2026 Championship of 21 clubs

[marklaspalmas]

How is this going to work?

I know it's a long way down the list of priorities for the sport's movers and shakers, but it'd be nice to get a few ideas as to how it'll pan out.

A merged league of 21 clubs seems to be the talk, with "conferences" whatever that means. If it's East and West, it'll need to be elastic enough to cover Cumbria, Newcastle, Birmingham, North Wales and who knows Wimbledon as well as Yorkshire and Lancashire.

One idea I had was based on 20 clubs. This came from my limited maths rather than any desire to lose yet another pro club. 10 fixtures every week, play every other club once, either home or away, plus reverse fixtures v 9 of the other 19 making 28 weeks of fixtures.

Perhaps someone with better maths could come up with a format for 21 clubs?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

How is this going to work?

I know it's a long way down the list of priorities for the sport's movers and shakers, but it'd be nice to get a few ideas as to how it'll pan out.

A merged league of 21 clubs seems to be the talk, with "conferences" whatever that means. If it's East and West, it'll need to be elastic enough to cover Cumbria, Newcastle, Birmingham, North Wales and who knows Wimbledon as well as Yorkshire and Lancashire.

One idea I had was based on 20 clubs. This came from my limited maths rather than any desire to lose yet another pro club. 10 fixtures every week, play every other club once, either home or away, plus reverse fixtures v 9 of the other 19 making 28 weeks of fixtures.

Perhaps someone with better maths could come up with a format for 21 clubs?

Multiple 7 group round robins or some other complex, convoluted nonsense......

[Tommygilf]

I think they'll hope secretly that Toulouse aren't in this, whether by promotion or just withdrawal. Assuming Toulouse, London, Bradford (and York) and Salford go down, 20 teams.

West:

Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven, North Wales, Swinton, Widnes, Midlands, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford?

East:

Newcastle, Keighley, Halifax, Batley, Dewsbury, Goole, Doncaster, Sheffield, Fev, Hunslet.

18 games home and away vs your conference, plus 10 games (5 home 5 away) vs t'other conference making 28 matches a season. 

[Hopie]

8 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I think they'll hope secretly that Toulouse aren't in this, whether by promotion or just withdrawal. Assuming Toulouse, London, Bradford (and York) and Salford go down, 20 teams.

West:

Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven, North Wales, Swinton, Widnes, Midlands, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford?

East:

Newcastle, Keighley, Halifax, Batley, Dewsbury, Goole, Doncaster, Sheffield, Fev, Hunslet.

18 games home and away vs your conference, plus 10 games (5 home 5 away) vs t'other conference making 28 matches a season. 

15 team Super League?

For the lower divisions I guess it comes down to how many games the clubs say they need, and if any clubs need to be kept apart from each other. 

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Hopie said:

15 team Super League?

For the lower divisions I guess it comes down to how many games the clubs say they need, and if any clubs need to be kept apart from each other. 

Nah, just Toulouse not in the top 14 and decide to withdraw

[Bull Mania]

I hate the idea of conferences for the league. Too much of a gap between top of the champ and bottom of L1

Personally think it be better keeping the champ L1, 10 teams in each playing each other twice. 

I'd expand the 1895 cup into a round Robin confernce league to make up for lack of fixtures. 

[Cake Tiger]

Everyone knows the best structure for three divisions is 14-8-14. 

Ooh, we are so close to it happening again. What is the definition of madness?

[Hopie]

35 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Nah, just Toulouse not in the top 14 and decide to withdraw

But we expanded to 14 to allow 2 French clubs in without the risk of 4 trips to France for a club, and then we also have an application process to stop them. Its all so confusing.

 

[Tommygilf]

22 minutes ago, Hopie said:

But we expanded to 14 to allow 2 French clubs in without the risk of 4 trips to France for a club, and then we also have an application process to stop them. Its all so confusing.

 

Yep!

[Tommygilf]

49 minutes ago, Bull Mania said:

I hate the idea of conferences for the league. Too much of a gap between top of the champ and bottom of L1

Personally think it be better keeping the champ L1, 10 teams in each playing each other twice. 

I'd expand the 1895 cup into a round Robin confernce league to make up for lack of fixtures. 

Clubs would have to put them on STs as the crowds would be dire if not. I think that would make sense to add up to say 12 or 13 home games a season.

[Griff]

Assuming it's 21, three pools of 7, play each team in your own pool home and away, everybody else just the once.

