Rules Committee Report: Playoffs

The rules committee considered 3 proposals relating to the playoffs:

1. Eliminate the Toilet Bowl
2. Change Wild Card Qualification to Include Top Power Ranked Teams
3. Give Bonus Points in the Playoffs to Teams Based on Their Regular Season Power

These proposals were originally outlined here.

The committee agreed to remove the Toilet Bowl from the schedule... because it had become meaningless.

The committee decided against providing any bonus points to teams in the playoffs.  Although the first two rounds will continue to include home field advantage for some teams.

Finally, the committee decided to change wild card qualification.  The new rule:

Any of the top 3 teams by power ranking from the regular season who are not division winners make the playoffs as wild cards.  Any remaining wild card slots are filled by the remaining top teams by win-loss record.  All wild card teams are seeded based on their win-loss record.

Using more words, this means that after division winners are decided and those 3 teams are advanced to the playoffs as the top 3 seeds, we look to see if any of the top 3 teams as ranked by power failed to win their division.  If so, those teams are added as wild cards.  In theory that could be 3 teams.  History suggests it will be 0-1 team.

Over the last 6 years, 3 teams would have become wild cards because of this rule:

• 2011: Capo (6-8, 2nd w/ 82.29 power) would have replaced Bill (7-7, 11th w/ 69.67 power)
• 2009: Drow (7-7, 3rd w/ 77.07 power) would have replaced Beavers (7-6-1, 5th w/ 73.67 power)
• 2008: Rednecks (5-9, 3rd w/ 72.79 power) would have replaced Capo (8-5-1, 7th w/ 68.88 power)

After teams are advanced to the playoffs as wild cards because of being a top-3 power ranked team that did not win their division, any remaining wild card spots are filled the same way we do it now -- by win-loss record.

After all 3 wild card teams have been determined, they will be seeded by win loss record.  So a team that made it into the playoffs because of a good power ranking that would not have simply due to their record would be a lower seed then the teams that made the playoffs based on their record.

The committee is now working on proposals related to rosters and scoring.