Best Picks to Win 2018 CFL Grey Cup

An 81-game regular season has boiled down to the final five playoff games to determine the 106th-ever Grey Cup champion. Here's the odds Bovada is giving each team to win it all:

• Calgary Stampeders (+150)
• Saskatchewan Roughriders (+300)
• Ottawa Redblacks (+600)
• Winnipeg Blue Bombers (+700)
• Hamilton Tiger-cats (+750)
• British Columbia Lions (+750)

With the best records in their respective conferences, Ottawa and Calgary earned a bye week. The other four qualifiers are less safe. Hamilton will host BC, while Winnipeg treks to Saskatchewan this weekend. 

The Grey Cup is slotted for Sunday, November 25. There's really only two teams that you need to be thinking for futures play. Allow us to explain:

Saskatchewan Roughriders

The Stampeders and Roughriders have the best Grey Cup odds, per Bovada. However, both reside in the West conference. So who's the odd one out?

For us, it's Calgary despite their first seed and CFL-best 12-5 mark. Whether it's Canadian-style football or any other sport, the playoffs are about getting hot at the right time. And right now, that's not the Stampeders. 

This would've been a different story just last month when Calgary opened a massive lead in the West with a 12-2 record. Then the script was flipped when Calgary dropped consecutive games to BC, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg — which make up half the playoff seeds. 

Winners of four of the last five, the Roughriders are peaking at the right time. One of those victories, a gutsy 29-24 win in Calgary, gives us confidence Saskatchewan can do it again in the West championship game (so long as they survive the Lions this Sunday, of course). If you need more convincing, the Roughriders took two of three games versus the Stampeders this year.

One last tidbit: the previous two times the Boston Red Sox won the World Series (2007 and 2013), Saskatchewan also won the Grey Cup. After what the Sox accomplished, we feel similar good fortunes coming for the Roughriders, too. 

Ottawa Redblacks

The 12-6 Redblacks have been the best team in the East all-season long and that probably doesn't change now. After a bye week, they'll face the winner of BC and Hamilton — a pair of teams they finished 4-1 against this season.

That's a far easier road than what lies in the West with Calgary and Saskatchewan on a collision course with each other. Who's to say Ottawa can't take advantage of a worn-out Western foe in the Grey Cup game?

It's a real possibility, especially with the way quarterback Trevor Harris is playing. He finished top-five in most major passing categories across the CFL — completion percentage (first), passing yards (fourth), and touchdowns (fifth). More impressive, he did this despite sitting the final game, a throwaway matchup with the first seed already clinched. 

Ottawa is just two years removed from their first-ever Grey Cup victory over Calgary in 2016. Much of that roster remains intact, too. Between its title experience, deep talent, and favorable path ahead, the Redblacks make a lot of sense here.  

See below the top sportsbooks where you can wager online and choose the best one for you:

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