MLS’s New Playoff Format Won’t Be As Good As This
Kevin Wallace
These past couple of weeks it was reported that MLS is, once again, looking to tweak it’s playoff format. Late last year there was a proposal floated that would have taken the top 8 teams from each conference and put them into two, World Cup style groups with the top two advancing to knockout rounds.
Now the proposal seems to be the top 7 teams from each conference making the playoffs; but with teams in 8th and 9th playing a play-in game to make up the 8th spot. Once the field of 8 is settled, the first round is a best of three and then single elimination knockouts after that.
In short, MLS has no idea what they’re doing. And I do mean literally they don’t know what they’re doing, we’re less than a week out from the start of the 2023 season and not a single coach, player, or owner knows what the playoff will look like this year. In fact Inter Miami manager Phil Neville said the lack of information about a potential new MLS playoff format one week out from opening day is one of the reasons why MLS isn’t compared to 'top leagues' in an interview with The Athletic’s Pablo Maurer and Felipe Cardenas. Not great!
So why is MLS trying to make all of these changes? Surprisingly, they actually do have a few clear goals here:
Increase the number of post-season games to provide to Apple
Give every team in the playoffs a home game
Make the regular season more relevant for more teams for longer
Pretty short list!
The problem here is their solution won’t fix these problems. Well, there will be more games for Apple, sure, but that’s an easy one to fix.
But for the season point, no. The visiting team of the play-in game won’t get a home game, so it docent solve that problem.
As for the final point, yes more teams will be fighting for playoff spots at the end of the season. But even more teams will have clinched their spot already. And it dose’t solve a big issue for a lot of people: early and mid season drama. It’s true, with the ability to make a late run in the season and sneak into the playoffs, the beginning of the season is slightly diminished. Toronto and Chicago were terrible last year and yet made late pushes for the playoffs thanks to the generous format. While that may have been a little more exciting than normal at the end of the season, it didn’t make the beginning of the season any less dreary.
So I have a solution. A solution to all of these problems, one that might even make the pro/rel zealot in your life take a beat before screaming about pyramid schemes.
The Proposal
The season is broken into three parts: The Opening Round, The Final Round, and the MLS Cup Playoffs
The Opening Round:
Each team plays every team in their conference once (14 games, assuming 30 teams). Each year they’ll rotate home and away in this opening round.
The Final Round:
Records are wiped clean. The top 5 teams in each conference are placed in Group A, the next 5 teams in each conference are placed in Group B, and the bottom 5 teams in each conference placed in, you guessed it, Group C.
These groups will then play a home and away round robin, with every team in the group (18 games). The winner of Group A will win the Supporter’s Shield.
MLS Cup Playoff:
The top 6 teams in Group A make the playoffs with the top 4 getting a bye. The top 4 teams in Group B make the playoffs, and the top 2 in Group C make the playoffs. This gives you a field of 12 teams, 4 getting a bye, that can be seeded by finish in their groups.
The first round of the playoffs is a home and home tie, and after the first round it’s single elimination with the top seed hosting.
Why it’s the Solution
The regular season will have never mattered as much. The rivalry matches will have never mattered as much. Starting strong gives you the best chance of making the post season. Late season pushes into the playoffs are still possible, but it’s harder now. A reduced field makes competing for the playoffs so much harder. No team is out of the playoffs after a third of the season, but you’ll know just how hard it will be to get in. The midseason drama would be off the charts as local rivals would be deciding how difficult the final stretch of the season will be.
Is it complicated? Sure a little, but not unheard of in the world of soccer. Belgium does a similar setup with their league. And the biggest downside here is that every team would not play every team, but that is the case now. Only in this setup you’ll know exactly how your season’s schedule will be created’ unlike how it is today (why isn’t The FC playing LAFC? There is no official explanation).
Bring on the split season groups and let’s make MLS even weirder.