ChatSLB: Can AI come up with a better league format for British basketball?

We asked ChatGPT to come up with a new way of organising the top league in the UK.

Yesterday, plans were announced for the format for Super League Basketball. There would be a Championship competition heading into the Playoffs to end the year, and a Trophy competition, but we also see the return of a Cup competition too. All quite familiar.

Something that caught the attention of fans was that fact that of the nine teams taking place in the Championship, eight of them would qualify for the Playoffs.

So how difficult is it to come up with some fresh ideas? It turns out, incredibly easy. It’s 2024, so we asked ChatGPT to come up with a better plan.

Here’s the exact prompt we used:

Come up with a basketball league schedule and fixture list for a 9-team league, with regular season, playoffs, and a trophy competition.

The shedule needs to ensure the teams play four times each in the regular season, and has an exciting trophy and playoff system.

Think about being groundbreaking and different.

And this is what those helpful little robots spat out, in under 5 seconds.

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Creating a groundbreaking and exciting basketball league schedule for a 9-team league, including regular season, playoffs, and a trophy competition, requires careful planning to ensure competitiveness, excitement, and fairness.

Below is a structured plan:

League Structure Overview

• Teams: 9

• Regular Season: Each team plays every other team 4 times (2 home, 2 away).

• Regular Season Games: 36 games per team.

• Trophy Competition: A mid-season knockout tournament involving all teams.

• Playoffs: A unique playoff system to crown the league champion.

Regular Season Schedule

• Format:

  • Double round-robin format.

  • Each team plays 36 games (4 against each of the other 8 teams).

  • Games are evenly distributed across the season.

  • There will be 18 rounds, with each team playing two games per round (one home, one away).

• Weekly Schedule:

  • Two games per week (one home and one away) for each team.

  • No team will play more than 3 consecutive games at home or away.

• Example Weekly Fixture:

  • Week 1:

    • Team 1 vs Team 2

    • Team 3 vs Team 4

    • Team 5 vs Team 6

    • Team 7 vs Team 8

    • Team 9 (Bye0

  • (Second game will be a mirror of the first matchups but with different home teams.)

Mid-Season Trophy Competition: "The Clash Cup"

• Format:

  • Single-elimination knockout tournament.

  • All 9 teams are seeded based on current league standings after Week 9.

  • The top seed gets a bye into the semifinals.

  • Matchups are decided randomly but higher seeds get home advantage.

• Rounds:

  • Quarterfinals: 8 teams compete, 4 advance.

  • Semifinals: 4 teams compete, 2 advance.

  • Final: Held at a neutral venue, with a big event feel.

• Prize:

  • The winner of the Clash Cup gains an automatic playoff berth and additional home-court advantage in the first round of playoffs.

End-of-Season Playoffs: "The Championship Showdown"

• Format:

  • Top 6 teams from the regular season qualify for the playoffs.

  • The 1st and 2nd seeds get byes into the semifinals.

  • The remaining four teams play in the quarterfinals.

• Quarterfinals

  • Matchup 1: 3rd Seed vs 6th Seed

  • Matchup 2: 4th Seed vs 5th Seed

• Semifinals:

  • Matchup 3: 1st Seed vs Winner of Matchup 2

  • Matchup 4: 2nd Seed vs Winner of Matchup 1

• Final:

  • The two semifinal winners face off in a best-of-three series.

Additional Groundbreaking Features:

• Wildcard Entry: The team that finishes 7th in the regular season will face the lowest-seeded playoff team (6th) in a one-game knockout for a final playoff spot. This creates more tension towards the end of the season.

• The "Momentum Multiplier": Teams that win 4 consecutive games in the regular season will earn a "Momentum Multiplier" in their next game, allowing them to count a win as 1.5 wins for tiebreaker purposes.

Fixture Planning Example

• Weeks 1-9: 18 rounds, each team plays each other twice.

• Week 10: The Clash Cup tournament.

• Weeks 11-18: 18 rounds, each team plays each other twice again.

• Week 19: Wildcard and Quarterfinals.

• Week 20: Semifinals.

• Week 21: Best-of-three Championship Finals.

Exciting Aspects

• The Clash Cup adds a mid-season spark and gives an underdog team a shot at automatic playoff entry.

• The wildcard game increases late-season drama.

• The Momentum Multiplier rewards teams for hot streaks, adding an extra strategic layer.

This format balances fairness and excitement, with a unique twist in every phase of the competition, making it engaging for fans and challenging for teams.

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And so ends the AI plan for Super League Basketball. I’m not sure how I feel about teams playing two games a week, but it does give them a home game every week, which would be great for fans. Plus, the addition of a bye week for one team allows for a little player welfare and rest.

Splitting the season into two halves, with the Trophy in the middle, feels like the right way to go. Seeding the Trophy based on league position in the first half is pretty clever, giving more importance to early games. Even if “The Clash Cup” is objectively terrible.

So, well done ChatGPT. We think you might have a future at Super League Basketball.

What do you think? How does it compare to the actual plan?