Week 9 Playoff Picture

There's been no change in the picture, yet, but things are still interesting. I've tried to capture the playoff race below.

American Conference:

1. Team Vote 4 Pedro (6-2) – The Pedros hold on to the #1 ranking for the second week in a row, despite an 88-point walloping at the hands of the Monsters.
   
2. Fighting Cocks (5-3) – The Cocks have lost two in a row, but haven't lost any ground in the standings. At this point, a 3-game division lead is looking fairly significant, making the Cocks a pretty sure bet to make the playoffs out of the weak AD2.
   
3. Avalon Park Assassins (5-3) – Despite sharing the same record, the Assassins hold onto this spot over the LOBs with a commanding 165+-point total-score advantage. Like the Cocks, this team would have to have a fairly major meltdown to miss out on the playoffs, yet they are still in the running for the top seed, back only one game of the Pedros. The Assassins could also slip to the 4 seed if they fall behind the LOBs, record-wise.
   
4. The Legend of Bo (5-3) – Also just one game back of the Pedros, the LOBs hold this spot by virtue of their 158-point lead over the Boobs. The LOBs, like the Assassins, are still in the running for the top and third seeds.
   

Outside looking in:

• Estelle Getty's Boobs (2-6) – A scoring correction gave the Boobs a heartbreaking loss this weekend, and they fell further behind the LOBs for the last playoff spot.
  
• Auburn Hills Alley Cats (0-8) – Amazingly still winless, the Alley Cats are the first team to be mathematically eliminated from the record-based playoff spots. The Cats would need to see a major uptick in scoring to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, but with three of their final five games coming against current division leaders, spoiler is probably a more realistic ambition.
  

The seeding is unchanged, and the four teams currently in aren't likely to change, but things are starting to get interesting in the American Conference. Both the Assassins and the LOBs remain hot on the heels of the Pedros in the battle for AD1. A misstep by any of these teams likely results in a shuffling of playoff seeds. The Cocks are pretty secure in the #2 seed, but the 1, 3, and 4 seeds are still very much unsettled.

National Conference:

1. Amesbury Lake Armadillos (7-1) – The Armadillos sat in the 3 seed for a couple of days this week, until a scoring correction gave them a W and pushed them ahead of the Turtleheads. Their division lead remains at 1.
   
2. Wings of Pastrami (4-4) – The WOPs, losers of 2 straight, still sit atop the only division without a winning team. This position is precarious, though, as they lead by 1 over their division mates.
   
3. Floating Turtleheads (6-2) – The Turtle heads keep applying pressure to the Armadillos, remaining within a game. (They actually have a 23-point advantage in total score.) The Turtle heads have won 3 straight, and got a taste of first place before the Armadillos received their miraculous post-week win.
   
4. Afton Creek Monsters (3-5) – After scoring nearly 200 points last week, the Monsters padded their scoring lead over the Pricks and moved within 1 of the division-leading WOPs.
   

Outside looking in:

• Cottonwood Hills Pricks (3-5) – Despite trailing the Monsters by 87 total points, the Pricks are still very much in the thick of things. An 87-point deficit is not yet daunting, with five games left in the regular season, and the Pricks trail the WOPs by only 1 game in the division.
  
• Reflection Ra-Tards (2-6) – The Ra-Tards tasted victory again, but at this point they need to pray for an epic meltdown from the Armadillos, as they trail the next lowest-scoring team (the WOPs) by nearly 184 points. If that meltdown is going to happen, it needs to happen this week, as one more win by the Armadillos eliminates the Ra-Tards from the record-based playoff spot.
  

The National Division 1 remains interesting. Currently the WOPs are the 2 seed from the National Conference by way of their division 1 lead, but if they end in a three-way tie within their division, they might miss out on the playoffs, as they trail both the Monsters and the Pricks in total score. The difference is small, though (only about 100 points behind the Monsters and 16 behind the Pricks), so there's plenty of time to change this. To avoid any scare, though, the WOPs need to keep putting up W's.