I still think Gus’ conference blue print was brilliant and would make the game completely fresh and lead to a salary cap overhaul. If they could work it so the top conference side goes through and the other spots are decided by wild card eliminators, it would return unpredictability to the finals . While there would always be the sooks who whinge they won more games than a conference leader, yet missed out etc. who cares. That is the entire point. Standard and dull criteria goes out the window.
I guessing that’s based on the NFL format?
There’s nothing particularly wrong with that format but in the US it’s necessitated by how many teams there are (32 teams in NFL).
I don’t think it’s necessarily better than a top 8 system and with an uneven number of teams it doesn’t work.
I guess it’s workable when the 18th team comes in but then how do you divide the conferences up?
My main issue is without a draft some teams can have sustained years of being bad and you risk running into a scenario where you have some really bad teams in the same conference for years on end.
In the US you have a draft that can turn a franchise around very quickly as well as a salary cap so the cycles of success and mediocrity aren’t typically sustained for long periods.