sports fans of all nations - PLAYOFFS OR NO PLAYOFFS

so all of u Europeans are aware, we attempt to play "football", but we call it soccer, and in our league, there are playoffs at the end of the season. The points champion at end of year is awarded what's known as the "Supporter's Shield", which does grant them berths in annual CONCACAF Champions League, but the league's 'champion' is determined by an....actual set of playoffs. And this year, an alarming 18 of 26 teams make the playoffs. Worse, "playoffs" has now been the benchmark of a quality season to where merely making the rather easy-to-make playoffs is often the difference in a coach getting a raise vs getting dismissed. Teams often care more about qualifying than their actual placement in the table!

I like playoffs for sports like American Football and basketball but for soccer, would rather have prestigious tournaments with the league championship decided by the standings.

how fare u all?

in re: Games shouldn't count, it's the play that matters

Professional athletes (which category includes the semi-pro athletes who play for US universities) seem much more motivated by competition than by sheer joy in play. By dangling various pennants and championships in front of them like carrots from a stick and conditioning those rewards on winning the more games than others win, they tend to heighten their commitment to excellent performance. If they get paid to do it, they should do their best and playoffs help ensure that outcome.

otoh, kids and adult amateurs should play games more for the joy of play than for piling up victories for the sake of accumulating them. Chalk this one up to "more nuanced opinion".

all sports should have a single champion lording over several sad losers. the playoffs are the best way to make sure the best teams face each other to figure out who the "real" winners are. on the other hand, i believe college football should return to the old ways of having multiple champions per season, who never have the chance to face each other or even many common opponents.

i am a land of contrasts.

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nuanced opinion:

I very much enjoy playoffs. I basically do not watch regular season basketball and rarely watch much regular season hockey, both sports are much improved when watching individual games that actually matter, this generally only happens rarely during the regular season. the same, but to an even greater extent due to the amount of games in the regular season, goes for baseball - though I watch more regular season baseball, simply because I enjoy the game more. it's my favourite north American sport.

playoffs suit some sports more than others. the variation from game to game in baseball along with the fact that even great teams will tend to lose quite a bit means that one-off games, such as wildcard games, seem quite ludicrous as deciding which team deserves to advance. the best team could be decided via league play, scrap the divisions, conferences, leagues, just have one big ol' Major League. and the team with the best record would definitely have a legitimate claim to being the best team in the league, but who would want to get rid of the World Series?

I would not want any of the American sporting championships currently decided via a playoff - other than MLS. although on this I am on the fence also. in the continent of the americas soccer league championships decided by playoff games are not uncommon. going against the convention in North America to have playoffs also risks alienating the target audience - although lots of American fans of soccer are fans of European leagues and indeed some of the fandom apes aspects of European soccer culture

on the other hand I definitely would not want traditional football leagues in Europe decided by playoff. European football has a "playoff" element to it via cup competitions, although the domestic competitions have been much diminished in recent times due to the importance put on qualifying for European cup competitions.

Playoffs are acceptable in something like the english football league context, to decide which of the also-rans from 3rd to 6th, say, gets the last promotion/qualification for something spot. Champions League entry playoffs for all the teams from 2nd down to 7th in the premier league would be fun. But playoffs to decide a champion, after a full season? FOH with that

But voted God's team because need 2 increase the positivity yes

I have been to 4 playoff finals, 3 of which were completely terrible + forgettable games that were settled by penalty shootouts, and the club I support have won every one. They only lost the playoff final I couldn't be arsed going to because it was at Old Trafford. So I'm very pro the format of UK playoffs which can often keep the season alive for sometimes at least half a dozen clubs right till the last game of the season. Of course the Champions and runners shouldn't be involved in any of this nonsense, Rugby League is a right load of bollox!

runners up, i meant

Champions League entry playoffs for all the teams from 2nd down to 7th in the premier league would be fun.

ideal format for Mourinho's Tottenham, could totally see them spawnily sneaking into seventh on the last day, then doing a total blag on Man City or someone who finished about 40 points ahead of them.

Gettin angry at tenuous hypotheticals I've not just thought up myself but had to invent a whole new competition format for

I definitely don't like the MLB playoff system this year wherein over half the league makes the playoffs and then the top seed could be eliminated by losing just two games in a row. Such a scheme forces us to care about the fates of teams that are playing at the .500 level when we should be focusing on the winners up at the top. But then I'm a traditionalist. Probably my ideal setup would be two divisions in each league, the division winners play each other in a championship series, and no interleague play. We had 10-team leagues in the 1960s, why not 10-team divisions now?

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The 0 votes is why Brazil’s soccer team and the Montreal Canadiens suck

lol