THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Playoff Structures

Every Thursday, mas o menos, we'll examine any of a wide range of topics that WE think might be of interest to more than just us here at Following Football ACNC. Most of the time, we'll probably look most at topics that put some compare and contrast between the various versions of the obloid ball game we all love, and this week is absolutely along those lines.

Let's take a look at the structure of the playoff tournament each organization uses to determine its champion!

Length and timing of season vs playoffs:
AFL: March through August (23 weeks); September (4 weeks). The Aussies are approaching the END of the winter season down under, so they're four weeks from "finals" already.

CFL: June through October (20 weeks); November (3 weeks). With a more inclimate winter up north, the Canadians smartly finish up before the worst of Winter weather hits starting in December. Week 8 is currently underway, as Edmonton plays in Montreal tonight.

NCAA: September through December (15 weeks - remember when it was just 12?); January (2 weeks, after a month off). Famously, the Bowl Subdivision didn't even HAVE a championship game until 20 years ago; last year, they very successfully switched to a four team playoff tournament for the first time, following the bowl season (hence the delay). The lower divisions have larger tournaments - 16, 24 teams - starting the week after the season ends in November.

NFL: September through January (17 weeks); January into February (5 weeks, including its all-star game the week before the title game). The "Super Bowl", the NFL's title game, is the largest annual TV audience of any game in the world (only the World Cup in futbol every four years outpaces it), so having a two week break before it must be the right move.)

Number of teams involved: season vs playoffs:
AFL: 18 reduces to 8 for finals. 44% make the playoffs. My preference, along with the NFL. Teams at the top fight for home field advantages (and "double chances"; more on that later), while teams in the middle fight just to get in. About 1/3 spend the past several games knowing they won't play in September, but they really SHOULDN'T be. Unwritten rule: if you can't break .500, you shouldn't play for a title. The AFL avoids that just about every year.

CFL: 9 reduces to 6 for playoffs. 67% make the playoffs. BOOOO! You're virtually guaranteeing losing records in the playoffs, three games from a Grey Cup title! They do make one concession which is VERY clever: after the top two teams in each division, they take the next two best records, even if they're the same division, like last year (BC got in over Montreal, adding one more winning record). It also adds one element of suspense...you not only start jockeying for position around .500, but you've gotta look across to the other division at the fourth place team as well! Still, wouldn't four be enough?

NCAA: 128 reduces to 4 for playoffs, 3% make the playoffs, chosen by committee. Ludicrous, on the surface, except when you recall where college football came from. In reality, the committee is choosing four of the five major conference champions, allowing for a wild card if it makes more sense. In reality, it should do a good job in choosing the season's BEST team, probably more so than allowing the CFL's fourth place East team into the playoffs, or letting the second place team in the Mountain West have a bid in a 16 or 24 team tournament.

NFL: 32 reduces to 12 for playoffs, 38% make the playoffs. Perfect - see the AFL comments. Home field's a BIG deal when winter starts hitting hard in January!

Playoff format:
NCAA: single elimination, semis and finals, neutral fields. The simplest, but they've done all the paring down before they got here, anyway.

CFL: division winners get a bye, division places two and three play at higher seed; winner plays at division leader; title game at neutral field. Good system for six teams, no matter what level.

NFL: similar - six teams in each conference use the exact same format (higher seed home field throughout); title game at a neutral site, usually one without weather issues.

AFL: Unusual format, designed to help the top four teams survive - in week one, #1 hosts #4, and #2 hosts #3. The winners get the next week OFF, moved on to the semis. The losers play the WINNERS of the other two games (5 hosts 8 and 6 hosts 7), while the losers of those latter games are out. So, in the third week, the two teams with the week off host the winner of the loser/winner week 2 game, for the right to play in Melbourne in the Grand Final. In theory, then, a 4th place team would probably lose to a #1 seed, play the winner of the #5/#8 game, and if they win, they'd get the chance to play the #2 team for a chance at the title. Meanwhile a #6 team, for example, has to win four straight games for the title.

THE WINNER? A cop out: they all work for thir respective leagues, although I wish the CFL let two fewer teams in the tourney.