Home teams advance to Grey Cup

Sometimes being the home team has its advantages. Both the Montreal Alouettes and the B.C. Lions won their divisional finals Sunday to go to the Grey Cup next Sunday at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg.

The Lions go to its second Grey Cup berth in three years with a 45-18 West Division final win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Montreal downed the Toronto Argonauts 33-24 to win the East crown.

It will be a battle of two teams that haven't had as much Cup success given their fine track records. Montreal makes its 5th trip to the Grey Cup in 7 years, yet has only 1 championship in that stretch. The Lions will make its third trip to the Grey Cup in the 2000s, a small number given its regular-season prowess.

The teams last met in the Grey Cup in 2000, when B.C. edged Montreal 28-26. The Lions swept the season series, 48-13 on September 1 at Molson Stadium and a 36-20 home victory September 16.

Nelly Furtado will be the halftime musical guest for the game. The kickoff is just after 6 p.m. EST and will be carried on the CBC in Canada, and hopefully live on the usual U.S. outlets. If not, the game should be aired on a tape-delayed basis in your market.