By Stampeders.com staff

The Canadian Football League schedule-makers have done everything in their power to increase the chances of dramatic late-season matchups.

The Calgary Stampeders, for instance, are done with all four East Division opponents — Ottawa, Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto — but have yet to face Saskatchewan or Winnipeg during the 2014 regular season.

Then there’s the case of the Roughriders and Eskimos, who will play not once, not twice, but three times over the final third of the season. That’s an awful lot of Green vs. Green action.

The final four weeks of the schedule are made up exclusively of intra-divisional games, culminating with the final weekend when the Stamps are in Vancouver to play the Lions and the Eskimos are in Regina to wrap up their late-season, no-scouting-necessary series against the Roughriders.

That might leave the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the unfortunate situation of watching from their living rooms while their fate is decided by the four other clubs.

In the wild and woolly West Division — every club is .500 or better and only eight points separate first from worst — all those head-to-head games will be jam-packed with serious implications.

Heating up during the stretch run will give a team a chance to host a playoff game. Stumbling means taking the more difficult path to the post-season or missing out altogether.

It might seem obvious to say that divisional games go a long way towards determining divisional positioning, but it’s worth noting that it’s head-to-head competition that separates the teams in the West at the moment.

The Stamps (10-2) and Roughriders (9-3) occupy the top two spots in the standings and each team has just one loss against divisional rivals.

The Bombers (6-6) have won just once against divisional foes and find themselves looking up at the other four teams in the West.

A year ago, the Stamps won the West thanks in large part to a league-best 7-3 intra-divisional record.

Back in 2011, the Lions, Eskimos and Stampeders all finished with 11-7 records but BC got first place (and a first-round bye en route to an eventual Grey Cup championship) on the strength of their superior 8-2 division record. That same year, Saskatchewan actually had a better record against the East than BC (5-3 compared to 3-5 for the Lions) but the Roughriders watched the playoffs on TV because they completely whiffed (0-10) against divisional rivals.

But back to the present . . .

Here’s how the division race will play out over the next seven weeks with 12 West-against-West matchups:

Week 14: Saskatchewan at Edmonton; BC at Calgary
Week 15: Calgary at Saskatchewan
Week 16: Winnipeg at Edmonton (Stamps have a bye)
Week 17: Calgary at Winnipeg; Edmonton at Saskatchewan
Week 18: Saskatchewan at Calgary, BC at Winnipeg
Week 19: Winnipeg at Calgary, BC at Edmonton
Week 20: Calgary at BC; Edmonton at Saskatchewan