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Expert: - 10/12/2011


Question
I'm one of the few fans of the CFL and had been reviewing the following statistics:

In 2005, there were 9 teams, each playing 18 games = 81 games played.

In 2006, there were 8 teams, each playing 18 games = 72 games.

Source of 81 and 72 total game season was from CFL website.

My ques. is why did the reduction by 1 team lead to the loss of 9 games.

I did some calculations on my own to see how this could have occurred,

18 x 9 = 166 /2 = 81
18 x 8 = 144 /2 = 72

but I could not determine the train of logic behind the 9 fewer games in 1996. Your assistance would be appreciated. Another expert who for some reason despite being a college prof as noted on the site was not able to answer.

Answer
The 1st equation comes out right, but the 166 is really 162.

Note that, as you said, there were 81 game the 1st year and 72 games the 2nd year.
This leads to 81 - 72 = 9; that is how many fewer games there were.

Your reasoning looks alright to me.

Another way to state the reason is to note that it takes two opponets to play a game,
so each one is responsible for 18/2 = 9 games.  If one team is eliminated, there are
9 fewer games.

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