{"id":1656,"date":"2021-11-19T03:17:10","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T03:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2021-11-19T03:17:11","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T03:17:11","slug":"wnba-introduces-new-playoff-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/wnba-introduces-new-playoff-format\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA introduces new playoff format"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wnba.com\">WNBA<\/a>\u00a0Board of Governors approved changes to the league\u2019s playoff format and postseason seeding, effective with the 2022 season.  The reconfigured postseason structure will include three rounds of series-play using a best-of 3-5-5 format.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beginning with the&nbsp;WNBA\u2019s 26<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;season, the eight teams with the highest winning percentages over a 36-game schedule regardless of conference will qualify for the playoffs and be seeded based on their record. All eight playoff teams will participate in first-round, bracket-style play consisting of four best-of-three series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one bracket, first-round play will place the No. 1 seed facing the No. 8 seed and the No. 4 seed versus the No. 5 seed in a best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to a best-of-five semifinals series against one another. In the other bracket, the No. 3 seed will face the No. 6 seed and the No. 2 seed will meet the No. 7 seed, with the winners moving on to face one another in the other best-of-five semifinals series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winners of the semifinals series will then meet in the&nbsp;WNBA&nbsp;Finals, which also will be a best-of-five series, to determine the&nbsp;WNBA&nbsp;champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional elements regarding the playoff structure are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The number of playoff rounds shifts from four to three and no teams will receive a bye to start the postseason. Teams will not be reseeded following the first round.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The planned change for the first-round series games will include a 2-1&nbsp;format in which the higher seed will host Games 1 and 2 and the lower seed will host Game 3 if necessary.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The new format will add eight potential games to the playoff footprint.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The semifinals and&nbsp;WNBA&nbsp;Finals will each remain unchanged as best-of-five series and follow the same 2-2-1 format whereby the higher seed hosts Games 1, 2 and 5, and the lower-seeded team will host Games 3 and 4 in their respective series.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WNBA<\/a> has a new playoff format \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c8z4jMpfyf\">pic.twitter.com\/c8z4jMpfyf<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Double Take Sports (@dbltakesports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports\/status\/1461453071620395008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 18, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have been evaluating different playoff formats over the past 12 months, and the new playoff format being announced today will enable fans to engage with all of the league\u2019s best teams and top stars right from the start of the postseason with all eight championship contenders immediately involved in exciting, first-round action,\u201d WNBA\u00a0Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFollowing significant discussions with\u00a0our Competition Committee and a Playoff subcommittee we formed last year, it was clear that while the prior format\u2019s single-elimination games created a win-and-advance level of excitement to the start of the postseason, the new best-of-three series format will provide added opportunities to create and showcase rivalries with all playoff-eligible teams participating,&#8221; Engelbert continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prior playoff format, adopted in 2016 consisted of four rounds using a 1-1-5-5 format, with two single elimination rounds and the No. 1 and 2 seeds receiving double-byes into the semifinals.\u00a0 The new playoff format being announced today will provide the top eight teams with a consistent start to their playoff runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stay tuned to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/\">Double Take Sports<\/a>\u00a0for all your sports news and coverage.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA approves new playoff format that includes three rounds of series-play using a best-of 3-5-5 format. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wnba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/WNBA-Playoffs2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1659,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions\/1659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}