NLL schedules need fixing
Even though last year was an amazing year as far as parity in the league, the schedules definitely needed to be better thought out. On more than one occasion the only teams outside the Eastern Division that the Toronto Rock would play were Calgary or Edmonton. Whether this gave them an unfair advantage and helped with their stellar comeback I can’t say for sure but it is something to think about.
Along with the announcement that the two expansion teams will play in the Eastern Division, the National Lacrosse League stated that “each team will play each of their divisional opponents at least twice in 2007”. Implying that there will be at least a home and home set for each match up.
Based on past seasons there are usually 16 games — generally 8 home and 8 away — which leaves us with between two and six — depending upon the finalized schedule — games per team for inter-divisional games. This year the league needs to understand that while the rivalry between Calgary and Toronto is one of the best in the league they need to avoid pitting Canadian teams against each other for the simple reason that they are Canadian teams.
Neither I nor anyone else would suggest cutting out all Canada only games entirely but there needs to be variation. Have Toronto play the Colorado Mammoth for one game and the Roughnecks for the other. As far as the extra games Calgary will have for inter-divisional play it would be great to see a game or two against Minnesota, Philadelphia or Rochester.
There’s no guarantee that setting up a schedule such as this will give all teams a fair shake at the playoffs—which is generally what all leagues try to do. What it will do is create a balanced schedule which is what a great number of fans across the board are looking and asking for.
Balancing the schedule shows us that the league is thinking on a bigger scale. Of course it’s a great way to quell the “but your team played the last place team three times and we only played them once, that’s why you made the playoffs and we didn’t” fights.