For Once, Toronto's Division Pays Dividends

For years, baseball fans in the GTA have gripped that the Blue Jays' fortunes were hampered by playing in the same division as the high spending Yankees and Red Sox.

Arguments against that aside (hello, remember 1992 and 1993?), Toronto sports fans get it both ways, as the Raptors are currently enjoying being 5th in the NBA's Eastern Conference, one and a half games back of home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

A quick look at the standings, though, reveals that if the Raps were in the Jays' boat, and in the tougher conference, Toronto's basketball team wouldn't even make the playoffs; in fact, they would be about 5 games out of the last playoff spot.

The reason, of course, is that the NBA's Western Conference dominates the East like the Maple Leafs dominate... well, bad example. The point is, when the 8th best in the West would be 3rd in the East, something needs to be done to level the playing field.

(Insert ironic Tim Donaghy joke here)

The purpose of the post-season should be to determine the champion, and that cannot be done if the best teams don't make the playoffs because of their particular division or conference.

So, how would it look?

Here, if the season ended today and the top 16 teams made the playoffs, is how it would look:

(1) Boston v (16) Washington
(2) Detroit v (15) Portland
(3) L.A. Lakers v (14) Toronto
(4) San Antonio v (13) Cleveland
(5) Houston v (12) Denver
(6) New Orleans v (11) Orlando
(7) Utah v (10) Golden State
(8) Phoenix v (9) Dallas

Under this format, only 1 sub-.500 team makes the playoffs, and that's only because, currently, there are only 15 teams above .500.

Are there problems? Of course. A Lakers/Raptors series would be logistically troubling, as would Pistons/Blazers. But we make accomodations for TV, why not for travel? Give the bi-coastal series an extra day off and call it even.

In the end, playoff ball would be improved because the best teams get in, and isn't that the point of all this? Oh, and keeping pathetic teams like Atlanta and New Jersey out of the post-season dance.