This ranking avoids having a super team fall to fourth place or having teams with 60 wins meet too early.
The second reform is increasing the number of games in the first round of the playoffs from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven.
On one hand, the league wants more playoff games to sell more tickets and make more money, as the league takes the largest share of playoff ticket revenues.
Secondly, this is influenced by last season when the Lakers were upset by Glory in the first round; the league wants to reduce the unpredictability and randomness of the first round so that strong teams are less likely to be eliminated.
Being the eighth seed is legendary and brings a huge surprise, but from a viewership perspective, it is not very beneficial to the league.
If the eighth seed is a popular team like Glory, that's fine, but if some underdog team eliminates a star-studded top team, it's something that the owners and the president don't want to see.
