2012 CFL draft

The 2012 CFL Draft took place on Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET on TSN.^[1] 45 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in the NCAA. The Calgary Stampeders had the most selections with eight, while Hamilton had seven picks. The Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouettes each had six and the Edmonton Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers had five picks. The defending Grey Cup champion BC Lions and the Saskatchewan Roughriders had the fewest selections with just four. A total of three trades involving 11 draft picks in this draft were made on the draft day itself.^[2] Of the 45 draft selections, 24 players were drafted from Canadian Interuniversity Sport institutions, which is the lowest percentage of CIS players taken since 2006 (26 of 50, 52%, were selected then).^[3] It is also the lowest number of CIS players taken since the 2000 CFL Draft when just 22 out of 46 players were chosen.

The first two rounds were broadcast live on TSN with CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon announcing each selection. The production was hosted by Rod Black and featured the CFL on TSN panel which included Duane Forde, Chris Schultz, Dave Naylor, Farhan Lalji, Blake Nill, Jeff Cummins, and Stefan Ptaszek who analyzed the teams' needs and picks.^[4]