The 1986 Montreal Alouettes finished the season in 3rd place in the East Division with a 4–14–0 record and missed the playoffs. The Montreal Concordes were renamed the Alouettes following the 1985 season to mark the 40th anniversity of the founding of the Alouettes. The Montreal Alouettes were in financial difficulty, having lost close to $15 million, between 1982-86, so having the CFL giving a fourth place team in one division a playoff spot if its record was better than the third place finisher in the other division, was a disaster, when Calgary got a playoff spot over the Alouettes, and the lost revenue for a playoff game doomed the franchise leading to its demise.