Imagine for a moment Richard Scudamore had got out of bed one bright sunny morning last August, and thought to himself as he ate his scrambled eggs and gazed at the peacocks strutting across his lawn "I know what all these new American owners would like - let's split the Premier League into 4 divisions, and have playoffs at the end of the season".

How would things stand, and what would the playoff position look like? Let's assume 2 ten-team conferences, loosely based on geography, each split into 2 divisions, with the winners of each division plus 2 "wildcards" per conference going into an 8-team playoff system.

It could have been something like:

Northern Conference - Bobby Charlton Division

1. Man United 80
2. Everton 61
3. Middlesbrough 36
4. Wigan 35
5. Bolton 29

Northern Conference - Kenny Dalglish Division

1. Liverpool 66
2. Man City 52
3. Blackburn 51
4. Newcastle 39
5. Sunderland 36

Southern Conference - Jimmy Greaves Division

1. Chelsea 75
2. Portsmouth 57
3. Aston Villa 55
4. Tottenham 41
5. Derby 11

Southern Conference - Bobby Moore Division

1. Arsenal 71
2. West Ham 44
3. Reading 32
4. Birmingham 31
5. Fulham 27

It would be shaping up to a first round of playoffs of :

Man United v Man City
Liverpool v Everton
Chelsea v Aston Villa
Arsenal v Portsmouth

with the winners of the Man U and Chelsea playoffs "seeded" to be at home in the Conference finals. Then a "Premier League Grand Super Final Match" which could be played at a suitable neutral venue, like the Pasadena Rose Bowl, or the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

Now I think before summarily dismissing forward-looking ideas such as this, men in Scudamore's position must consider all the angles. I mean surely the season would build towards a more thrilling climax this way, than Man United securing the title just by getting a point at home to West Ham in a fortnight's time in a game that no-one's watching?

Looks good to me, Rogin.

Heh. I do admire the effort you put in to constructing these parallel universes where Liverpool still have a chance in hell of the title, Rogin.

Except it would be Chelsea v West Ham, not Villa.

Rogin! I've been working on something similar to this for ages and am planning to go into "print" with it later this year.

Thank goodness mine isn't exactly the same as yours.

I don't think this is as fanciful as some people might believe.

Some people will write any old tosh just to be in with a chance of winning the Post Of The Day award on the front page.

No, in the southern conference the two wildcards would both come from the one division - that's the way the Yanks do these things.

And yes, you're right, the whole point of this "parallel universe" is that eight teams - including Liverpool - would still have a chance of the title - again, that's the way the Yanks do these things. That's my question - is that kind of system better than our traditional league system or not? Let's face it, it's only because 3 English teams are still in the Champions League that the season still feels "alive" for the clubs at the top. What if all the English clubs had gone out of Europe already? This season, for all the fans of the clubs at the very top of the league, would effectively be over already, with only Man U's trolleybus tour around Salford Quays to organise. Wouldn't that feel like a bit of a damp squib, in these days of fans demanding more and more entertainment, excitement, and drama?

If this were the case, right now Man Utd would be in the studio recording their version of the Super Bowl Shuffle- or in this case the Grand Super Final March..

I've got Ronaldo's bit all worked out..

"I'm the Portuguese winger with the sexy abs,
some Italian hooker gave me crabs"..

I think the conferences need some tweaking, the NFL works on a basis of geography + historical rivalry (and tries to keep the conferences fiarly equal, though other factors are more important than that).

So all the Lancashire towns should probably be together, even if that does leave an odd NE/Liverpool hybrid. And all the London teams would be grouped together too.

Northern Conference - Bobby Charlton Division

1. Man United 80
2. Man City 52
3. Blackburn 51
4. Wigan 35
5. Bolton 29

Northern Conference - Kenny Dalglish Division

1. Liverpool 66
2. Everton 61
3. Newcastle 39
4. Middlesbrough 36
4. Sunderland 36

Southern Conference - Bobby Moore Division

1. Chelsea 75
2. Arsenal 71
3. West Ham 44
4. Tottenham 41
5. Fulham 27

Southern Conference

1. Portsmouth 57
2. Aston Villa 55
3. Reading 32
4. Birmingham 31
5. Derby 11

The most important change if the EPL was the NFL would be the league effort to ensure parity--revenue sharing, the salary cap, different difficulties of schedules. It's really hard to stay consistently good in the NFL.

You are all going to Hell for even thinking about this.

Inca wrote:

QUOTE:
revenue sharing

We used to do that, then the greedy cunts at the top (I'm looking directly at you, Manchester United) decided they wanted to keep everything for themselves.

This system would actually devalue Sky's golden goose though- the 'normal season' league games between the top teams. For example, last Sunday's game at Old Trafford, rather than being Arsenal's last chance at staying in the race, and a massive hurdle for Man Utd, would have been reduced to the status almost of a friendly, as the two sides shadow boxed in anticipation of a possible play-off meeting.

And Etienne's second conference needs a name. The Ron Saunders division?

That is of course what happens in the NFL, but that doesn't stop the networks from hyping such matches to the sky as a "potential Super Bowl preview", while they also get to salivate over a significantly greater number of "must see" games with "playoff implications".

Like Man City - Blackburn (using Etienne's version).

Of course, were such a route taken to its North American conclusion, the days of Arsenal and Manchester United playing each other twice a season would be gone forever.

This thread is sick.

I agree with Etienne - there's no way that the NFL would want to split up the local rivalries.

The other question that needs to be answered here is the schedule - how would you un-balance the schedule to really play up the Americanization here? I would bet that you would play each team in your division 4 times (16 games); teams outside your division but in your conference twice (10 games); and then teams outside your conference once (10 games). This only gives you 36 regular season games, but with the playoffs, you'd be getting up to 3 extra games.

Sky may indeed have an issue with some of this, but with potentially more derby games on the schedule, and being able to bill late season cross division games as giving potentially "home field" during the playoffs, I think they'd manage to market this new world.

Then we'd all have to go visit the man in the high castle about what this all means...

I'm amazed that it is being discussed seriously.