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 2008 Press Releases: Your Team's Playoff POD: Good or Bad? |
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Friday, October 3
Your Team's Playoff POD: Good or Bad?
If you’re a fan of a minor
league football team that plays in the North American Football League, then
you’ve already taken the time to dissect the 2008 NAFL playoff brackets. The question remains, how difficult of a road
does your team have to travel in order to make it to Atlanta?
The answer can be found in the POD.
Making its inaugural
debut, POD stands for Projected Opponent Difficulty. The POD takes into consideration the assigned
first round playoff opponent, as well as all of the projected later round
opponents, based on the assumption that they would be the highest seeded or
favored teams. In simple terms, if a
team wins their first game and advances all the way to the championship game in
Atlanta, the
POD will tell you how difficult it would be for a team to win all of their
games against the toughest opponents.
The POD does not take into
consideration any BYE weeks in the playoff brackets, only actual
opponents. The POD does take into
consideration home field advantage beginning with the third round of the
playoffs. The POD measures the average
opponent on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the strongest. The POD chart listed was calculated for the top 25
teams in the NAFL playoffs.
Observations:
Top 5 POD's:
1. Pensacola Lightning 9.6
2. Port City (AL) Monarchs 9.4
3. British Columbia Spartans 9.3
4. South
Oregon Renegades 9.3
5. Bay Area Pearland (TX)
Gamblers 9.0
Bottom 5 POD's:
1. Dakota (SD) Lawdawgs 7.2
2. Central Penn Piranha 7.3
3. London (ONT) Silverbacks 7.4
4. Nashville Storm 7.4
5. Iowa Lightning 7.8
Good Luck in the West
The Western Conference
will be a blood bath. 6 of the top 8
POD’s are West teams. The LaBelle Region
is stacked with 4 very good teams (half of the region), and the probable winner
of the Pacific Region will be undefeated or have only 1 loss. The winner of the Western Conference will be
the most battle-tested team in the NAFL Final 4.
No Rest for the Weary
After a first round war,
the winner of the Port City Monarchs / Pensacola Lightning game could possibly
be looking at trips to: Georgia, Tennessee,
Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
Soft Bracket for
Lawdawgs
Out of the eight #1 regional seeds, the Dakota (SD) Lawdawgs
have the easiest bracket in the Mid-America Region. Their first 3 projected games are very favorable. It’s not until the final 2 games
before Atlanta
where they would run into some stiff competition.
In case you’re wondering
about last year’s championship game teams, the Kane County (IL) Eagles had a
POD of 9.0, while the Dallas Diesel were at 7.3. Kane
County won ALL 5 playoff
games on the road against tough competition.
The only playoff team in 2008 with a POD of 9.0 or higher that would have to play every game on the road is the Pensacola Lightning.
Keep in mind that a few
upsets are bound to happen, so your team might be fortunate enough to elude
playing a tough opponent for a round or two.
For the most part, just take your team’s POD for what it’s worth, and
enjoy all of the exciting NAFL games that the “Journey to Georgia” has to
offer.
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