Each week CFL.ca's Jaime Stein and Mitch Ward will debate a current issue in the CFL. This week, with the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos hurting in the standings, the CFL.ca duo will debate whether an Eastern team will crossover into the West for the first time ever.

JAIME STEIN says: Year after year teams in the East have had to endure the humiliation of another West crossover. Five times in the past decade a team from the West has crossed over into the East. It is time the East fought back.

After watching the Edmonton Eskimos go through Winnipeg and the B.C. Lions go through Hamilton over the past two seasons en route to the East Final enough is enough.

Now don’t get me wrong – I love the crossover. I think it is important for an eight team league to have its best six teams in the hunt for the Grey Cup come November. But now it is the East’s turn to fight back.

Hamilton is 4-4 and stands a good chance of finishing the season at 9-9 or 10-8 if they keep playing the way they are playing. Consider them a lock for the playoffs along with Montreal in the East. We’ll also assume Toronto makes its way into the post-season.

Any Eastern hopes of a crossover berth likely rest with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – a team that has started the first half of the season with a disappointing 2-6 record. However, the Bombers have shown potential in most of their games and were a decent kicker shy of a 4-4 mark.

Winnipeg will have to go 6-4 in its final 10 games to have a legitimate shot at forcing a crossover. Winnipeg plays B.C. twice and Edmonton once down the stretch, so wins in those three games will go a long way in securing a crossover spot. A split in the upcoming weeks with Saskatchewan and a win at home against Toronto late in the season gets Winnipeg to five wins. Add in a victory against a resting Calgary team in the final week of the season and that’s the Bombers’ road to the crossover.

In the West, it is hard to argue against Calgary or Saskatchewan steering clear of crossover territory, but as it stands, the Lions and the Eskimos are the laggards of the division. Winnipeg will have to finish better than both of these two teams to earn a berth in a crossover which would likely seen them on the road in Regina for the West Semi-Final (imagine the drama of that game).

B.C. has a difficult schedule including one road game in Montreal and a pair of road games in Calgary. A road game in Winnipeg as mentioned above will likely seal the Lions’ attempts at blocking the crossover. Add in a road game in Hamilton on the final weekend of the season when the Ticats are battling the Argos for home field advantage in the East Semi-Final and things don’t look so good. What’s that? The Lions haven’t won at home this year, either. Not good with the Riders in town late in the year either. Essentially, the Lions would have to go 7-3 in the back half of the season to stop Winnipeg from crossing over.

And how about the resurgent Eskimos? They have a better shot than the Lions at preventing a crossover, but it is marginal. Back-to-back against Calgary in the next two weeks could spell a quick end to any hopes of making the playoffs should the Stamps take both games. Closing out the season against Saskatchewan (twice) and Winnipeg may also prove to be make-or-break territory as both those teams will be in a similar fight to make the post-season. Imagine having to go into Mosaic Stadium on the final weekend of the season with your playoff lives in the balance. Good luck.

Like Winnipeg, Edmonton will have to go 6-4 down the stretch to maintain control of its playoff destiny. Even my generous self only gives the Esks wins against the Ticats at home, at B.C. and possibly at home against the Riders late in the year. If the stars are totally aligned, the Eskimos get a split with Calgary in the next two weeks. That leaves them 4-6 in the back half of the year and a 6-12 record overall.

If I were a betting man (which I’m not, nor am I allowed to be one), I would be rushing to get tickets for the Bombers and Riders in the Western Semi-Final on November 14th in Regina. Of course, purists may argue that Winnipeg is hardly an East crossover team – but I’ll save that debate for another day.

MITCH WARD says: Given the West’s dominance in the last decade it’s a bit strange to think that for the first time in years the East might actually be stronger and deeper than the once mighty West.

However, apart from the Calgary Stampeders, every team in the West (yes, even the Riders) looks very beatable.

But that doesn’t mean we will see our first ever East team cross over to claim the third playoff position out west.

Could it happen? Absolutely.  I don’t think it will though.

While both the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos still have a shot at the playoffs, I agree with Stein that the Eskimos are the more likely of the two to earn the third playoff spot in the West and prevent an East crossover. Out East the Bombers are the most likely team to crossover as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes all appear to be legitimate playoff teams.

One major advantage the Eskimos (and Lions) hold over the Blue Bombers or any other would be coast hopper though is that they only need a standings tie to get in. If an East team is to earn a crossover bid they will need to finish higher in the standings outright - an identical record, regardless of head to head outcomes does not get you in.

That’s exactly how things would shake out right now. Both the Bombers and Esks are 2-6 with the Bombers having crushed the Eskimos 47-21 in their lone meeting. But if the playoffs were to start today the Eskimos would be in, not the Bombers.

Stein says that the Bombers schedule down the stretch is easier than the Eskimos. I disagree. There are just as many wins available for the Eskimos as there are for the Bombers.

The Eskimos will be riding a wave of confidence after taking down the Riders last week and could definitely ride that momentum into a split with the Stampeders over the next two weeks. I know that might sound unlikely on the surface but it really isn’t all that far-fetched. For one, they will be thirsting for revenge after the 56-15 beatdown they had laid on them in Week #7. They also boast a ball-hawking secondary and Henry Burris is prone to the occasional interception fest.

If Edmonton does pick up the split I could actually see them going 5-5 or even 6-4 down the stretch. It's amazing what confidence can do. They could easily take two of three against the Argos and Ticats, add in a win in B.C. and a victory at home against the Bombers plus a final week victory over the Riders who are just as likely to be resting starters as the Stamps and the Esks are in the money.

The Bombers, on the other hand, have no momentum, only questions coming out of their bye week after wasting a golden opportunity to beat the Als sans Anthony Calvillo and Avon Cobourne.

I'll be the first to admit that a 6-4 prediction for Esks is a stretch at best but Stein’s 6-4 prediction for the Bombers is just as unlikely. The Bombers will have a tough timeearning a split over the next two weeks since the Riders have had their number for the past few seasons. They’ll also have a tough time finding wins against the Als or the Argos. Back-to-backs against the same team are never easy in the CFL regardless of record, so two wins against B.C. are not a gimme either. Then there’s the Week 18 game against the Esks and the Bombers have not won in Edmonton since 2006.

I will concede that the Bombers may actually be slightly more talented than the Eskimos, but they also seem to have an even bigger knack for shooting themselves in the foot. An Adarius Bowman drop here and a sack on a naked bootleg there and the Eskimos will be laughing their way into the playoffs.

Don’t book those November 14th Bombers, Riders tickets just yet. There’s still a lot of football to be played.