FCFL Playoff Proposal

I know there’s been some talk about FCFL playoff formats, but no firm decision yet.  I’d imagine that this is one of the decisions that will ultimately be voted on by fans.  Here are my thoughts on an ideal playoff format.

Some of the characteristics that a good playoff system should have are:

• It should reward regular season success
• It should give as many teams as possible incentive to win for as long as possible
• It should be perceived as fair by fans
• It should create excitement

I think this proposal would accomplish all of those things:

• 1^st place: First round bye, then choose which first round winner they want to play
• 2^nd place: First round bye, play first round winner not selected by 1^st place team
• 3^rd place: Choose first round opponent from among 5^th and 6^th place teams
• 4^th place: Play against 5^th or 6^th place team not selected by 3^rd place team
• 5^th place: Playoff spot
• 6^th place: Playoff spot
• 7^th place: Eliminated
• 8^th place: Eliminated

This means that there’s always a substantial advantage to moving up multiple spots.  In addition, it eliminates the quirk of most existing playoff systems that sometimes a higher rank team gets stuck playing a team that’s perceived as tougher than the opponent of a lower ranked team.  And it introduces the additional excitement of teams having to play against a team that they’ve just insulted by selecting them as an opponent.

I’d love to figure out additional features to separate some of the positions with similar results (particularly 4^th from 5^th and 7^th from 8^th), but I think this proposal is a really good starting point for discussion.