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Swiss Model For GAA?

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Given the Champions League 'Swiss model' experiment and excitement of Matchday 8: 1) What do you all think of it - is the Swiss model a success? 2) Could or should the GAA adopt a variant - in the League, or in combination with the Championship? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3372 - 02/02/2026 18:07:56 2654640 Link
Replying To omahant: "Given the Champions League 'Swiss model' experiment and excitement of Matchday 8: 1) What do you all think of it - is the Swiss model a success? 2) Could or should the GAA adopt a variant - in the League, or in combination with the Championship?" Not a bad idea at all. And it would truly be an all Ireland championship alalalalalum (USA) - Posts: 260 - 03/02/2026 09:53:59 2654709 Link
Replying To omahant: "Given the Champions League 'Swiss model' experiment and excitement of Matchday 8: 1) What do you all think of it - is the Swiss model a success? 2) Could or should the GAA adopt a variant - in the League, or in combination with the Championship?" why do you love creating new threads to discuss the same thing essentially? competition structures. why not keep it to one thread and discuss all your ideas on competition structures in one place No i dont think it would work in GAA or is needed. KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3917 - 03/02/2026 10:26:43 2654725 Link
Replying To KillingFields: "why do you love creating new threads to discuss the same thing essentially? competition structures. why not keep it to one thread and discuss all your ideas on competition structures in one place No i dont think it would work in GAA or is needed." Well said. Football League is as near perfect as we're going to get. My 1 quibble with calendar overall is most Counties will have 2 thirds of their games in the January to March period ( 7 games in 9 weeks) and only 3 or 4 games April to June (13 weeks). Seanfan (Roscommon) - Posts: 356 - 03/02/2026 11:56:50 2654746 Link
Champions League plays 144 matches to eliminate 12 teams. There are more efficient ways of running a championship. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3339 - 03/02/2026 12:19:35 2654755 Link
Replying To omahant: "Given the Champions League 'Swiss model' experiment and excitement of Matchday 8: 1) What do you all think of it - is the Swiss model a success? 2) Could or should the GAA adopt a variant - in the League, or in combination with the Championship?" Stop it, you reply to your own thread agreeing with yourself and expect people to take you seriously. Keep your equation's to yourself. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2562 - 03/02/2026 12:32:50 2654761 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "Champions League plays 144 matches to eliminate 12 teams. There are more efficient ways of running a championship." And the GAA league plays 116 matches to promote 6 teams. The EPL plays 380 games to relegate 3 teams and crown 1 Champ. Your point is neither here nor there. The real question - is the UCL better with groups or without and would the GAA benefit from 'cross division' ties to break the glass ceiling? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3372 - 03/02/2026 14:20:01 2654791 Link
The reality is the championship format is fixed now for 10 years or so. The new format is coming in to take away potentially dud games - that swiss style format is a joke for meaningless matches. The only potential format change will be moving the provincials back to the start of the season to a round robin - getting rid of the pre season competitions completely. Division 1 Top 4 overall → League semi-finals Relegated (3 teams): - Bottom of Div 1A, Bottom of Div 1B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 1A vs 2nd-last 1B) Division 2 Promoted (3 teams): Winner 2A, Winner 2B - Promotion playoff winner (2nd 2A vs 2nd 2B) Relegated (3 teams): Bottom 2A, Bottom 2B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 2A vs 2nd-last 2B) Division 3 Top 3 promoted Groups are redrawn every season with rotation to avoid repeat pairings more than 2 years out of 3. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1665 - 03/02/2026 15:12:15 2654800 Link
Replying To omahant: "And the GAA league plays 116 matches to promote 6 teams. The EPL plays 380 games to relegate 3 teams and crown 1 Champ. Your point is neither here nor there. The real question - is the UCL better with groups or without and would the GAA benefit from 'cross division' ties to break the glass ceiling?" All right then, I'll give you a different answer. No. We don't need it, and it wouldn't improve things. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3339 - 03/02/2026 15:47:33 2654813 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "The reality is the championship format is fixed now for 10 years or so. The new format is coming in to take away potentially dud games - that swiss style format is a joke for meaningless matches. The only potential format change will be moving the provincials back to the start of the season to a round robin - getting rid of the pre season competitions completely. Division 1 Top 4 overall → League semi-finals Relegated (3 teams): - Bottom of Div 1A, Bottom of Div 1B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 1A vs 2nd-last 1B) Division 2 Promoted (3 teams): Winner 2A, Winner 2B - Promotion playoff winner (2nd 2A vs 2nd 2B) Relegated (3 teams): Bottom 2A, Bottom 2B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 2A vs 2nd-last 2B) Division 3 Top 3 promoted Groups are redrawn every season with rotation to avoid repeat pairings more than 2 years out of 3." The new format is for television and sponsorship revenue. Making the stronger teams stronger and the weaker teams weaker. Let their be dud games and see if teams can learn from and improve after those defeats. The football championship shouldn't be a product, afraid of any criticism of poor one sided games from an online 'audience'. Games are for intercounty supporters and the weaker counties should be given opportunity to play against a higher standard to strive to improve. Provincials should be standalone competititions with no bearing on All Ireland. How can getting to a Connacht or Munster final give you a similar seeding to reaching a Leinster final? And all three don't compare to reaching an Ulster Final. I have very little hope they will change away from the All Ireland and Tailteann system. The Tailteann only won by teams used to Division 2 and 3 rotation. Achieves nothing. