Flight Playoffs

What are Flight Playoffs?

The Flight Playoff is a single-elimination round that occurs after the end of the regular season and prior to Districts, in which, the winning teams from local league subflights are paired off for a single team match. The winning team from each pairing will advance to the District Championships.

Background

In 2010, the USTA Adult 18 & Over Colorado Districts held nearly 1,200 matches over a 3-day event, utilizing 120 courts across 11 sites. This made it one of the largest, if not the largest, 3-day league championships ever. For comparison, the US Open had 800 total matches that year, across all divisions, over more than two weeks.

An event with 400 more matches than the entire US Open, compressed into just 3 days, requires significant court availability. Adverse weather could have severely impacted the event, as there wouldn’t have been enough indoor courts in the Denver-Metro area to accommodate our needs. This would have resulted in a subpar experience for players, spectators, and staff.

Our Adult Programs Committee and staff’s goal with all of our league championships is to provide the best experience possible and ensure a quality event. To achieve this, the committee added the Flight Playoffs to reduce the size of our largest events.

Districts serve as an elimination round in the advancement process to Sectionals and ultimately Nationals. The Flight Playoffs are essentially an additional round that must be won to continue advancing.

Flight Playoff Protocols and Information

  • Home Team provides courts (at Home Team’s standard Home Match location) and balls for the team match. At least 48 hours prior to the match, the Home Team captain must contact the Visiting Team captain and provide details about the match location.
  • These matches take precedence over any other USTA/CTA local league matches. If Home Team has court conflicts that can’t be avoided (i.e. blackout for tournament), the captains should communicate and either move the match to the visiting team’s location or agree on an alternate date, time or location to complete the match prior to the Flight Playoff Score Entry Deadline. (See League Calendar)
  • Regardless of inclement weather, matches need to be completed and scores entered by the deadline. USTA Colorado will have to determine a winner by coin toss for any match not entered by that date.
  • It is the responsibility of BOTH team captains to make sure the scores are reported and confirmed.
  • Eligibility – players must have played in at least two (2) regular season matches (a win by default may count for one match) to be eligible to participate in the Flight Playoffs. If ineligible players are played, the match will be scored as a win by default for the opposing team.
  • Only the winning teams from the Flight Playoff round will advance to the District Championships. However, in some cases, wild card teams may be added after the Flight Playoffs. If this occurs, a random draw of the teams that lost in the Flight Playoffs will determine which team(s) receive the wild card(s). USTA Colorado will notify these teams directly, so if your team does not hear from us, it means they did not receive a wild card.
  • All Flight Playoff matches are unofficiated, so just like the regular season, the teams are expected to abide by the Player Code and all league regulations. Officials are not allowed for flight playoff matches.
  • The match format for all Flight Playoff matches is required to be best two of three sets with a match tiebreak (first to 10 by 2) played in lieu of the third set (using the standard tiebreak procedure). It is not allowed for teams to play out the entire third set. Hard court surfaces will be used. If hard court surfaces are not available at the home team’s site, the match shall be moved to the visiting team’s site. Indoor and outdoor courts are both approved.

Considerations

  • If there are two or more subflights within an NTRP level, within a Geographic Area, the local league winning teams in that area and level will have a Flight Playoff round. **
  • If there is only one flight within an NTRP level, within a Geographic Area, the winning team from that flight will advance to Districts.
  • If there is only one flight within an NTRP level, within the entire Colorado District, the winning team from that local flight will advance to Sectionals.
  • If only 2 teams will be advancing to Districts after the Flight Playoffs, they will play a Finals Match at Districts to determine the winner. Wildcards will not be added to bring in more teams, nor will the Flight Playoff round be avoided to allow more teams to advance.
  • If only 3 teams will be advancing to Districts after the Flight Playoffs, they will play a round robin at Districts to determine the winner. Wildcards will not be added to bring in more teams, nor will the Flight Playoff round be avoided to allow more teams to advance.
  • If only 2 local flights or subflights exist throughout the Colorado District, the Finals match will be played at Districts, not during Flight Playoffs.

** In some unique situations, a Flight Playoff round doesn’t reduce the total number of advancing teams within an NTRP level. In those cases, a Flight Playoff round may not be held for that specific NTRP level. The USTA Colorado Adult Programs Committee makes that determination based entirely on straightforward mathematical principles.

