I believe a scheduling change with an 8 team layout would be optimal for the league&#039;s future. Here&#039;s why.<br /><br />Essentially, everyone gets burned out near the end of the IDL regular season, 9 weeks is a really long time. This is actually a problem that threatens the future of the league and can force players away. By comparison... 7 weeks is a shorter timeframe and would reduce total season time from 12 weeks (9+wildcard, conf, mb) to 10! So how would you work it?<br /><br />With 8 teams, and 7 weeks, each team would play every other team exactly once before playoffs hit. This exists in modern sports as a round-robin type tournament. If possible, although I haven&#039;t looked at this particular aspect in a mock schedule yet, save the division games for the last week; week 7! Mad hype week that can make it or break it for teams in close contention. Not only that, but the importance is even greater in that final week due to the playoffs approaching, and all teams having solidified their ranks and players hopefully having chemistry, which could potentially make for the best, most hard-fought games of the regular season, which segue-ways right into the wildcard round! <br /><br />This would not only keep interest high as every game is vital for playoff standings, due to playing a round-robin style, but also prevent burnout settling in so quick much like we&#039;re seeing now and towards the end of previous seasons, which can guarantee players to return in the next season rather than looking and going &#039;Well damn, 9 weeks is a long time if I get landed with a bad team...&#039;, inversely, if you land a good team, you have to realize that even then you have to make every game count, keeping the intensity and importance of the competitive style that the IDL was founded upon.<br /><br />I see nothing but upsides to this!