Hard to believe the Canadian Football League, with just eight (and sometimes nine) teams, has had only one repeat champion in the past quarter-century. The Toronto Argonauts won back-to-back Grey Cups in 1996 and 1997, the only team to successfully defend its crown since the Edmonton Eskimos owned the cup with five straight titles, from 1978 to 1982.

This year, the B.C. Lions have the chance to go back-to-back and, in the process, win the first consecutive titles in franchise history. It won't be easy, but in a city where sports fans have gotten used to hoping for championships at the start of every season, there's a different feeling in the air this summer.

For the first time in a long time, there's an expectation of success attached to these Lions. There is no reason in the world why the Lions should not repeat as Grey Cup champions. That doesn't mean they automatically will, but they should. The fact that expectations are high is a good thing, and nowhere should the standards be higher than in the Lions' locker room–so dealing with the lofty goals of the fans and the media shouldn't be an issue.

And even though the Lions went winless in their two preseason games (losses to Saskatchewan and Edmonton), that doesn't change the outlook for a team that made few significant changes from the club that reached the top of the mountain last fall. Last year's squad started the season 2–3 before hitting its stride, so the fact that this year's group failed to post a preseason victory really means nothing at all.

What's important in all of this is that the Lions have the proper mindset as they begin their title defence. And right from the time they assembled from their off-season homes for the start of training camp, players were told that this was a new season. They were told that complacency would not be tolerated and that resting on their accomplishments was not an option. The Lions coaching staff made it clear to the players that what they accomplished last year really doesn't mean much when they kick off the new CFL season today (June 28) in Toronto.

"One of the things I am going to stress with our team is we are no longer anything other than just another team going to training camp," general manager and head coach Wally Buono told the media prior to the start of camp workouts in Abbotsford earlier in the month.

To that end, the players were allowed one last chance to revel in the glory of last November's 25–14 Grey Cup win over Montreal. The night before training camp began, the players and staff were presented with their championship rings at a lavish dinner ceremony. The players opened the ring boxes in unison and got their first glimpses of the glitzy keepsakes they'll have as a permanent reminder of their accomplishments last season.

But when the ring boxes closed, so too did the book on one of the greatest seasons in CFL and Lions history. And the new journey began to make this year's team champions as well.

"Human nature is such that you want to dwell on the past, especially if you have success, because it feels good," Buono says. "This is a new season, with new expectations, with new challenges. That has to be presented."

It's hard to imagine the Lions can be any better than they were last year, when they won the Grey Cup and five individual league awards, Buono was named CFL coach of the year, and the team placed a league-high seven players on the year-end all-star team. Simply put, it was one of the most dominant team performances the Canadian Football League has ever seen.

But on a game-by-game basis, there's plenty of room for improvement. The team can get off to a better start than it did last season, and the Leos will likely have to find a way to win more divisional games than they did last year (five of 10). If they manage to take care of those divisional games, they should put themselves in prime position to host a fourth straight western final. And that, right there, might be the key to defending their title this season.

The Lions have won seven straight regular-season and playoff games at home and lost just once on their home turf all of last year. If they can set themselves up to play the western final at home in front of another big crowd, you'd have to like their chances of moving on to the Grey Cup.

But entering the 2007 season as reigning league champs makes B.C. the team that all the other clubs want to beat. And Buono has driven that point home to his guys throughout training camp and through their uninspired preseason.

"When you step on the field, you are going to be a target," the coach says. "Everybody wants to beat the defending Grey Cup champions. I've told the guys it [the new season] is not going to be the same thing. The journey to Toronto [site of the 2007 Grey Cup] is going to be different than the journey was to Winnipeg."

The route the Lions take to the Grey Cup may differ from the one they took last year, but all they're concerning themselves with is that the destination–the victory podium–is the same. And, for the most part, so are the important names who'll lead them there.

That means Dave Dickenson will be putting the ball in the very capable hands of Geroy Simon and Jason Clermont, sack master Brent Johnson will once again be in the face of quarterbacks all over the league, and Korey Banks and Barron Miles will be roaming the secondary looking for interceptions.

Expectations for this football team are high both inside and out of the Lions' den–and so they should be. Other teams will have improved during the off-season, but the Lions still appear to be the CFL's best. And in the West Division, it doesn't seem like anybody else has made significant enough steps to prevent the Leos from winning a fourth straight division title.

It's not every year that a football team has the chance to take its place among the greats who've gone before it. But the talent is clearly there for this group of B.C. Lions to take that step. The challenge now is to forget about where they've been and focus on where they have to go.

There are bound to be some bumps along the way, but champions find a way to prevail. The Lions were champions last year, and they should be this year too.

Jeff Paterson is a sportscaster and talk-show host on Vancouver's all-sports radio, Team 1040. E-mail him at jeff.paterson@team1040.ca