The 1976 CFL season is considered to be the 23rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 19th Canadian Football League season.

CFL news in 1976

For the first time in Canadian Football League history, more than two million fans attended CFL games, with a total attendance of 2,029,586. In the CFL All-Star Game, the East team defeated the West, 27–16, in front of 21,762 fans at Clarke Stadium in Edmonton. The game was played before the pre-season on May 29, the first time a CFL contest was held in the month of May (and the last time until 2018).

Regular season standings

Final regular season standings

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

Grey Cup playoffs

The Ottawa Rough Riders are the 1976 Grey Cup champions, defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 23–20, at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. This was the third championship game between the two teams with Ottawa winning two out of three games. Ottawa's Tom Clements (QB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Offence and Saskatchewan's Cleveland Vann (LB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Defence. Ottawa's Tony Gabriel (TE) was named Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian. This was the only year between 1973 and 1982 that the Edmonton Eskimos did not appear in the Grey Cup game.

Playoff bracket

CFL Leaders

1976 CFL All-Stars

Offence

Defence

1976 Eastern All-Stars

Offence

Defence

1976 Western All-Stars

Offence

Defence

1976 CFL Awards