I too am looking forward to the next part. My biggest issue is when USL decides ahead of time that a certain division will get two playoff spots, but doesn't tell anyone. And the team I support, Peoria City, was the direct beneficiary last season. But it wasn't right to do it that way
In the end, the three best runners-up in the Central Conferences, by PPG, qualified for playoffs. Sueño FC (2.17 PPG), Peoria City (2.08, +18 GD), and Midwest United (2.08, +17) qualified while Lexington SC 2 (2.00) and FC Buffalo (1.92) were left out. When Peoria City was announced as having qualified, they were ranked last amongst runners-up. It caused waves of confusion. Including individuals asking me what happened due to my Elimination Charts showing something else. One of my goals with this restructure is to remove the human input bias from the league and the guessing game for the fans about the exacts of the playoffs. Teams and fans should know for CERTAIN what the playoffs will look like and who qualifies well before teams start qualifying for playoffs.
Great work! Thank you for all the research. Keeping conferences in equal number of teams is extremely difficult given the geography of our country ... and Olmo just scored to put Barcelona 3-1 over Alaves ... which makes it imperative to make playoffs as consistent and as fair as possible. I recognize that's not an easy task. Still, I believe that we put too much energy and effort in playoffs. I think it's better to make the regular season more important than the playoffs if we desire to make small town clubs more relevant to their communities.
Thank you for the support. Keeping conferences/regions and divisions/conferences even is nigh impossible at this level. I completely concur that making playoffs consistent and fair is of the upmost importance, which is why this series came to fruition. I agree that the regular season should be more important, and I like how USL2 handles it and the USOC bids, so I won't be touching those. Sadly, too many owners and fans put too much stock in the playoffs. As such, it gets the lion's share of the attention and fanfare. If it were entirely up to me, we wouldn't have a "National Champion" at this level. No reason, imo, for Vermont Green and Ballard FC to ever face each other as entirely amateur outfits. Thankfully though, more and more teams are getting support throughout the season rather than just during a playoff push and run.
I agree. I understand why there are national champions, but I would rather see everyone align in structural terminology, and then play for Regional championships that involve all (summer) leagues.
Even worse when you're talking about the United States. You can fly from London to Istanbul (all the way across Europe) in about four hours. New York to LA is six hours. And we're talking about amateur teams
No, it's something entirely unique in the USL2/W system. USL combines all the qualifiers in a conference into a single bracket. So a USL conference championship game can be between two teams from the same division. Though this is rare because USL usually groups teams from the same division into a single pod.
This is fantastic! Look forward to the next part and talking solutions.
I too am looking forward to the next part. My biggest issue is when USL decides ahead of time that a certain division will get two playoff spots, but doesn't tell anyone. And the team I support, Peoria City, was the direct beneficiary last season. But it wasn't right to do it that way
In the end, the three best runners-up in the Central Conferences, by PPG, qualified for playoffs. Sueño FC (2.17 PPG), Peoria City (2.08, +18 GD), and Midwest United (2.08, +17) qualified while Lexington SC 2 (2.00) and FC Buffalo (1.92) were left out. When Peoria City was announced as having qualified, they were ranked last amongst runners-up. It caused waves of confusion. Including individuals asking me what happened due to my Elimination Charts showing something else. One of my goals with this restructure is to remove the human input bias from the league and the guessing game for the fans about the exacts of the playoffs. Teams and fans should know for CERTAIN what the playoffs will look like and who qualifies well before teams start qualifying for playoffs.
I agree, it shouldn't be a guessing game
Great work! Thank you for all the research. Keeping conferences in equal number of teams is extremely difficult given the geography of our country ... and Olmo just scored to put Barcelona 3-1 over Alaves ... which makes it imperative to make playoffs as consistent and as fair as possible. I recognize that's not an easy task. Still, I believe that we put too much energy and effort in playoffs. I think it's better to make the regular season more important than the playoffs if we desire to make small town clubs more relevant to their communities.
Thank you for the support. Keeping conferences/regions and divisions/conferences even is nigh impossible at this level. I completely concur that making playoffs consistent and fair is of the upmost importance, which is why this series came to fruition. I agree that the regular season should be more important, and I like how USL2 handles it and the USOC bids, so I won't be touching those. Sadly, too many owners and fans put too much stock in the playoffs. As such, it gets the lion's share of the attention and fanfare. If it were entirely up to me, we wouldn't have a "National Champion" at this level. No reason, imo, for Vermont Green and Ballard FC to ever face each other as entirely amateur outfits. Thankfully though, more and more teams are getting support throughout the season rather than just during a playoff push and run.
I agree. I understand why there are national champions, but I would rather see everyone align in structural terminology, and then play for Regional championships that involve all (summer) leagues.
True there are countries in which even the lower professional leagues do not have a national playoffs system.
Even worse when you're talking about the United States. You can fly from London to Istanbul (all the way across Europe) in about four hours. New York to LA is six hours. And we're talking about amateur teams
Does the USL2 have a playoffs system within each division?
No, it's something entirely unique in the USL2/W system. USL combines all the qualifiers in a conference into a single bracket. So a USL conference championship game can be between two teams from the same division. Though this is rare because USL usually groups teams from the same division into a single pod.
Thanks.