Originally Posted by Remmie
The SPL is fucking weird:
Click this link- BBC SPORT | Football | Scottish Premier | Table
Check out the * bit at the bottom:
* Note that table splits in half for last five games of season - no team from top six can drop into bottom six, and no bottom six team can climb into top six, irrespective of points earned.
Why?
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Obvious: Originally the SPL contained 10 clubs, but it subsequently enlarged to 12 for the
2000-01 season onwards. The increase from 10 clubs to 12 was part of the deal offered to obtain approval from SFL member clubs. Since then, the SPL has operated a "split league format" to prevent the need for a 44-game schedule, which was once used in the Scottish Premier Division, but is now considered to be too high a number of games in a league season. Under this system, after 33 games (i.e., when every club has played every other club three times, either twice away and once at home, or vice-versa), the division is split into two halves, and clubs play a further five matches, against the teams in their half of the division, taking their total to 38 games.
This can (and often does) result in the team placed seventh having a higher points total than the team placed sixth, because their final five games are considerably easier. In the
2005/2006 season, the seventh placed club,
Inverness Caledonian Thistle, gained more points than the fourth placed club
Hibernian.