Colorado Geographic Areas
DEN – Denver Metro
NOCO – Northern Colorado
SOCO – Southern Colorado
ASPEN – Aspen & Mountains
WS – Western Slope

Flight Playoff FAQs

Question: If one of the teams requests that a match be played on a different date or time what are the rules for accommodating that request?
Answer: Matches may only be rescheduled due to reasons listed under “Mandatory Reschedules” in the Colorado District League Regulations. If inclement weather is predicted, teams are allowed to agree to move the match earlier on the same day (9.00B).

Question: How should teams deal with inclement weather during the flight playoffs?
Answer: See 11.01A and 11.01D in the Colorado District League Regulations.

Question: What happens if our match gets rained out and we aren’t able to play it before the Flight Playoff Score Entry Deadline?
Answer: Since there is no time available to extend the Score Entry Deadline, USTA Colorado would determine the winner of the match by a coin toss.

Question: How do you print the scorecard with both teams rosters for the Flight Playoff match?
Answer: From the Match Summary tab of your specific Flight Playoff match, hover over the “Match ID” with your mouse. Then click on the “Print Blank Scorecard” link.

Question: How are opponents determined?
Answer: Flight Playoff match ups are determined before the season has ended. Geographical considerations are taken (when possible). Other than geographical considerations, it is completely randomly done.

Question: Are teams seeded for the Flight Playoffs based on their record?
Answer: No. Other than an occasional 2nd place wildcard team, all teams in the Flight Playoffs are 1st place teams from the local league, so many of them have the same record. With no cross-flight competition, or a means to determine strength of subflights, it’s not possible to assume that a team with a better record should be seeded higher than another team. There are no seeds for Flight Playoffs.

Question: Why aren’t standings taken into consideration?
Answer:  First – because we have to begin setting up Flight Playoff schedules well before the league is over, so we do not have final standings available to us when we are setting it up.
Second – since there are not cross-flight matches during the local league, it would be impossible to consider a team from one subflight to be stronger than another because of their standings. It is possible that team with a better record was in a weaker subflight.

Question: How is it determined who is home vs. away?
Answer: TennisLink randomly determines who is home and away. If a facility ends up with more home teams than they can handle based on numbers of courts, it is manually changed.

Question: Why are we playing a team from the same facility?
Answer: We attempt to split teams from the same facility into different subflights for the local league. Due to that, two teams from the same facility could end up winning their subflights and end up scheduled against each other for Flight Playoffs. Since these match ups are determined prior to the end of the season, and since many facilities have multiple teams, it is not possible for this to be avoided.

Question: Why isn’t home court given to the team with the better record?
Answer: A better record does not mean the team is better since the team with the better record may have been in a weaker subflight. Also, Flight Playoff schedules begin prior to the completion of the league, when we do not know what teams’ final records will be.

Question: Our NTRP level doesn’t have as many teams as some of the larger levels, so why can’t all of our first place teams advance directly to Districts?
Answer: The overall reason for Flight Playoffs is to reduce the number of teams advancing. Districts is an elimination round to determine which teams advance to Sectionals and the Flight Playoffs is an elimination round to determine which teams advance to Districts. The Flight Playoff protocols apply to all NTRP levels.

Question: It seems that some NTRP levels occasionally do not have Flight Playoffs. Why is that?
Answer: If the Flight Playoffs cannot reduce the number of teams advancing for a specific NTRP level, then that level does not have a Flight Playoff round. This is determined by the Adult Programs Committee and is based entirely on straightforward mathematical principles.

Question: Why don’t many of the outlying area teams have to play a Flight Playoff round?
Answer: If there is only one flight in an NTRP level, there is no other winning team in that area to compete against to reduce the number of teams advancing. Therefore, a minimum of one team from that area will advance.

Question: Couldn’t the outlying area teams play against winning teams from a different area in the Flight Playoffs?
Answer: Sure, but this would require teams from all over the state, including Denver, to potentially drive up to 5 hours one way for a Flight Playoff match. We believe that most players would not agree to such extensive travel, so we do not implement this approach.

Question: My team hates the Flight Playoffs. What can be done to get rid of them?
Answer: We need access to at least 140 courts with about 50 of them being indoor.