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8434 - 03/02/2026 16:14:28 2654825 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "The reality is the championship format is fixed now for 10 years or so. The new format is coming in to take away potentially dud games - that swiss style format is a joke for meaningless matches. The only potential format change will be moving the provincials back to the start of the season to a round robin - getting rid of the pre season competitions completely. Division 1 Top 4 overall → League semi-finals Relegated (3 teams): - Bottom of Div 1A, Bottom of Div 1B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 1A vs 2nd-last 1B) Division 2 Promoted (3 teams): Winner 2A, Winner 2B - Promotion playoff winner (2nd 2A vs 2nd 2B) Relegated (3 teams): Bottom 2A, Bottom 2B - Relegation playoff loser (2nd-last 2A vs 2nd-last 2B) Division 3 Top 3 promoted Groups are redrawn every season with rotation to avoid repeat pairings more than 2 years out of 3." To ensure 'not repeat' games - I would just alternate year to year - round robin group one year, inter-group the next. Your divs are 12-12-8? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3372 - 06/02/2026 16:05:58 2655253 Link
- 6 Divs with 5,6,5 & 5,6,5 teams - Divs named 1a,1b,1c & 2a,2b,2c - League & prior AIC group match quantities combined - 10 match schedule for all - (1a & 1c) v 1b; round robins (1a, 1c, 2a, 2c); (2a & 2c) v 2b - 10 up (5x top 2, 1b-2c); 10 down (5x bottom 2, 1a-2b) - League ranking with top 11,11,10 to AIC KO 1,2,3 - Prov KO separate omahant (USA) - Posts: 3372 - 06/02/2026 16:40:28 2655258 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "The new format is for television and sponsorship revenue. Making the stronger teams stronger and the weaker teams weaker. Let their be dud games and see if teams can learn from and improve after those defeats. The football championship shouldn't be a product, afraid of any criticism of poor one sided games from an online 'audience'. Games are for intercounty supporters and the weaker counties should be given opportunity to play against a higher standard to strive to improve. Provincials should be standalone competititions with no bearing on All Ireland. How can getting to a Connacht or Munster final give you a similar seeding to reaching a Leinster final? And all three don't compare to reaching an Ulster Final. I have very little hope they will change away from the All Ireland and Tailteann system. The Tailteann only won by teams used to Division 2 and 3 rotation. Achieves nothing." Separating provincials from the All Ireland shouldn't be such a seismic step. Winning provincial finals this year offers no seeding reward in the All Ireland. The provincials have low impact on All Ireland qualification. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9420 - 06/02/2026 16:50:06 2655260 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "All right then, I'll give you a different answer. No. We don't need it, and it wouldn't improve things." Your answer of NO could be used to reply to all of our Yankee posts. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2562 - 07/02/2026 08:15:16 2655297 Link
Replying To omahant: "- 6 Divs with 5,6,5 & 5,6,5 teams - Divs named 1a,1b,1c & 2a,2b,2c - League & prior AIC group match quantities combined - 10 match schedule for all - (1a & 1c) v 1b; round robins (1a, 1c, 2a, 2c); (2a & 2c) v 2b - 10 up (5x top 2, 1b-2c); 10 down (5x bottom 2, 1a-2b) - League ranking with top 11,11,10 to AIC KO 1,2,3 - Prov KO separate" I've seen simpler equations on the Maths A level syllabus. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2562 - 07/02/2026 22:32:23 2655436 Link
There are complaints every year about the hurling McDonagh link to the All Ireland. The provincial 3rd place teams don't seem to come under the spotlight. The Munster and Leinster 3rd placed teams could playoff for a quarter final spot on the same weekend as the Munster, Leinster and McDonagh finals. The playoff winner joining provincial runners up in quarter finals. The McDonagh winner only then hosting the playoff loser in a preliminary quarter final. The McDonagh winner and playoff loser would both have one week to prepare. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9420 - 08/02/2026 06:59:36 2655454 Link
Replying To legendzxix: "There are complaints every year about the hurling McDonagh link to the All Ireland. The provincial 3rd place teams don't seem to come under the spotlight. The Munster and Leinster 3rd placed teams could playoff for a quarter final spot on the same weekend as the Munster, Leinster and McDonagh finals. The playoff winner joining provincial runners up in quarter finals. The McDonagh winner only then hosting the playoff loser in a preliminary quarter final. The McDonagh winner and playoff loser would both have one week to prepare." OK, that's a 'slight' improvement. I'd rather something refreshing, more radical - like the league schedule replaced with all 'inter-Prov' ties (M5 v L6), so that in addition to the Prov Championships, we'd have an overall 11-team, 10-match round robin. Highest 10-match teams in the table (6 or less) and two Prov Champs (no change, finals with top 2s from 4 or 5 group game subset only) advance to the AIC, with byes to table toppers rather than Prov Champs. omahant (USA) - Posts: 3372 - 08/02/2026 15:03:56 2655510 Link
Replying To omahant: "OK, that's a 'slight' improvement. I'd rather something refreshing, more radical - like the league schedule replaced with all 'inter-Prov' ties (M5 v L6), so that in addition to the Prov Championships, we'd have an overall 11-team, 10-match round robin. Highest 10-match teams in the table (6 or less) and two Prov Champs (no change, finals with top 2s from 4 or 5 group game subset only) advance to the AIC, with byes to table toppers rather than Prov Champs." 30k plus in PuC for a league game. 9k in the Gaelic Grounds Limerick for a league game. Between the split season and eagerness by supporters to see how their counties are progressing ahead of a tough Munster hurling championship - seems little grounds for sweeping changes. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9420 - 08/02/2026 16:51:17 2655529 Link