Misconduct | Which league has the best playoff format?

Every week, journalists from Sports de The Press answer a question with pleasure, and also a little insolence.

Miguel Bujold

The NFL playoff tournament is 13 seventh games in a month. There is no room for error. And you can almost say the same about the season. Since the teams only play 17 games and only 14 of the 32 teams advance to the playoffs, every game matters. The sense of urgency that we find from September until the Super Bowl is also one of the main reasons that make the NFL so interesting to follow.

Jean-Francois Teotonio

Major League Baseball playoffs. They are tense, efficient, and time-limited. Which gives it a real boost throughout. We are talking about a single month, from beginning to end: October. Put my name on the list of those who regret the change in the playoff format starting this season. I was a lover of the single match to decide between the best runners-up. I liked the fact that only 10 teams made the playoffs, despite the ordeal of a long 162-game season. Now 12 teams qualify. There will be a series of three games between three best runners-up and the champion team of its division with the worst record. I have no doubt that the month of October will remain magical in Major League Baseball. But the previous format was perfect.

Simon Olivier Lorange

I enjoyed the qualifying round for the 2020 NHL playoffs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic which had shortened the season with ten games to play, the League increased the number of clubs admitted to the playoffs to 24, and the 16 lowest ranked teams had to kill each other in a format preliminary round three of five. The Canadian had been invited as the last qualified team. I think 24 teams is too many, but the idea of ​​a short heartbreaking series appealed to me a lot. In a very strange format, the American League held a preliminary round like this this season, in two-of-threes, and I think that makes a lot of sense. It’s cruel, but everyone has a chance. And that rewards the fact of finishing high in the standings after a long difficult season.

Alexander Pratt

National cups, in soccer. Like the FA Cup or the French Cup. A mega-giga tournament, in which practically all village clubs have a (theoretical) chance of facing big teams, such as Liverpool or Paris Saint-Germain, provided they first win ten games in a row. It happened in 2000, in France, when the amateur club of Calais beat two first division teams, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, before losing in the grand final against Nantes. Can’t wait for a similar hockey tournament in Canada!

Nicholas Richard

Yes, the National Hockey League playoffs are probably the fairest, toughest and most thrilling. Nevertheless, I remain in the world of hockey, but my choice stopped on the Memorial Cup tournament. First, for its format. The idea of ​​bringing together the best teams from each section of Canada makes it possible to have a tournament that is always very strong and it allows fans to see promising players and talented teams that we see less often in the West. Then the format is perfect. A round robin, unlike one-off matches, rewards the team that has been the most successful over time, and not on a given night. The winning team can also boast of being the best of the best. Then, the fact that we let the team from the host city participate in the tournament brings another cachet, because with the three best teams in Canada, we add a team that perhaps did not belong in the tournament, but which can still create a surprise. Think of the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2012. Who doesn’t love Cinderella teams? The Memorial Cup lasts only one time, in addition to being in a separate bubble, and it is frankly one of the most beautiful models of series that exists.

Richard Labbe

It’s not baseball, because it can end at 6:00 in the morning. NHL hockey also has this same problem, and I’ve been advocating for a shootout after a single period of overtime for at least 20 years, but nobody listens to me. NFL football used to settle everything with 25 cents, but now, with the new formula, will it be better? That remains to be seen. That leaves me with NBA basketball, which has the best formula due to a marked advantage over everything else: there are one-point, two-point and three-point baskets, which greatly reduces the risk of an equal mark. Which is fabulous, because an extension that stretches out is never very good.

Jean-Francois Tremblay

There are several good competition formats, but none like judo at the Olympics. In fact, the fun really begins when a fighter loses a fight. Because his tournament is not over, oh no. He instead embarks on a quest to return to the medallists. As if he was in street fighter 2, he is faced with increasingly tough opponents. Balrog, then Vega, then Sagat, still hoping to win his inaccessible medal. Then M. Bison is waiting for him at the very end of this tournament in parallel with the tournament. In the end, there are two bronze medalists, nobody really knows why. I could definitely googlingbut why spoil the fun of following the mysterious quest of the beaten fighter.