The race for the final playoff spots in the NHL are winding down and it got me thinking about an interesting (possible?) situation. I’m trying to come up with a situation where if Team A beats team B both teams will make the playoffs. If team B beats Team A neither team will make the playoffs.
Has this ever happened? Is it even possible? If so, what, other than controls already in place, prevents some type of collusion where Team B lays down.
I’m thinking of this in terms of the NHL, but I’d be interested in any league where this situation could occur.
I don’t see how this could be possible. If team B beats team A, team B earns points, so if it had made the playoffs had it instead been beaten by team A, then it will now certainly make the playoffs, given that it has more points and team A, less.
This isn’t to say that strange things may not happen with the standings at the end of the regular season, but I don’t think this particular one may happen.
On reflection and edit, this reminds me of voting systems. Many paradoxes such as this one can and do happen when using a voting system to elect a candidate. But I don’t think it happens with sports playoffs.
From the hip, I suspect it would have to be some sort of 4 way tiebreak for 2 positions. I do know that in the NFL last year there was scenerio where the Browns’ playoffs had nothing to do with their final game but instead another team’s win/loss due to the third tiebeak of record against conference opponents.
Can someone post that scenerio and we can see if we can work it into a scenerio for the OP.