I don't think baseball playoffs need to change, but please explain this. What exactly was dumb about that? What gooney said. While the Western Conference was pretty "normal" in terms of seeding, the Eastern Conference was a mess. Because of the mandatory divisional series, you had a first round of 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 3, 4 vs. 5, and 6 vs. 7. Well, the schedule is unbalanced. This happened in the Western Conference in 2014 when the #2 seed Blues played the #3 Blackhawks. Its not really a big deal other than losing in the first round instead of the second. You have to beat four teams to win the Cup, blaming the format is silly. Besides the reason for this is because the West is split among 3 time zones while the East just one. Columbus and Detroit are now in the East where travel is easy, complaining is rather funny.