Expert: warren shelmidine - 2/2/2010

Question
Warren,  I am looking for a formala that is used for calculating how many games a team might need to win ion order to make it into the playoffs.  Let me give you the info.

There are 8 teams total.  Top four with best records make it in.

Team #1 is 8-1
Team #2 is 7-2
Team #3 is 6-3
Team #4 is 5-4
Team #5 is 4-5
Team #6 is 3-6
Team #7 is 2-7
Team #8 is 1-8

Team #1 still needs to play Teams #8, #6, #7, #4, #5
Team #2 still needs to play Teams #4, #5, #6, #3, #8
Team #3 still needs to play Teams #7, #4, #5, #2, #6
Team #4 still needs to play Teams #2, #3, #8, #1, #7
Team #5 still needs to play Teams #1, #2, #3, #6, #8
Team #6 still needs to play Teams #5, #1, #2, #7, #3
Team #7 still needs to play Teams #3, #8, #1, #6, #4
Team #8 still needs to play Teams #1, #7, #4, #5, #2

Good Luck and thanks a million.  If there is an inter-active web-site that I can plug in the records and numbers,  that would be a great help.

Answer
David

This is a beast and I have no direct answer.

I did do a little calculating starting at the bottom of your standings and working up

using team # 8 as an example lets suppose they win all of there remaining games they go to 6-8

then on to team 7 they win there remaining games (minus loss to team 8) they go to 6-8

team 6 wins games against the lower number teams they go to 7-7

likewise team 5 wins there games against lower numbers they to go to 7-7
team  4 gets 3 more wins and 2 losses this way and goes 8-6

team 2 losses all as does team one so they records are 7-7 and 8-6 respectively

without knowing who won previous meetings and tiebreaker rational you have two 8-6 team 1 and 4. You then have 4 7-7 teams 2,3,5,and 6.

I know this is not a direct answer and I know of no formula that exists

Good luck in finding one.

Warren