why are the playoff games set up this way?

It's like the NCAA tournament in basketball. You have incentive to rank as high as possible to get an "easier" matchup, although the difference is negligible in football. Also makes it so that one game doesn't seem better than the other.

It's pretty straightforward. The idea is to reward the team that performs the best (and do the same to each one in turn as you move toward the half-way point in the field.) What's the point of having the best regular season if you get paired off with the second best team in the field in the very first game? The idea is that the play-offs are arranged so that (theoretically) the two most deserving teams get to meet up in the final game. Any team can win a single game, so giving a less-deserving team an easier path to the final than the most-deserving team just makes it easier for the play-offs to be won by luck.

Granted, it's less of an issue in a 4 team playoff than a 16 or 64 team play-off because the separation between the "best" team and the "worst" team is going to be much smaller. But the principle remains applicable. Imagine a 16 seed in the NCAAs being able to reach the Final Four by beating a 15 seed, 14 seed, 13 seed, and 12 seed, while a 1 seed has to beat a 2, 3, 4, and 5 seed. Seems manifestly unfair, no?

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Troll gettin some bites

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I think he's just young or ignorant. Not seeing the point of a troll like this.

Big lump o coal for you man

Seems like it should be 1 vs 3 and 2 vs 4. Anybody know why it's the way it is? Just seems like it would setup a better championship game.

Most sports do this, but in tennis sometimes you get a draw like you describe.

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Congrats