Episode Details

There's a lengthy history of Major League Soccer changing its playoff formats, and a report from The Guardian indicates another significant change is coming when the league switches to a summer-to-spring calendar for the 2027/28 season.

In this episode of The Blueprint, hosts John Baney and Trey Fillmore talk through the many different ways MLS Cup has been handed out through the years, and weigh whether or not the Australian rules football-inspired approach on the table for 2027/28 is the right one, or the best version of a possible MLS Cup Playoffs.

Even going back to the league's earliest days, too many teams qualifying for the postseason has been a talking point, since eight of the 10 original teams qualified for the playoffs in the inaugural 1996 season.

Trey walks through the history of the league's big playoff format changes through the years, which included two-legged aggregates, single elimination setups, through to today's version that includes an early best-of-three round before shifting to all one-and-done knockouts. It's discussed in tandem with the way the size of the playoff field has changed, with the introduction of "wild cards" and a growing number of playoff participants, leading us to the current moment in which 18 of the 30 teams in the league play postseason soccer of some form.

The history is informative, and then it's on to trying to understand the hows and whys of the proposed new format. John is tasked with doing the explaining of this new format, and plenty of parts of that system sound appealing to your hosts, like rewarding the very top playoff seeds and creating more "games of consequence," something new MLS commissioner Larry Berg has stressed as a priority.

The episode wraps with John and Trey further discussing what they like and don't like about the proposed new playoffs, and what they'd do if they were MLS commissioner and it came time to create their ideal versions of the MLS Cup Playoffs.

It's a way more complicated and nuanced topic than a professional sports league's playoff system has any right to be, but this episode, and this infographic mentioned and referenced in the episode, should help you form a better understanding of the latest playoff approach.

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