Because I’m like this, I did a bit of number-crunching on Decision Day possibilities to see if some really marginal teams — you could even call them bad teams — could make the playoffs.
The answer is yes, in large part because there’s a pool of 18 teams who will make the playoffs in 2023. That’s equal to what MLS let in during the COVID-shortened 2020 year, but it was also a COVID-ravaged year in which we were happy to have soccer back, even if it was in the form of the two expansion teams from the East not only getting into the playoffs, but playing each other in a 7-10 matchup. Yes, we had 10 teams from the East and eight teams from the West in the 2020 playoffs, for reasons still not fully explained.
This year, I would have been good with eight teams per conference, dispensing with the bye for the No. 1 seed, and leaving it at that.
Instead, we get an 8-9 play-in game and then a best-of-three series for the first round, which is good in that it guarantees 16 teams at least one home match, but you’re also rewarding either an 8 seed (should it survive the 8-9 match) with at least two home playoff matches over the course of what could be a (relatively) early playoff exit, and I’m theorizing not all of those first-round series will be watchable.
Teams like St. Louis, LAFC and FC Cincinnati should make quick work of whoever lands in the playoff’s lower echelons.
So, in doing some Decision Day math, I attempted to do a few different things.
