16-Team Leagues are perfect for the implementation of a 7-Team Playoff format, should you choose.
When it comes down to it, there's really only one best Team at the end of the Regular Season. Regardless of how many Divisions/Conferences you have, there's going to be a difference, no matter how slight, between 1 and the rest. IMHO, the Bye should be a coveted privilege. Why cheapen it by having more than one...and why not bestow that honor on the one, true best regular Season finisher?
I don't know if you're League is a money League, or not, but the League I implemented this in several years ago, is. I'm not going to say how much, but for the purposes of what follows, I need to use a number, so let's just say $100. Hear me out.
For years, we'd done the commonplace 6-Team Playoff Format, with 2 Byes. All Teams seeded by Record, then Points Scored. Decimals.
When I brought up this idea, understandably, there were Franchises who didn't want to add the 7th Team, mostly because they weren't hip to the NBA/NHL allowing too many Teams into the Playoffs. Plus adding a Team (plus a game), would potentially dilute the prize pool, right? Until I added a twist.
In our League, the 1st Round Losers always got their Entry Fee back (for our example here $100). Everyone supported the idea of the prize for being 1 of 6, out of 16, to make the Playoffs, getting their Entry Fee back. That wasn't going away. So where would the extra $ come from? It would have to come from the 4 upper-tier prizes, right? Yuck. Well, not necessarily, it didn't...
4 Divisions of 4 Teams each. Winning your Division was always a guaranteed 'golden ticket' to the Postseason. The remaining 12 Teams had to compare resumes to qualify for the remaining 2, now to be 3, Wild Card berths. Once the Playoff Field (formerly 6, now 7 Teams) was determined, the Playoff Teams would be compared against each other for Seeding purposes (Record/Points). Overall #1 Seed gets the coveted Bye. To maintain the value of being one of the 4 Division Winners, in the 7-Team format, no Division winner is allowed to be seeded lower than 6th. Had to build some shame into qualifying as the 7th Seed. Must be from the true Wild Card pool.
So, we treat the 7th Seed like a ******* stepchild. There's a stigma attached. If the 7th Seed loses (vs the 2nd Seed) in the 1st Round, they win nothing. Zilch, zero, nada. They do not get their Entry Fee back, like the other 1st Round losers. Be thankful you got in. Couldn't advance? GTFO.
Additionally, for every Round the 7th Seed advances, they win 'x minus $100' (our hypothetical Entry Fee), if they bow out. All the way up to the winning the Championship Prize. That's where the 'extra' $$$ comes from. It was there all along, and no one up the ladder had to suffer for 'finding' it.
My guys all loved this, and we lived happily ever after, since. YMMV. Good luck!
