I'm a big supporter of the playoffs and even the conferences but my impression is that I'm in a pretty staunch minority in that. if you're an American sports fan, though -- it just makes *sense*. and yeah, okay, the team who has the best regular season would "win the league" in other parts of the world. guess what? most Americans, even in our staunchly playoff bound sports, *remember* who had the best regular season. we *remember* who the #1 seed was. we judge the 72-win Chicago Bulls not just on their postseason but also on the fact that they got 72 wins.

so yeah the playoff issue to me is dope.

on the Euro naming trend? I think "Dallas Burn" is just as shitty and cringe-worthy as "FC Dallas," except in the instance of FCD at least we *know* we're talking about a soccer team, so that's a positive. "Dallas Burn" might as well be a lacrosse team as it is a soccer team. so ultimately it's up to each organization to strike the right balance, but it's not anything I have particularly hard feelings about either way.

mainly I just want it to be soccer -- 90m, 11 guys on the field, FIFA sanctioned and alla that -- but for it to have an American soul to it as well. the league presently is doing a very good job of that imo.