Thursday, November 27, 2008

Week 12 Rankings

Standings going into final week of the season:



Final season standings for teams that finish tie with the same record are decided by their head-to-head record against each other, but if the season series is split at one game a piece, like the way it would be if the Chargers and Eagles win their games this weekend, then it is decided by those teams' record against the other top teams. And if the standings are still tie after that tie-breaker, then it could get a little more complicated.

Depending on what is decided, those teams should be prepared to play a short wild-card game up to 3 or 5 touchdowns to decide their ranking among themselves, unless of course one team decides to voluntarily give up the higher seed and just head right into the playoffs.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Three Cheers For Ten Years

Halfway through November and the 2008 CFL regular season is drawing to a close.



With just two more weeks to go the Colts stand a top the standings with an 8-1 record, followed behind closely by the Raiders at 8-2. The red-hot Colts victory over the Raiders this past weekend basically puts the Colts in the driver's seat, and while the top spot could still go to either of these teams, what would be real interesting is if these two teams finished with the same record having split the regular season series at one game a piece.

The Colts and Raiders have put together some of the most impressive seasons of any team, but the other four teams are having a difficult time battling it out for the last two spots in the playoffs. Even at this point, any of the four teams could still find themselves out of the playoffs. Should the Bengals lose their final two games, they could find themselves tied with the Eagles, Chargers or even both, with the regular season series evenly split.

At 3-7 the Titans have the longest shot at trying to get into the playoffs needing to beat the Raiders in their final game and needing the Chargers to lose their last two games, while needing the Eagles to win only one of their final two games. All this would give the Chargers, Eagles and Titans the same record, but trying to figure out what team would have the playoff-seeding advantage is the difficult part considering what their series record against each other would be.

While not yet over, this season we've seen the fall of old time greats like the Titans' Captain Nemo who had his season cut short with a devastating finger injury and Chargers' Captain Snoopy who left his team during part of the most crucial time of the season and let his team decide its own fate without him. Likewise, we've seen the rise of new faces like Gomez of the Raiders and Eric of the Colts. And even witnessed the brief return of former CFL captains Frank and Unitas.

It's been a somewhat erratic season at times, and no doubt the quickest in the CFL's 10-year history, but the oh-so-dreadful end is drawing near and before you know it one team will finally hoist the trophy at year's end and retire into the winter as the season's greatest.