An explanation for the D.C. Divas' loss of home rights for its women's football conference championship matchup against the Boston Militia has finally surfaced. The Washington City Paper learned that the Divas' conference title game was moved to Boston after the IWFL team ratings were recalculated to account for first round playoff results.
The Boston Militia's dominant win over the Dallas Diamonds combined with D.C.'s closer outcome against the Pittsburgh Passion was enough to move Boston ahead of D.C. in the computerized Massey Ratings used by the IWFL league. As a result, the Divas who had entered the playoffs as the #1 seed are now the #2 seed and have to play at new #1 seed Boston.
The switchover was clearly a surprise to the Divas organization which had already announced plans to host Boston on July 11 at Annapolis' Broadneck High School, an alternate home site arranged due to the previous booking of the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. Of course, the Divas will now not get to play at home at all.
Despite the IWFL's insistence to the contrary, this blogger has never seen a situation outside of the BCS in which a top seed can win a postseason game but still lose status as a top seed. With only eight regular season games per league team to anlyze anyway, the Massey ratings don't have enough data points available to accurately be used for such an important purpose.
______________________Labels: d.c. divas, sports, women's football
