After years upon years of one-game playoff series' and playoff bye's, the WNBA has finally switched up their format to include three rounds, all with a minimum of three games, and no playoff byes. This is now very similar to the NBA's current playoff format, just on a smaller scale in terms of games and teams because the WNBA has fewer teams than the NBA does. According to Matt Ellentuck of Gaming Society, the new format will be 3-3-5.
The WNBA announced that it will no longer have single-elimination games in its playoff
Teams will no longer have byes either
There will be three rounds. First is best-of-3, second and third are best-of-5. No re-seeding pic.twitter.com/OAs6zAyUc8
— Matt Ellentuck (@mellentuck) November 18, 2021
While some around the league have already pointed out that this may be an overcorrection; the one-game playoffs were not what many hated about the old system. It was the playoff system's built-in bye given to the top seed in a game where your rhythm can be thrown off by a “blessing” such as not having to play the first round. Simply put, they wanted to take the bye's out of the system and instead got what they asked for and a little more.
Article Continues BelowIn the end, though, the one-game playoffs were not always giving a true representation of who the better team was, and the new rule will create a more deserving champion each and every year that this system is installed. Eventually, the players who are not on board with it will be, and this day will be seen as one of the turning points in the history of the league. It is the day the WNBA took perhaps its biggest step in becoming a dominant sports league in North America.