Divisions (1 Viewer)

[OneEastRiver]

I run a 12 team redraft league that in the past has divided the 12 teams into 3 divisions of 4. Each of the division winners makes the playoffs with the best 2 teams of the 3 getting a 1st round bye. Teams 4 through 6 include the next best win/loss records.

Here is my issue....one of the divisions last year was so weak that the division winner had a losing record but still made the playoffs because of the division winner rule. We also have small awards for each of the division winners.

My question is why have divisions at all? Why not just have 12 teams, and everyone plays each other just like they would had there been divisions? The top 6 teams advance to the playoffs. Maybe the best record and best point scorer get the byes, and then teams 3 - 6 revert back to win/loss record.

I think divisions are nice to have and fun to look at throughout the course of the season, but I just can't justify any reason for having them. I really want to avoid a situation like last year where you have a division full of weak teams, another division full of powerhouses, and another division full of mediocre teams.

 

[shredhead]

I run a 12 team redraft league that in the past has divided the 12 teams into 3 divisions of 4. Each of the division winners makes the playoffs with the best 2 teams of the 3 getting a 1st round bye. Teams 4 through 6 include the next best win/loss records.

Here is my issue....one of the divisions last year was so weak that the division winner had a losing record but still made the playoffs because of the division winner rule. We also have small awards for each of the division winners.

My question is why have divisions at all? Why not just have 12 teams, and everyone plays each other just like they would had there been divisions? The top 6 teams advance to the playoffs. Maybe the best record and best point scorer get the byes, and then teams 3 - 6 revert back to win/loss record.

I think divisions are nice to have and fun to look at throughout the course of the season, but I just can't justify any reason for having them. I really want to avoid a situation like last year where you have a division full of weak teams, another division full of powerhouses, and another division full of mediocre teams.

It's all about personal preference. In 2 of the last 3 years, I have finished with the 2nd best record in one of my leagues. Guess what? You got it, I was a wild card both times as the best record came from my division. So yes, I would rather not see divisions, but I am obviously biased. The only issue I see with no divisions is the scheduling issue. How to decide which teams play each other twice.I don't know if your league is the same, but ours is a 14 game regular season(playing the 3 others in your division twice and everyone else once). I would like to see the regular season dropped to 13 games so the championship game would be in week 16. My commish won't go for it because it is "Not a serious league and just for fun" as he puts it. So a week 17 championship is one more week of fun. Sorry to rant about my league, but the answer for your league is to put it up to a league vote. Let the personal preference of the league owners prevail. Hope that helps.

 

[GregR_2]

I think you'd have to ask yourself if the benefits of divisions outweigh the detriments. You've listed the main detriment. Also keep in mind the frequency in which it happens that a division winner is not amongst the top 6 teams in your league. Pretty infrequent occurence I would imagine.

So what advantages are there? If you have the same divisions each year, you often create rivalries that help fuel interest and involvement. Combine that rivalry with having division games occur over the last weeks of your regular season and you can create something worth playing for in the teams who are out of contention. It's nice to play spoiler, but it's great to play spoiler for a rival.

To me, that's enough to easily outweigh the extremely rare times that a division winner isn't amongst the 6 winningest teams in your league.

I would also imagine that amongst injustices in an FF setup, the much bigger injustice is the fact that win-loss record may not reflect how well your team actually scored every week. It's probably a lot more likely that a team is a below average scorerer yet has a winning record and makes the playoffs, than that the division scenario happens as in your league.

In short, I really don't think it is worth dropping divisions because this happened to you once. The benefits are more than the downside, and if you are worried about fairness it probably isn't even what should be addressed first.

 

[valhallan]

My commish won't go for it because it is "Not a serious league and just for fun" as he puts it.

I hate commishes like that.

 

[inca911]

Divisions can result in good teams not making the playoffs because their division was difficult. It happens enough to far outweigh any possible benefit.

The solution is to get rid of divisions. Divisions don't make rivalries happen, competition makes rivalries happen. Putting everyone in one pool generates more competition and more opportunity to build rivalries.