SBC 2019 has its four playoff bound teams (with current seeding):
- The Cork Admiral – 1st seed
- The Belfast Trojans – 2nd seed
- UCD American Football – 3rd seed
- The South Dublin Panthers – 4th seed
All four teams still have one regular season game to play this Sunday and all four games are against another team in the league. This makes the number of possible final SBC playoff scenarios much bigger than its sister leagues IAFL1 and IAFL2 who had nine a piece. All in all, there are eighty-one — yes 81!! — possible scenarios. However, you do not need to be a math whiz to figure out all the possible final outcomes. Here is why.
Now, before we get to the scenarios here are a few key facts:
- Admirals beat Trojans on May 11th
- Trojans beat UCD on June 16th
- UCD beat Panthers on June 23rd
The standings as of last weekend are:
The Admirals have already locked in their playoff berth and home game in Cork, so even a loss would not change their position. Cork Admirals won the league and are comfortably set for a very advantageous home game.
Trojans currently sit at 2nd with 11 points. If they were to lose their game and UCD were to win theirs, Trojans would still be at 2nd after the tie breaker (head to head win). Furthermore, there are no real scenarios where the Trojans could take 1st seed and even less scenarios they would go lower than 2nd. There is a very strong chance the Trojans will host their playoff game in Deramore Park.
Panthers currently have 8 points, a win would give them 10 points. If UCD were to lose their games then Panthers would overtake UCD to 3rd. In all cases, the Panthers can only reach 3rd seed and would have to travel for their playoff game. And so are UCD at 3rd or 4th.
All things considered, there are only two strong possible outcomes and two very good sets of playoff games not to miss on the 21st of July:
- Admirals 1st v 4th Panthers and Trojans 2nd v 3rd UCD
- Admirals 1st v 4th UCD and Trojans 2nd v 3rd Panthers.
Over and out!
