What do you need Monday night?

[chriseibl]

Correct, so you're allowing the two most deserving teams to advance to the final week along with the top 2 seeds.

I don't understand why you see eliminating the weakest lower seeds after weeks 14 and 15 as less fair than eliminating potentially better teams 2 weeks earlier.

I can understand this type of set for the stand alone Diamond League, since there is no overall playoff. But there's no way this format can fly in the smaller leagues, there's just too remote of a chance to cash Overall Prizes for those top League teams to take away their League Prizes and open it up to the 3rd/4th/5th/6th place teams. You have to reward the top teams after Week 13, then the Overall is a bonus.

You could keep a playoff system intact for weeks 14-16, but there's no reason you couldn't award the regular season prize money based on 16 weeks rather than 13.

I think that's reasonable, I'd have no problem with that because it values 16 weeks cumulatively as opposed to the playoff sprint of 3 weeks.

[CALI CARTEL]

You could keep a playoff system intact for weeks 14-16, but there's no reason you couldn't award the regular season prize money based on 16 weeks rather than 13.

Here's what I'm saying, this would be like in the NFL if Baltimore wins the AFC North and Pittsburgh gets into playoffs as a Wild Card. Now, lets say Pittsburgh wins their first game and goes to Houston in round 2 and pulls the upset to go to the AFC Championship Game; on the other side, Baltimore loses to New England in the 2nd round. Since Pittsburgh got further in the playoffs than Baltimore, the NFL retroactively awards the Division Title to Pittsburgh.

Doesn't work that way, the Regular Season is the Regular Season. If there's a Playoff, that should be completely separate from the Regular Season -- in all other formats aside from Diamond, there is no league playoff unless the Top Record and Top Points are different teams (and then the "League Playoff" is nothing more than a 3-week tiebreaker). While you are saying your arguments are for all leagues, it's pretty clear they are mainly directed at Diamond and the scenario that just happened with your team.

[kjduke]

You could keep a playoff system intact for weeks 14-16, but there's no reason you couldn't award the regular season prize money based on 16 weeks rather than 13.

Here's what I'm saying, this would be like in the NFL if Baltimore wins the AFC North and Pittsburgh gets into playoffs as a Wild Card. Now, lets say Pittsburgh wins their first game and goes to Houston in round 2 and pulls the upset to go to the AFC Championship Game; on the other side, Baltimore loses to New England in the 2nd round. Since Pittsburgh got further in the playoffs than Baltimore, the NFL retroactively awards the Division Title to Pittsburgh.

Doesn't work that way, the Regular Season is the Regular Season. If there's a Playoff, that should be completely separate from the Regular Season -- in all other formats aside from Diamond, there is no league playoff unless the Top Record and Top Points are different teams (and then the "League Playoff" is nothing more than a 3-week tiebreaker). While you are saying your arguments are for all leagues, it's pretty clear they are mainly directed at Diamond and the scenario that just happened with your team.

I think all leagues would benefit from a playoff system. I have never liked the "13 weeks determines the payout" setup.

Using your real-NFL analogy, it is like determing the co-Super Bowl winner before the playoffs start. The 13-week regular season reward should be a ticket to the playoffs with some sort of bye advantage, now a jeweled crown.
I have benefitted from this setup at times, including other leagues this season. Still don't like it.

In baseball we don't have these fairness arguments, money is paid on best team over 26 weeks. No one is bitching about the league structure. The closer we can get to that without losing playoff excitement, the better.

[kjduke]

For Chris and CALI,

The #4 seed scored 1830, the #5 and #6 scored 1825 and 1807 after 13 weeks. With one more week of play, I think we can all agree that either of those lower seeds could pass the #4 in scoring for the entire season.

If that happens - who is getting screwed more? The #4 who had a weak playoff team and thus gets eliminated quickly under my proposal, or the higher-scoring team thru 14 weeks that didn't get a chance to compete under the current structure?

[BillyWaz]

You could keep a playoff system intact for weeks 14-16, but there's no reason you couldn't award the regular season prize money based on 16 weeks rather than 13.

Here's what I'm saying, this would be like in the NFL if Baltimore wins the AFC North and Pittsburgh gets into playoffs as a Wild Card. Now, lets say Pittsburgh wins their first game and goes to Houston in round 2 and pulls the upset to go to the AFC Championship Game; on the other side, Baltimore loses to New England in the 2nd round. Since Pittsburgh got further in the playoffs than Baltimore, the NFL retroactively awards the Division Title to Pittsburgh.

Doesn't work that way, the Regular Season is the Regular Season. If there's a Playoff, that should be completely separate from the Regular Season -- in all other formats aside from Diamond, there is no league playoff unless the Top Record and Top Points are different teams (and then the "League Playoff" is nothing more than a 3-week tiebreaker). While you are saying your arguments are for all leagues, it's pretty clear they are mainly directed at Diamond and the scenario that just happened with your team.

In baseball we don't have these fairness arguments, money is paid on best team over 26 weeks. No one is bitching about the league structure. The closer we can get to that without losing playoff excitement, the better.

Exactly! That is why I have been saying for years the "average" you take into the playoffs should be 2x your average to start. If I scored 260 more points than my opponent over 13 weeks, I feel as if I DOMINATED them. Getting a 20 point lead to start the 3 week sprint is virtually nothing. Now 40 point lead.......now you're talkin! A hot team at the bottom can STILL catch the leaders, but they have to work a little harder.