amacpher Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how the playoff teams in the Mexican League are determined?? Last season (2003 Clausara) nine teams made the playoffs. Since the league is divided into 4 groups, how did they come up with these 9 of teams?? IT wasn't simply the 9 teams with the best overall record either. Cruz Azul finished 11th overall yet were one of the 9! Andrew, New York City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 I don't follow the league but from looking at past results this is how I think it works (I enjoy studying competition formats for some reason). Technically there are only eight teams in the playoffs: the top two teams from each of the four groups. However, if there is a third-place team that finishes with more points than a second-place team then those teams play-off to qualify for the real playoffs. In the last Clausura, Cruz Azul finished second in their group with 24 points but Guadalajara finished third in their group with 31 points; therefore, Cruz Azul and Guadalajara had a two-leg playoff, which Cruz Azul won to advance to the real playoffs. Mind you, there are some cases where some stranger things happen, such as more than one third-place team finishing with more points than a second-place team or vice-versa or both, or what if some fourth-place team finishes with more points than some second-place team? I don't know. But what I said above seems to be the general idea. What I don't understand is why groups are used at all. From what I can see, each team plays each other team once, so why not use a single table? In a sense a single table is used: the top eight teams qualify for the playoffs, except if there is some team below eighth that finishes second in their own group then this team has a playoff with the eighth-place team (of course this is the simple case, possibly more teams are involved). But why? What is so special about finishing second in your own group when everyone plays the same schedule? Seems dumb to me. (How are the groups formed, anway? Geographically?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 They sure aren't geographical! Probably draws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted August 14, 2003 Author Share Posted August 14, 2003 Great! Thanks DJT! I enjoy learning about competition formats too and this one seems to be one of the most bizarre! Looks like your explanation is right on (I haven't found a counter-example). ... In the 2002 Verano, Morelia finished 4th in their group with 29 points. Since this was more than 2 other second place teams, Morelia still advanced to that play-in round (I think they call it "Repecha" or something)... I agree that the group format is stupid and seemingly unnecessary! I guess its just a North American thing. Why does the NHL have 3 groups per conference when the only thing that matters is finishing in the top 8 overall in the conference?? Similar arguments can be made for the NBA, MLS, Major League Baseball and CFL. These divisions serve no purpose! Other interesting notes about the Mexican league - correct me if I'm wrong: - Looks like after the quarter-finals the teams are re-seeded (based on overall standings) to determine the semi-final matchups. (I love this rule). - The groups seem to get re-shuffled after every 2 seasons (ie. 1 calendar year). Whether the groups are determined by a draw or by the previous year's point totals or some other method, I haven't found out yet. - They seem to have a relegation table similar to the one used in Argentina. Although whether it's exactly the same as Argentina's I'm not sure yet either. But it has something to do with average points per game over X-number of years (in Argentina its 3 years). I always found this relegation format somewhat unfair to newly promoted teams, although it makes for numerous exciting scenerios and GREAT discussion (ie. you can be in last-place in the relegation table and still have a mathematically better chance at surviving than teams ahead of you in the table - go figure). Andrew, New York City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by DJT Technically there are only eight teams in the playoffs: the top two teams from each of the four groups. However, if there is a third-place team that finishes with more points than a second-place team then those teams play-off to qualify for the real playoffs. Okay, I found one counter-example (I had nothing else to do during the power-outage): - In the 2001 Clausura, Atlante finished first in their group and 8th overall. Yet they did not advance to the quarter-finals or even the repecha for that matter! Probably the reason for this is because at the end of the 2001 Clausura, Atlante was in last place in the relegation table. Why this would have any affect on letting them play in the playoffs is very odd! Andrew, New York City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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