BUAFL 2012/2013 Possible Playoff Permutations

Since the news of the new re-alignment has been released we at Dbl Coverage have the time trying to work out how next year’s playoffs will work with seven conferences. First off, what does Jim Mora think of the situation?

Currently the top two teams in each conference make it through to the championship playoffs and the next two teams make it into the Challenge Cup playoffs. This means we have twelve teams in the post season with the top four teams (two north and two south) earning first round byes, leaving four teams to take part in Wild Card weekend.

Bear with us while we try and explain our two theories:

Sticking with the top two teams qualifying for the playoffs from the seven conferences means we will have fourteen teams in the post season. Therefore if the top two teams (1 north and 1 south) earn a first round bye we are left over with twelve teams. Six games in wildcard weekend will produce six winners advancing onto the next round where they will join the two teams who were on a bye. With eight teams now back in the playoffs we have reached the quarter finals and the playoff will continue as usual.

For those who love TLDR.

14 teams advance. 2 teams on a bye, leaving 12 teams to play in WC weekend. 6 games involving the 12 teams = 6 winners to advance to the quarter finals with the 2 teams on a bye. Playoffs continue as usual.

Another option is scrapping the Mickey Mouse trophy also known as the Plate Trophy.

Now the top four teams could advance to the playoffs from the seven conferences meaning twenty eight teams are now in the playoffs. The top four teams (2 north and 2 south) earn a first round bye meaning we are left over with twenty four teams. 

Twelve games in the first round of the playoffs will produce twelve winners to advance to the next round where they will meet the four teams previously on a bye. We know have a sixteen robin round knockout where anything can happen and this will continue as usual.

Once again for those who love TLDR.

28 teams advance. 4 teams are now on a bye leaving 24 teams to play in the first knockout round. 12 games involving the 24 winners = 12 winners to advance to the next round along with the 4 teams on a bye. Playoffs continue as usual.

Obviously for these playoffs to work BUAFL will have to follow in BAFANLs footsteps and now make the playoffs seed a national ranking instead of having North vs. North and South vs. South. Unfortunately this may not be able to happen as the masses will complain that the travel costs will be too expensive and hardly any teams will be able to cover the cost.

There’s also a third option which would cause so much controversy, but would change the face of BUAFL and could potentially bring in a load of potential sponsors for the league and the teams involved. 

BUAFL could follow the example from across the pond and start having bowl games. Let’s be honest this could be a very good idea especially for teams who would normally miss out on the playoffs in the more competitive conferences. Also it would finally allow us to find out who the best and worst teams in the country, as well as showing which teams are more dominant (Northern teams or Southern teams). I mean who wouldn’t want to see the Wetherspoons Bowl featuring the Worcester Royals and Huddersfield Hawks, the Royal Mail Bowl featuring Hallam Warriors and Southampton Stags and finally, the Dbl Coverage National Championship featuring Birmingham Lions and Hertfordshire Hurricanes (Ed: people will love that idea…)?

All in all it should be quite interesting to see how the new playoffs setup works. If the league uses the example we have lay out we fully expect some sort of commission for coming up with this amazing idea!

Have you got any ideas how the playoffs might play out next season? Let us know!