Drafts, play-offs & handicapping the league: BBC Scotland's guide to a competitive Premiership

Would the introduction of a draft or play-off system help make the Scottish Premiership more competitive?

The Scottish Premiership is box office in more ways than one - mainly just for the sheer daftness of it. One thing it certainly isn't blockbuster for, however, is diverse title winners.

This upcoming season marks the 39th campaign since a team outside Celtic or Rangers last won Scotland's top-flight crown - and if we're being realistic, there's next to no chance of that trend ending any time soon.

We all remember the madness of Leicester City's freak Premier League title triumph in 2015-16, but the prospect of something similar occurring north of the border is simply fantasy due to the extreme gulf in finances.

So how do we go about changing that? During the off-season, BBC Scotland has been busy compiling a guide on how to make the Premiership more competitive.

Before we stuff the dossier into an envelope and send it Neil Doncaster's way, we thought we'd let you have a peek. Approach with an open mind…

The SPFL draft

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a draft, they are most commonly used in American sports, such as the NFL and NBA.

Picture something similar to an awards ceremony or one of those fancy World Cup draws - but exciting, instead - with representatives from all clubs in the division gathering suited and booted at a chosen venue.

But how does it work? Well, in the basketball and American football equivalent, a host of the top college players are available to be drafted to each side, with the first team to pick essentially given a free run at the nation's top prospect.

So who gets first choice? This is where things get interesting. The worst-performing side from the previous season is handed first dibs - undoubtedly a massive advantage, right?

Of course, relegation and promotion are non-existent in the NFL and NBA, so let's award the Premiership's recently-promoted club with first pick in our SPFL equivalent.

Drafts would provide a box-office alternative to the transfer window

But would the title race be immediately impacted if Dundee were to get first choice on an up-and-coming youth player? No chance.

So let's stir the pot. Do we have any old school wrestling fans here? Think back to the first WWF draft in 2002, when every wrestler from the roster was thrown into the mix and Vince McMahon stood at the top of the ramp and brazenly announced The Rock would move from Raw to SmackDown.

Now let's translate that to the world of Scottish football. Dundee manager Tony Docherty swaggers on to the stage. "Kyogo Furuhashi, grab your boots, son. You're coming to Dens Park". Mic drop.

Next up would be Ross County. Malky Mackay appears through a fog of smoke to take his pick. "James Tavernier, say your goodbyes. See you in Dingwall."

With Celtic and Rangers having the final picks, and boasting the best players in the country, the pair will have their top assets pinched by the time their turns come around. Send on the 12-team title race.

The Premiership play-offs

It would be fair to say the introduction of the Premiership split in 2000-01 has largely been a success - but let's make it mean more.

Rather than the top-half sides playing their final five league games of the season, scrap that and introduce a play-off system. We do it for relegation, so why not the title?

The Premiership's top half of course contains six teams, but that number into a straight knockout obviously doesn't go, so to keep tedious statements and whinging to a minimum, let's gift a bye to the semi-finals to the top two.

From third to sixth would then slog it out for the final two semi-final places before a grand final at Hampden. Sure, that final might more often than not be a head-to-head between Celtic and Rangers, but anything can happen in knockout football - just look at our own domestic competitions over the years...

What are we waiting for? Drama of the highest order guaranteed.

Combine all 10 non-Old Firm teams

Would this non-Old Firm select stand any chance of winning the Premiership?

Okay, so perhaps the daftest idea of the lot - and that's saying something. Just hear us out.

Throwing all 10 non-Old Firm sides into one mega-team does sound formidable, but the reality is the combined club's revenue would still struggle to reach the levels Rangers hit and would certainly fail to match Celtic's. That goes to show just how big the disparity is in Scotland.

But maybe with time, 'Non-Old Firm FC' could compete, especially with a combined average attendance of over 70,000. Don't worry, we'll find somewhere willing to accommodate you all.

The main issue, however, would be the size of the league. By sanctioning such a thing, the SPFL would be taking a leaf out the Scilly book - quite literally.

The Isle of Scilly is known for boasting the world's smallest football league, comprised of just two sides - Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners.

But Scilly doesn't have the luxury of fleshing their league out with lower-league clubs. We do, so just chuck in a few Championship clubs and we'll be grand.

Increase league or send Old Firm to England?

A suggestion far too sensible for the daftness of this piece is increasing the size of the Premiership, and it's also one that would likely have little impact.

Although a bigger division would offer fewer daunting games against the Old Firm, technically both Glasgow clubs would just be getting more matches against lower-quality opposition.

With the points totals the top two post every season, there's still far too much inconsistency with the other 10 clubs to reach those kind of numbers and increasing the size of the top flight won't go far enough in changing that.

So let's get radical again and look at restructuring the league in a way that sees Celtic and Rangers both punted to England.

It's a talking point as old as time: How would the Celtic and Rangers do in the Premier League? Judging by the magnitude of the clubs, their fanbases and the riches that come your way, you'd imagine pretty good.

But where would it leave Scottish football?

One thing for certain, though, is we would have an extremely competitive league if we are to judge it on who has finished 'best of the rest' in recent seasons, with five different sides - Hearts, Hibernian, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen - doing so in the past six campaigns.

Handicap the league

Allow me to direct you to the sheer madness of the Belgian top flight for the fifth and final suggestion.

The First Division A's format is similar in a sense to the Premiership as it splits into sections after matchday 34. The top four teams then play each other twice in a round-robin format, but only after all the points they collated in the first 34 games are cut in half and rounded up.

In the 2022-23 season, that meant joint leaders Genk and Union Saint-Gilloise's lead at the top over Antwerp was cut from three points to two. In the end, Antwerp won the league by a point - their first title in 66 years - after scoring a stoppage-time equaliser on the final day.

Would this format give non-Old Firm sides hope in the Premiership? At the time of last season's split, Celtic led Rangers by 13 points and were a whopping 39 clear of third-placed Aberdeen.

Following the same process as the Belgian top flight, that would have left Celtic on 46 and Hearts on 27 - still an insurmountable lead.

In fact, in the previous three campaigns, it would have required an astronomical points deduction from the Scottish champions to offer any hope to the third-placed side.

Even a 42-point cut wouldn't have seen Aberdeen climb above Celtic last term. A deduction of 30 wouldn't have been enough for Hearts the season before. In 2020-21, Hibs would have needed 40 to topple Rangers.

And with that sobering thought, we come crashing back down to earth.