Thought it was time to bump this before SuperCoach opens for the new season (which will likely be late this month), as I'd like to get a few more people involved for the initial season of this competition.
As per earlier posts, I have a few options in mind for the promotion/relegation structure, but it will depend on the number of teams we can get signed up. I am thinking we ideally have 7 leagues (119 sign ups), but I can also make do with six leagues (102 sign ups) if we don't get enough interest. From last years ranking season and post season sign ups, we have 89 members who have shown interest to date, surely there are enough others out there who would be interested in joining that we can hit these numbers.
I am proposing three tiers of leagues - 1 league at the top level, 2 leagues at the second level, and either 3 or 4 leagues at the third level. There will be promotions and relegations as follows, (assuming 7 leagues):
Tier 1 (1 league): The bottom 4 teams (15-18) will be relegated to Tier 2. Teams 11-14 will play off against teams 3-4 from the two Tier 2 leagues in the final week of the season to avoid relegation.
Tier 2 (2 leagues): The two grand finalists in each league will be promoted. The two preliminary final losers in each league will play off against the teams ranked 11-14 from the top tier in grand final week for promotion. The bottom 4 teams (15-18) will be relegated to Tier 3. Teams 11-14 will play off against teams ranked 3-4 from the Tier 3 leagues in the final week of the season to avoid relegation.
Tier 3 (4 leagues): The two grand finalists in each league will be promoted. The two preliminary final losers in each league will play off against the teams ranked 11-14 from Tier 2 in grand final week for promotion.
Rankings to determine promotions and relegations will be based on results from SC finals - total points for the season will be the tie-breaker for those occasions where my position in a league means the teams up for promotion/relegation positions are not clear. I will clarify further once we get to the finals as required.
Based on the structure I am proposing, there will be some minor tweaks to the initial league allocations that I posted in post #97 in this topic, which I will repost once SuperCoach opens (Basically Leagues 2 and 3 will end up mixed up a bit between each other to balance these two leagues out, Leagues 4 and 5 will also be reallocated among the Tier 3 leagues, mixed with new sign ups).
With this structure, there will be anywhere from 12-24 teams promoted and 12-24 teams relegated each season. I believe this is a reasonable amount, and it means even if you are in the lowest tier, you are only two good seasons away from the top league - and vice versa. Plenty to fight for each year!
League winners will also get another reward besides promotion - they will get to name the league that they win for the next season. As it's a promotion format, unless you win the top league, you won't be in the league you win the next season, but you will still always get a smile when you see your league name in the rankings and leaderboards. Gives you more incentive to win your grand final, even if you have secured promotion.
As mentioned in the initial post, besides the main promotion and relegation leagues, there will be two other competitions that all entrants will be included in which I will run of to the side for a bit of fun and interest. One will be the P&R Cup - post byes all teams will play against another team at random from any league each week - winner stays in, loser is eliminated until we are left with one team remaining. The other will be a live overall rankings ladder. Each week you will be paired against 3 other teams, the top two scorers in that round move up the ladder, the bottom 2 move down. I'll provide more details on these as the season starts. These competitions won't require any effort whatsoever from yourselves, and will be based on your regular SC scoring - they are just meant for a bit of interleague fun so that you get a bit of variety and aren't competing against the same teams each week/year.
If you want to join these leagues for 2023, please express your interest here (if you didn't already in 2022). Also, if you did say you were interested in joining last year and have had second thoughts, that is fine, please let me know that here too. Replacements players for anyone who pulls out or doesn't show up from the top 3 leagues will be offered in order to those who sign up the earliest. Numbers will be capped at 119 entries, however there may be a few spare spots from no-shows if you want to join a waiting list if you miss out (people who join the waiting list and miss out will be given priority to any free spaces that open up in 2024).
Not long to go now. Really looking forward to this - less than 10 weeks until the footy kicks off. I'm expecting this to be a really good season, and hoping these leagues can bring something new for people to look forward to.
Happy to answer any questions you may have, but I will also be providing more details closer to the start of the season once numbers are hopefully locked in.
Good luck everyone!