How are divisions decided in the ODL? Is it random, based on historical divisions, or is there a selection process?
Since I’m new to the league I have no idea how you guys have been doing this for the past 39 seasons, but in case you are not currently using a selection process I would like to suggest one for consideration.
The final-4 teams from last season have a serpentine draft and get to pick the teams for their divisions.
It could work like this: League Champ from the previous year picks East or West and division, league runner-up goes to the other conference, then the semifinalist with the best record picks one of the remaining divisions and the other semifinals gets what is left.
Next the four teams actually get to “draft” the other five teams that will play in their division. If one of the final-4 teams from the previous season would like to take a “pass” on the pressure of doing this, then the team with the next best record from the previous year gets the honor.
The draft is serpentine, so the league champ would get picks 1,8,9,16, and 17. There would be 5 rounds and all 20 teams would get selected, the last team left would go in the division of the team with the last pick. Again, you guys may already be doing something like this, but I’d LOVE for someone to take my Kobe/Pierce/Howard team in the 1st or 2nd round so I could stick to them all season.
Oh, and making the draft very public right here in the forum would be great. The teams taken in the first two rounds would FEEL the disrespect, and if they suck again maybe they will be pressured to do a better job next time so they aren’t shamed by being one of the first teams off the board. The pressure to be good would also be heavy on the last teams selected, you would not want to be the guy who was taken 19th or 20th and ended up with a losing record.
Anyway, please let me know if something like this is already in place, and if not I’d like to know what others think of the idea.
Thanks.