a look at the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from Wednesday's conference call. You can find audio of the call here and the full transcript here. Below, some point-form observations on different elements discussed Wednesday with team president Scott Mitchell, general manager Bob O'Billovich and head coach Marcel Bellefeuille:

— The overall theme of the Tiger-Cats' season probably can be described as aggressiveness, a subject reflected in everything from promotions run by the marketing department to the philosophies of the coaching staff to the team's free-agent signings. One of the more unique things along those lines was the team's upcoming Oct. 7 "Your Team, Your Rules" promotion. This event, held during a game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, is going to feature fan input on a wide variety of concepts, including some that could affect the on-field product. Here's what Mitchell had to say on the subject:

"We've got the "Your Team, Your

Here's the next entry in our series of training camp previews, focusing on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Some highlights of Tuesday's conference call with team president Jim Bell, general manager Joe Mack and head coach Paul LaPolice are below.

— Most of the focus on these calls has been on the on-field preparations for training camp, but Winnipeg's off-field situation is just as interesting. After plenty of turmoil, the Bombers are finally building a new stadium and have a plan in place to pay $85 million towards it. A new element has entered the picture recently, though, and that would be the apparently-imminent relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg. Through much of their history, the Bombers had to compete with the WHA and NHL's Jets, so top-level hockey's return to the city could make things interesting for them from the points of view of both attendance and corporate sponsorship. On today's call, Bell answered several questions about how a Winnipeg NHL team could affect

Continuing our training camp preview series, here's a look at the Toronto Argonauts. It's based off Wednesday's conference call with head coach/general manager Jim Barker and president/CEO Bob Nicholson (not the Hockey Canada executive). Here are some of the highlights of what they had to say.

— The Argonauts made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason back in March when they traded a first-round draft pick for Winnipeg quarterback Steven Jyles. Barker said Jyles, who underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason, should be ready to go by training camp.

"His velocity is good, his ability to throw on the run is good," Barker said. "He should report to training camp near 100 per cent."

— Barker (pictured above calling a timeout during a game last year) said it's not just the Jyles trade that's upgraded the Argonauts' quarterbacking, but also incumbent Cleo Lemon's year of experience in the CFL and the Toronto system. There's expected to be a competition for the starting job in

One of the more intriguing elements of the CFL is the numbers of fans from coast to coast are diehard supporters who will go to great lengths to show their devotion to their team. From west coast tailgates to watermelon bras, the Banjo Bowl, Southern Ontario rivalry games, Atlantic Canada celebrations and Grey Cup parties, there are plenty of unique experiences in this league, and most are firmly centred around fans (like the Roughriders' partisan pictured above at the 2010 Grey Cup). This year, TSN's planning to showcase how integral fans are to the league's success; they're going to be shooting and airing a series of CFL on TSN commercials featuring some of each team's top fans, like the Alouettes' supporter seen at right.

I spoke to TSN creative director Kieron Mullarkey Friday about the campaign, and he said the goal was to showcase the very real passion many fans have for the CFL. That passion's something he sees as a defining characteristic of the league.

"The CFL's really a

TSN analyst Duane Forde broke some of the most surprising news of the CFL offseason Friday with a tweet that hotly-coveted Central Michigan receiver Kito Poblah will apparently be available for next Friday's CFL supplemental draft after all. Forde wrote back in April that he expected Poblah to be granted non-import status in the next few weeks, but that possibility seemed to be knocked out later thanks to paperwork issues. That may have altered multiple teams' strategies for the regular draft, as Poblah was considered one of the top receivers in this class; if it had been known that he was going to be available in the supplemental draft, we might not have seen as much of an early run on receivers we did, with four of the first eight picks being receivers.

In particular, news of this decision may have altered Winnipeg's draft philosophy. In addition to holding the first and fourth picks in this year's regular draft, the Bombers' league-worst record last season gave them first choice in

We're continuing our series of training camp previews. You can check out our previous entries on Calgary and Montreal. Next in line: the B.C. Lions, based off Tuesday's conference call with president Dennis Skulsky and general manager/head coach Wally Buono.

— Most of the questions on the call obviously focused on the football side of things, but I thought Skulsky's opening statement about the team's business side was notable as well. Of course, the Lions are in one of the most interesting sets of business circumstances of any CFL team at the moment, thanks to plans to split the 2011 season between Empire Field and the newly-renovated B.C. Place, expected to open Sept. 30. Skulsky said that makes this a crucial season for the Lions.

"We have lots of emphasis on our best-of-both-worlds season coming up," he said.

— Skulsky said the team can't wait to get into the new B.C. Place, and construction is proceeding on schedule so far.

"We're looking forward to heading back to what should be