Not that I'm a proponent of uneven conference sizes, but having unequal conference/division/group/whatever sizes works in North American leagues. Until somewhat recently, the NFL had 31 teams total (5 divisions of 5 and one of 6). Currently, the baseball league has 30 teams, but instead of 6 divisions of 5, they have 4 divisions of 5, one of 4, and one of 6.
It works out for them in the end, the NFL teams all played 16 games, and the baseball teams all end the season with 162. I have yet to hear any real discussion between baseball/NFL fans on whether they think it's "fair" or not though - but I get the impression that they don't think it really matters.
Yes, but they don't have a composite table that is used to qualify the playoff teams, and they don't accumulate table points the way we do. Playoff qualification is done purely on their position withing their respective conferences, which is decided on win-loss ratio.
The two conferences (AFC and NFC) have four divisions in each; North, South, East & West. Each division has four teams.
Within each conference, the winner of each division gets in the playoffs and then the next two best win-loss records get in as wild cards. The playoff seeding works like this:
Top seed = Division winner with the best win/loss record
2nd seed = Division winner with the second best win/loss record
3rd seed = Division winner with the third best record
4th seed = Division winner with the fourth best record
5th seed = Division runner-up with the best record
6th seed = Division runner-up with the second best record
The from that point, the playoff system works the same at Super Rugby. In the first round, 1 & 2 get the week off, 3 plays 6, 4 plays 5. The lower seeded winner of the first round plays the No. 1 seed, the higher seeded winner plays the second seed. The highest seeded team gets home advantage
You end up with an AFC winner and a NFC winner, and they playoff for the Vince Lombardi trophy in the Superbowl, which is always played at a predetermined neutral venue.
Interestingly, if Super Rugby had used that system last year, the playoff teams would have been slightly different;
win-loss-draw record in brackets after the team name
actual 2011 SR seeding in
Red
1st seed - Reds (13-3)
1st
2nd seed - Stormers (12-4)
2nd
3rd seed - Crusaders (10-5-1)
3rd
-----------------------------
4th seed - Sharks (10-5-1)
6th - on head to head record
5th seed - Blues (10-5-1)
4th
6th seed - Bulls (10-6-1)
DNQ- gets in ahead of the Waratahs (10-6-1)
5th - by virtue of the best Head-to-head record) -