The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league standings in a single elimination tournament.[1][2] While the first round of the playoffs involve the pairing of the first- and fourth-place teams in one contest (whether it be a single game or a series of games) and the second- and third-place teams in the other,[3] a variant of the Shaughnessy playoffs would pair the first- and third-place teams in one semifinal round and the second- and fourth-place teams in the other. In either variant, the winners of the first two games would then compete for the league championship.
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The Shaughnessy playoff system was invented in 1933 by Frank Shaughnessy, the general manager of the Montréal Royals minor league baseball team of the International League. After its successful implementation by the International League, the popularity of the new postseason format spread to other leagues in other sports, including the All-America Football Conference (which used the Shaughnessy playoff system in the league's last season of existence)[4] and the minor American football league American Association, which used the format in five of its championship seasons.[5] The format has also been widely used in minor league baseball on all levels.[6]
In the Original Six era of the National Hockey League (1942-1967), the circuit adopted a Shaughnessy playoff system (first place vs. fourth place and second place vs. third place) in which the paired teams played in a best-four-of-seven-games series with the winners advancing to the Stanley Cup championship round.
Although Women's Professional Soccer has a four-team playoff format, it does not use the Shaughnessy system. WPS instead uses a stepladder tournament, in which the second-place team at the end of the regular season receives a bye into the semifinal and the first-place team receives a bye into the final.
More recently, the Shaughnessy playoff system has been adopted outside of North America. In England, the format has been used to determine the winner of the Premiership in rugby union;[7] the Celtic League in Ireland, Scotland and Wales adopted an identical system starting in 2009–10, the season before that league expanded to include two teams from Italy.
In French rugby union, the Shaughnessy playoff is currently used to determine the second of two promotion spots in the second-tier Rugby Pro D2, though in that case the teams involved are the second- through fifth-placed teams, as the first-place team earns automatic promotion. Previously, the pure Shaughnessy system had been used to determine the champion of Top 14, but that league's playoffs expanded to six teams starting in 2009–10.
In rugby union, the Shaughnessy system has been widely used throughout the SANZAR countries (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia), and remains in use for national competitions in the first two.
The Super Rugby competition, featuring teams from all three SANZAR countries, used the Shaughnessy format throughout its history as the Super 12 and Super 14, ending in 2010. With the competition's expansion to 15 teams as Super Rugby in 2011, the playoffs now involve six teams, with three conference champions and three "wild cards" advancing.
In South Africa, the Currie Cup uses a Shaughnessy playoff to determine the champions of both of its two divisions (Premier and First).
In New Zealand, the professional ITM Cup (formerly Air New Zealand Cup) adopted the Shaughnessy format in 2009, after having used an eight-team playoff bracket in its first two seasons in 2007 and 2008. In 2011, the ITM Cup split into two divisions, effectively re-creating the three-division system that existed in the National Provincial Championship era. The playoffs in both the new Premiership and Championship divisions use the Shaughnessy system except in World Cup years, in which only the top two teams contest a final. Since its inception in 2007, the amateur Heartland Championship has used the Shaughnessy system, implemented at the last group stage, to determine the winners of both of its trophies, the Meads and Lochore Cups.
Australia currently has no nationwide domestic competition. The latest attempt to establish such a league, the Australian Rugby Championship, used a Shaughnessy playoff, but was scrapped after its only season in 2007.
As it was used in the playoffs of the 2008–09 Guinness Premiership:
| 2009-05-09 15:00 |
Leicester Tigers | 24 – 10 | Bath | Walkers Stadium, Leicester Attendance: 18,850 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Try: Hipkiss 17' c Vesty 38' c Moody 69' c Con: Dupuy (3/3) Pen: Dupuy 51' |
Report | Try: Claassens 46' m Hooper 57' m |
| 2009-05-09 17:30 |
Harlequins | 0 – 17 | London Irish | Twickenham Stoop, London Attendance: 12,638 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Try: Hudson 52' c Catt 75' c Con: D. Armitage (2/2) Pen: D. Armitage 43' |
| 2009-05-16 17:30 |
Leicester Tigers | 10 – 9 | London Irish | Twickenham, London Attendance: 81,601 Referee: Wayne Barnes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Try: Crane 61' c Con: Dupuy (1/1) Pen: Dupuy |
Report | Pen: D. Armitage (2) Drop: Hewat |