26 games

I wouldn't necessarily tie myself down to a geographical split but I'd strive to minimise long journeys.

[Griff]

The problem with two conferences for an odd number of teams is the cross-group games are difficult, if not impossible to match up.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

8 minutes ago, Griff said:

Assuming it's 21, three pools of 7, play each team in your own pool home and away, everybody else just the once.

26 games

I wouldn't necessarily tie myself down to a geographical split but I'd strive to minimise long journeys.

That works logistically. 

However, a 7 team group that runs for 26 fixtures would have huge points gaps between positions, meaning positions for most would likely be settled months before the playoffs, rendering most of the season as a slog.

[Griff]

Just now, Wellsy4HullFC said:

That works logistically. 

However, a 7 team group that runs for 26 fixtures would have huge points gaps between positions, meaning positions for most would likely be settled months before the playoffs, rendering most of the season as a slog.

Maybe I wasn't clear. Just one table. 

[Griff]

3 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Perhaps someone with better maths could come up with a format for 21 clubs?

It's possible to devise a fixture set for any number of teams playing any even number of games.

We've done it before in the NFP days and at Alliance level.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

18 minutes ago, Griff said:

Maybe I wasn't clear. Just one table. 

Oh, just the fixtures are grouped rather than 3 conferences. 

I mean, they do it in the Champions League now. It's not the worst idea.

[Griff]

3 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Oh, just the fixtures are grouped rather than 3 conferences. 

I mean, they do it in the Champions League now. It's not the worst idea.

It's just one idea. I chose it because 21 divides by 3.  There are literally dozens of other options.

And, of course, there may not always be 21 clubs in the division. In which case, you'd need to come up with some other idea.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

9 minutes ago, Griff said:

It's just one idea. I chose it because 21 divides by 3.  There are literally dozens of other options.

And, of course, there may not always be 21 clubs in the division. In which case, you'd need to come up with some other idea.

I mean, unless it's a prime number, there's plenty of ways to organise the fixtures. 

[Anita Bath]

I fear for newcastle in whatever the new structure is. They are getting flogged weekly by every league 1 team. I hate to think what the score would be against teams currently at the top of the championship.

Maybe they could play Salford home and away 8 times.

[Toby Chopra]

4 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

I fear for newcastle in whatever the new structure is. They are getting flogged weekly by every league 1 team. I hate to think what the score would be against teams currently at the top of the championship.

Maybe they could play Salford home and away 8 times.

If we go to a single division I wouldn't be surprised if they withdraw.

[Griff]

6 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

I mean, unless it's a prime number, there's plenty of ways to organise the fixtures. 

Yes, many people think prime numbers are a problem.

Here's a prime number. 7.

A full set, home and away, is 12 games  each.

Or you could play once. 6 games.

But wait. Here's a subset of fixtures.

AB CD EF GA BC DE FG.

One home, one away for each club. 2 games.

Or maybe they're the games you don't play. That's 10 covered.

Or, you could play everyone once, plus thus subset. 8 games.

Or everyone once, except for this subset. 4 games.

So that's all the even number options covered.

No problem. Just needs thought.

[Griff]

4 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

I fear for newcastle in whatever the new structure is. They are getting flogged weekly by every league 1 team. I hate to think what the score would be against teams currently at the top of the championship.

Maybe they could play Salford home and away 8 times.

The bigger problem is Newcastle's relationship with York.

[The Blues Ox]

It's going to be "exciting" isn't it. Should see a massive drop in season tickets across the board unless clubs can come up with a way to offer really good value to encourage fans to watch some of these games. 

For my club it just increases the number of games that the club loses money in and the knock on effect has to be a drop in wages to players overall. The best players won't move to SL because the clubs can't afford them and its cheaper to bring in third rate Aussies so players will have a choice of York or Oldham to get paid well or take cuts elsewhere. What does it matter though? Nobody is really interested in what goes on below the top tier are they.

[Archie Gordon]

How do we plan for a 21-team second tier when it might well have 23 teams?

[marklaspalmas]

8 hours ago, Griff said:

Assuming it's 21, three pools of 7, play each team in your own pool home and away, everybody else just the once.

26 games

I wouldn't necessarily tie myself down to a geographical split but I'd strive to minimise long journeys.

Yes, that works.

I had a feeling you might be the chap to come up with a 21 club solution.