CFLIt was announced the other day that the Saskatchewan Roughriders will host the Ottawa RedBlacks in a special pre-season game at Mosaic Stadium on June 14. The game would be special because Ottawa would be regarded as the home team. They would occupy the traditional west-side bench of the Riders  and receive all the other benefits of being the home team. The game is being staged in Regina to give the expansion Ottawa franchise a couple of extra weeks to get its stadium ready before the start of the 2014 regular season.

Today, the CFL announced the remainder of the 2014 schedule. With Ottawa entering the league, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will return to the Western Conference. So this year’s schedule looks quite a bit different from those of the past few years.

The Riders open the season at home on June 29 in a Grey Cup rematch against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Their first road game is on July 5 against the Argonauts in Toronto. Throughout the season, they will play home-and-home series against the four Eastern Conference teams.

The Green & White also have two game sets against the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders.  They will also play three games each against the Bombers and Edmonton Eskimos for a total of 18 games. The unbalanced Western Conference schedule should work in the Riders favour this year as unless Winnipeg and Edmonton improve dramatically  they were not in the same class as Calgary and B.C. last year.

The first half of the year is front loaded with games against Eastern opponents. Indeed, the Riders don’t see Calgary until a home date on Oct. 3. And all three of their games against the Eskimos are lumped in the final third of the season — beginning with a road game at Commonwealth Stadium on Sept. 26 and ending with a home date against the Esks on Nov. 8.

You can find out more on the CFL website.