Friday, January 25, 2008

The Improbable Finish?

What happens in the CFL playoffs if three teams finish with the same record? This question has been frivolously proposed before, but the possibilities of such a finish not only seems probable, but now inevitable. A win this Sunday by the Raiders and Titans over the lowly 1-9 Patriots would give them the same 7-5 record as the Eagles who are presently ranked second in the standings. A three-way finish almost happened last season but the Falcons barely escaped finishing with the same 5-9 record as the Chiefs and Bears. Of course the team with the better series record against the other tie team would be seeded higher, but if a three way tie were to occur by Eagles, Raiders and Titans this season, there is no official tie-breaker rule in the CFL for this scenario since each team has won and lost a series to the opposing two teams. How would the CFL resolve this dilemma? Maybe there should just be a paper-scissors-rock resolution, or maybe team names should just be pulled out of a hat, or maybe the team with the best record should just decide who they want to face in the first round of the playoffs? In preliminary discussions, not many captains and players favor the previous options, but there are one or two other options that the CFL believes are more viable. One option would be to have these three teams play each other once up to 22 points (3-touchdowns and a 2-point conversion) in one day, taking into account the margin of victory should they also split wins and losses among each other that day. The other option would be to settle this dispute by ranking the team with the better record against the first ranked team higher than the other two. In this case, since the Titans beat the Ravens twice, they would be seeded second, leaving the Raiders and Eagles to settle who would be ranked third, and since the Raiders won the season series against the Eagles, they would be seeded third and the Eagles fourth. The latter option sounds a little simpler and may make the most sense, but a single victory by the Patriots this weekend would alleviate the need for any such option.

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