Flex schedule playoff system

Abstract

A protective fender is provided for use on a pontoon boat having at least an upper support member and a lower support member. The fender includes an elongated body formed from protective material. A first fastening structure is connected to the body, engageable with the lower support member and moveable between a plurality of positions along a length of the body. A second fastening structure is connected to the body, engageable with the upper support member and adjustable to vary the position of the second fastening structure relative to the body.

1 . A method of determining a champion from a large pool of sports teams, the method comprising the steps of: 
 providing a regular season schedule for each team in the pool;    selecting a number of playoff teams for an elimination championship tournament;    having all of the teams in the pool play the games scheduled for the regular season at least until the playoff teams are selected for the elimination championship tournament;    scheduling playoff teams to play in tournament elimination games, the elimination games in at least one round of the elimination tournament being played by the respective playoff teams in lieu of one of its games yet to be played during its regular season schedule, said regular season games being automatically canceled; in the case where a playoff team is scheduled to play a game in a given round of the elimination tournament and its scheduled opponent for an automatically cancelled game is not participating in a playoff game for that particular round of the elimination tournament, the opponent shall be rescheduled to play a replacement game with another team in lieu of the automatically canceled game; and    playing the elimination tournament among the selected playoff teams to determine a champion.    
   
   
       2 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein: 
 the elimination championship tournament is a single elimination tournament.    
   
   
       3 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the games played during at least two rounds of the elimination championship tournament are played in lieu of games yet to be played during the regular season for the respective playoff teams.  
   
   
       4 . A method as recited in  claim 3  wherein there are 16 selected playoff teams each playing in a first round of the elimination tournament, and the 8 winners of the first round games play games in a second round of the elimination tournament, thereby leaving 4 teams in the single elimination tournament.  
   
   
       5 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein games played in the semi-final and final rounds of the tournament are scheduled as additional post-season games played for the participating teams without automatically canceling a game scheduled to be played in the regular season.  1   
   
   
       6 . A method as recited in  claim 5  wherein the sport is college football, and the final round championship game is played as a major bowl game.  
   
   
       7 . A method as recited in  claim 5  wherein the sport is college football, and the semi-final rounds games are played as bowl games.  
   
   
       8 . A method as recited in  claim 7  wherein said bowl games are major bowl games.  
   
   
       9 . A method as recited in  claim 3  wherein: 
 at least one team receives a bye in a first round of the elimination tournament, and the remaining selected playoff teams play in the first round of the elimination tournament.    
   
   
       10 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein there are 8 selected playoff teams, each playing in the first round of the elimination tournament, and the 4 winners of the first round games play games in the second round, thereby leaving 2 teams in the single elimination tournament after the first and second round.  
   
   
       11 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the first round of playoff games is played in lieu of games yet to be played during the regular season for the participating playoff teams, and at least one later round of playoff games is played as an additionally scheduled playoff game for the participating teams.  
   
   
       12 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the games played during at least three rounds of the elimination championship tournament are played in lieu of games yet to be played during the regular season for the respective playoff teams.  
   
   
       13 . A method as recited in  claim 12  wherein at least one team receives a bye in at least one round of the tournament.  
   
   
       14 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein at least some of the tournament games are played at the home venue of the team with higher rank or seed.  
   
   
       15 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein at least some of the games are played at a neutral venue.  
   
   
       16 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the playoff teams and seeds are selected by a selection committee.  
   
   
       17 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the playoff teams and seeds are determined by ranking system.  
   
   
       18 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the selected playoff teams include at least one team representative from a group of selected conferences.  
   
   
       19 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the replacement games are scheduled strictly to be played between the scheduled opponents of the respective playoff teams in the automatically cancelled games.  
   
   
       20 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein each selected playoff team must have played a predetermined number of games prior to the date on which the playoff teams are selected.  
   
   
       21 . A method as recited in  claim 1  wherein the tournament elimination games are televised.  
   
   
       22 . A method of determining a champion from a large pool of sports teams, the method comprising the steps of: 
 providing a shortened regular season schedule for each team in the pool, the shortened regular season schedule having n games less than the team will play during the full regular season;    selecting a number of playoff teams for an elimination championship tournament based on the results of the shortened regular season schedule;    scheduling playoff teams to play in tournament elimination games;    scheduling teams in the pool that are not selected for the playoff tournament or eliminated from the tournament to play games among one another for the remaining games in the full regular season, wherein teams not selected for the tournament will have n additional games scheduled to fill out the regular season and teams eliminated from the tournament will have n-p additional games scheduled to fill out the regular season, where p is the number of tournament games in which the eliminated team participated; and    playing the elimination tournament among the selected playoff teams to determine a champion.