I haven't thought about this all that much, but I'm inclined towards Mike's arguments here. Also, if any rule changes result from this, I think it would be worth putting in a caveat in case the playoff packets are in fact intended to be different from (e.g. harder than) the prelim packets--if this happens, I think throwing out prelim games is justified, and I think teams from the same prelim bracket should be forced to play again in the playoff bracket. Barring something like that, though, I don't see why we shouldn't count prelim matches between teams that wind up in the same playoff bracket (and then probably skip running the same match-up in the playoff rounds, to keep the same schedule of opponents for all teams in a single playoff bracket), as long as it doesn't mess up the playoff schedule by giving some teams fewer games to be played during the playoff rounds than other teams in the same bracket. If that happens, perhaps the teams can repeat some prior match-ups with half weights being applied to the prelim and playoff games or something.Captain Scipio wrote:If there are no such things as half-losses, there's no such thing as double-counting single losses; those are exactly concomitant concepts. We ought to count those games because they are games between playoff teams and, therefore, their outcomes are, all else equal, as valid as predictors as any other outcomes between playoff teams, including the actual playoff games.Matt Weiner wrote:There's no such thing as "half-losses" and I don't follow why we need to count those games at all.
-Seth