 It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league standings in a single elimination tournament.While the first round of the playoffs involve the pairing of the first- and fourth-place teams in one contest (whether it be a single game or a series of games) and the second- and third-place teams in the other, a variant of the Shaughnessy playoffs would pair the first- and third-place teams in one semifinal round and the second- and fourth-place teams in the other.In either variant, the winners of the first two games would then compete for the league championship.