the main problem here is that the current system is inconsistent with other parts of the game
let's say team A finishes 2nd in the east division with 19-3 and team B wins west division with 17-5
unless i'm mistaken (if so, please correct me) A is ranked higher of B in the following situations
- draft order (B will choose first)
- home court advantage in case of a playoff final (A will get HCA)
so why shouldn't A be ranked higher also for a promotion spot?
That's a good argument. I like logic, that's logic.
They shouldn't have to do everything the same way because of it, but at least that's a good argument to potentially change to W-L.
For me, quality of the league is random indeed, but it will have as much impact on the conference ranking and the W-L of a team. However, that would be coherent with draft order and HCA finals, even though play-down HCA is dependent on conference ranking and not W-L (should that be changed too then ?
).
If the "East" division in this case has two good teams (the team that wins and the team that finishes second), while the "West" division has five good teams, the fact that the team in the "west" has to play nearly twice as many tough games because of which division they are has an effect, plus the potential randomness of home or away in those cross-conference games. The unfortunate side effect is that no matter what "objective" system is decided on, at some point some team will feel like they deserved it more than the team that actually got it, and there's always a good example to prove why a different system is better and an equally compelling answer as to why that different system is worse.
My opinion is PD is nearly worthless in the whole discussion because it's so heavily influenced by how competitive or not the bottom half of your league is, which you have no control over. W-L likewise is pretty heavily influenced by the depth of quality opposition. Winning the division is a little less random, but of course, the second best team in a league level could be behind the first in the same conference, or it could be the one that survives a gauntlet in a harder series to barely squeak into a division title.