A 1-2 matchup? Is that ultimately what determines a successful playoffs? I was going to make the sarcastic suggestion that they just take the top four teams by record and make *that* the playoffs to increase the likelihood of a 1-2 matchup. But even then, the odds of a 1-2 happening are, what, 35ish percent at best? Even if they implement the Top 16 records suggestion, the odds of getting a 1-2 matchup at the end must be in the teens at best. I realize that if the two best teams are in the same conference today that the odds of them facing off in the end are 0%, and those who want this to happen prefer teen odds to zero odds-- I just don't think a restructure would remotely end the problems of uneven paths to the title/favorable paths for certain teams/inaccurate seed lines/etc.

Any playoff format will always been uneven. If you reseed by record, what about teams with easier schedules? What about teams who had injured stars and weren't at full health but now are? If you reseed by point differential, same questions. Do you factor in SOS in the seeding? Maybe wins against other playoff teams as a factor? Then again, you see how everyone bitches about the NCAA seeding every year.

There's a quasi-similar conversation going on in college basketball right now about Notre Dame. Their star player was hurt half of the year, and now they're a bubble team if we're being generous (conference tourney results pending). Several people are arguing that a healthy Notre Dame is one of the top 25-30 teams in the country, and the tournament's goal should be to have the best teams face off. I fall onto the side of "that shouldn't be the tournament's goal-- wins and losses should matter, regardless of circumstance." We want gladiatorial entertainment at the end of the day. Survive and advance. Even if your draw is tougher than the guy across the way, you have seven games to prove your mettle.

Sometimes the best teams are both in the West (more often than not, really), but you see playoff matchups fairly routinely in the other sports in which a Final Four or Quarterfinal Matchup would've been the better Finals matchup than the one you actually get. And I just haven't really heard too many cries from the NFL or the NCAA or anyone else about restructuring their regional formats in order to give the truly best teams the truly best chances at creating a title showdown between a true 1 and 2.

And I'm just not convinced (a) that this is a real problem or (b) that the Top 16 record system would stop the bitching about the relative easiness of a title run path that a team would have.

Besides, right now the commissioner gets a possible 1-2 matchup in the WCF followed by a 1-Bron matchup in June. That's ratings gold that I'm not convinced he's ready to toss away.

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