I don't know if anyone would notice this buried halfway down the board so here it is again:

Brian sez...

You state that the higher ranked team is not necessarily better and/or may have tired outt their best starters qualifying for the playoffs. This is more likely to make my argument; the higher ranked teams were most likely already in and the lower team is more likely to have to have used their top guys in the last few games. This is another argument for the home team winning these games.

Erle sez...

Not necessarily. Having a better record doesn't always mean you are better able to rest players down the stretch.

My last season in 2000RT1 is a perfect example. I won the wildcard by a wide, wide margin (8-10 games) and finished at least 8-10 games behind the first place team in my division. I was able to rest my best players and set up my rotation for the first round. I faced the team that won my division, burned out all my part-time players in the opening round, and pulled off a huge upset.

You'll probably never convince me the away team has an unfair advantage. Especially since my team that had been first overall for months just got swept on the road. (When I faced that team at home earlier this year it was my team that did the sweeping!)

Until you eliminate all other factors there'll always be doubters. The only way to say for sure would be if PB ran a test like this -- set up a league with 24 teams all having identical rosters. Let the robot control everything to eliminate the human factor and play 160 games. Then do it 20 more times. If the away records show a signifigant imbalance, say .550 to .600 winning percentage on the road, then I'd start to agree with you.