Quote: TRAVELER-- you cannot use goal difference, you would have teams running up the score against weaker teams.
Sure you could. Just use it in the two games that were split and max it out at a three goal limit per game. Many club tournaments use goal differential tiebreakers maxed at 3. It's not perfect but it's simple and better than the inconsistent and hidden system that is in place now.
That is the most rational and brilliant thought I think I've ever heard. It's amazing that some regions still have a system that takes into account out of region games. Coaches of good teams are obviously going to try and schedule hard of out region teams and the system now punishes those teams. Say two teams split the regular season (win all other region games) and the scores are 1-0 and 1-4. Does the team getting beat 4-1 really deserve the top seed because they won more out of region games against a cupcake schedule? Seeding in the playoffs matters too much to be left up to a dumb tiebreaker like that.
