FRB Flashback: Baseball's 1981 Split Season
The Major League Baseball season is getting under way this week, 30 years after the strange 1981 split season.That year began with the threat of a players' strike, and indeed on June 12, with the...
View ArticleThe American Soccer Pyramid
When the Major League Soccer season opened, FRB discussed its new playoff system. Now as the lower leagues begin play for the year, let's look at the rest of the American soccer "pyramid.""Pyramid" is...
View ArticleThe History of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
It's time again for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The format is simple: 16 teams, best of 7 every round, and you have your winner. It's been this way since time immemorial, right? Hardly. The Cup has had...
View ArticleChoosing Your Playoff Opponent
The Chicago Bulls had the best record in the National Basketball Association this season and were seeded first in the Eastern Conference playoffs. As a result, the team is facing the eighth seed,...
View ArticleBelgian Soccer Playoffs
There are 16 teams in the top division in Belgian soccer. They play each other twice each, for a 30-game schedule. But unlike most other European leagues, the season does not end there.At the...
View ArticleExpanded Baseball Playoffs
There are serious plans afoot to expand the baseball playoffs from 8 teams to 10.First, a quick look at how the baseball playoffs currently work (Those familiar with baseball in North America can skip...
View ArticleRussian Soccer's Long Season
There are many, many different ways to structure a sport. But nearly every structure has one thing in common: it determines one winner each year.This annual cycle of sports seems natural to us. One...
View ArticleDraft Lotteries
The major professional sports leagues in North America all hold annual drafts in which teams take turns selecting young players. The key element of all the drafts is that the worst teams get to choose...
View ArticleU.S. Open Cup Qualifying
This week, the U.S. Open Cup announced its first and second round pairings. Not every American team qualifies for the Cup, and each league uses its own system to determine who gets in. (For more on the...
View ArticleRelegation in Argentine Football
Relegation in soccer is simple, right? At the end of the season, the three, or two, or four, lowest placed teams drop down a division, to be replaced by teams from below. But not in Argentina. One of...
View ArticleChilean Cup
What is it with South American cup competitions? FRB has written about their odd structures on a couple of occasions. Let's add Chile to the list.In 2010, the Copa Chile was a standard knockout...
View ArticleWorld Football Challenge
The World Football Challenge, a series of exhibition games in North America involving top European and Mexican soccer teams, is under way. An overall winner will be chosen, in a rather unusual...
View ArticleSplit Brackets in the Gold Cup and Copa
Consider the 2011 Concacaf Gold Cup and Copa America, both just completed.Each had 12 teams, broken into three preliminary groups of four. The top two from each group advanced. As the groups are called...
View ArticleRugby World Cup
The structure of the upcoming Rugby World Cup shares some of the flaws of the Cricket World Cup, which we discussed some months ago.Twenty teams are entered, divided into four groups of five. The top...
View ArticleAustralian Playoff Systems
It's time for the Aussie Rules football playoffs, giving us a chance to examine Australian playoff systems, which have several unusual elements.There are 17 teams in the Australian Football League, and...
View ArticleAfrican Nations Cup Qualifying
Some readers of First Round Bye might protest that the subject of sports systems and structures is trivial. "Just play the games, and don't worry about tie breakers and wild cards," you might...
View ArticleBoxing and the Ultimate Fighting Championship
Mixed martial arts has soared in popularity in recent years, far surpassing, especially among young men, the venerable sport of boxing. Certainly some of the reason is the nature of the sport itself:...
View ArticleAsk FRB: What's the Most Complex Sports Structure?
Dear FRB:What is the single most bafflingly convoluted sports system of them all?This is an easy one. The N.C.A.A. Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision. No other structure, in FRB's opinion, has more...
View ArticleAsk FRB: What's the Best Sports Structure?
Dear FRB: You were pretty critical last week of the NCAA Division 1 football format. How about an example of a sports structure that works really well?NCAA Division 1 basketball. Yes, though the NCAA...
View ArticleGaelic Football
Gaelic Football in Ireland is a rare sport in that its league competition is much less prestigious than its Cup.There is a Gaelic Football league, though it is a somewhat sleepy affair that runs only...
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