Three-pronged pyramid

[Gordon EF]

In the 'Are there too many teams' thread it was mentioned that one of the supposed sticking points to the juniors joining the SPFL pyramid structure was their insistence on it mirroring the North, West, East structure of the junior leagues. With the SPFL insisting it stays as two with Highland and Lowland. To be honest, it's probably something I'd compromise on as long as a decent promotion/relegation system could be agreed on, which I'm sure is the main concern of the SPFL.

Forming N/W/E leagues wouldn't be a problem as presumably the North Super League could be amalgamated with the Highland League and the Lowland, EoS and SoS clubs could essentially be inserted into the current West and East structure somehow, depending on where they are.

My preference for the 'national' league setup would probably be 12-12-16 with the N/W/E leagues underneath that. How would promotion/relegation work though? I assume the SPFL would baulk at the suggestion of three automatic relegation spots, with the 3 non-league winners all coming up. It does seem a big step.

Could the three non-league champions play some kind of round robin with the top two coming up and the 3rd potentially going into a play-off with 3rd bottom from the SPFL?

[grazza]

Tier 1: premiership as it is, - Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, St Johnstone, Hamilton, Motherwell, ICT, Ross County, Partick , Dundee, Kilmarnock, Rangers 2012

tier 2: championship with 12 teams  - Hbs, Dundee Utd, Falkirk, Q.O.S., Morton, Raith Rovers, Ayr, Dunfermline, St Mirren, Dumbarton, Livingston, Alloa

Tier 3 - 12 teams in total with north and south conferences of 6 teams each play own conference 4 times and other conferences 2 times. 

Tier 3 North: Peterhead, Brechin, Forfar, Arbroath, Stenhousemuir

Tier 3 South: Stranraer, Airdrie, East Fife, Albion, Queens Park 

Tier 4 Highland, West and East - with 14 each - 52 clubs - 34 highland/ lowland clubs joined by 18 best juniors teams

Tier 5 and below junior system would be base model for this. Align SOS at same level as Ayrshire league. EOS merge into east junior system. North caledonian clubs could be invited to north juniors if they want to join. 

 

[Born To Run]

On 25/09/2016 at 20:43, Gordon EF said:

In the 'Are there too many teams' thread it was mentioned that one of the supposed sticking points to the juniors joining the SPFL pyramid structure was their insistence on it mirroring the North, West, East structure of the junior leagues. With the SPFL insisting it stays as two with Highland and Lowland. To be honest, it's probably something I'd compromise on as long as a decent promotion/relegation system could be agreed on, which I'm sure is the main concern of the SPFL.

Forming N/W/E leagues wouldn't be a problem as presumably the North Super League could be amalgamated with the Highland League and the Lowland, EoS and SoS clubs could essentially be inserted into the current West and East structure somehow, depending on where they are.

My preference for the 'national' league setup would probably be 12-12-16 with the N/W/E leagues underneath that. How would promotion/relegation work though? I assume the SPFL would baulk at the suggestion of three automatic relegation spots, with the 3 non-league winners all coming up. It does seem a big step.

Could the three non-league champions play some kind of round robin with the top two coming up and the 3rd potentially going into a play-off with 3rd bottom from the SPFL?

Surely you could mirror the existing SPFL playoffs? Bottom of Tier 3 enters the semi-finals with the winners of the North, West and East sections. Winner takes the SPFL spot. Not great for much changeover, but it may just make the turkeys vote for christmas. Would also bring big crowds out I'd imagine.

Personally, I'd go 16/12/12 to make the bottom half of Tier 3 less boring...