[mandan]

Most people on here have their minds made up on this topic, no matter what is presented. I happen to like the way Ohio's system works. It does NOT encourage teams to schedule weak opponents. Harbin/playoff points are earned by beating teams. You gain additional points by beating teams that are larger than you (Division-wise). If your opponent has a lot of wins, that gains you points as well. In Ohio's first round games, there have been some blowouts also. But if you look at the playoff teams' records coming in, you won't find any 1-9, 0-10 teams. In fact, I think all of them had winning records. They earned their way into the playoffs.
For me, the extra practices or additional game a poor team gets, is not worth the embarrassment and humiliation that a beatdown provides. Sure there have been a few exceptions with close games. But the vast majority of first round games have been blowouts.
But as someone said earlier: It's what we got and at least we have playoffs. None of the playoff systems are perfect.