Playoffs

Purpose

This page defines playoff data structure and entry rules that are currently enforced by league models and stats workflows.

Policy

1. A playoff belongs to one Season and can reference dedicated quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals round records.
2. Round type choices are restricted to configured values:
3. Play-In Tournament
4. Quarterfinals
5. Semifinals
6. Finals
7. Each playoff round stores wins_to_advance; default is 5 unless explicitly set otherwise.
8. Play-In rounds created through playoff entry flow default to wins_to_advance = 1.
9. A playoff series stores team_a, team_b, both seed values, and an optional series winner.
10. Playoff games must include both a series and a game number.
11. Game number must be unique within a series (series, game_number unique constraint).
12. Home/away assignment for playoff entry is seed-driven by game number:
13. higher seed hosts games 1, 2, and 5
14. lower seed hosts games 3 and 4
15. for single-win rounds (wins_to_advance = 1), higher seed hosts

Operational Notes

• Finals outcomes are consumed by league-history/season-summary views.
• Playoff bracket rendering is ordered by seed values stored on each series.

Known Gaps (TBD)

• Qualification policy (how teams enter playoffs and seeding source of truth).
• Conference/division constraints and bracket size policy.
• Tie-break policy for seeding.
• Deadline and rescheduling policy for playoff submissions.
• Finals MVP governance policy beyond existing summary fields.

Change Log

• 2026-03-15: Initial scaffold created.
• 2026-03-18: Replaced scaffold with repository-backed playoff policy baseline.