How are the Scottish Premiership post-split fixtures decided?
In its previous guise as the Scottish Premier League, the top flight had 10 clubs. That made a 36-game season with teams meeting four times. Ideal.
Then the division expanded to 12 for season 2000-01. And a 44-game campaign was deemed too long. So an innovative split was introduced after the teams had met on three occasions.
After that, the top six would play five more games among themselves and the bottom six would do the same. It meant the top six were left playing for the title and European qualification places, while the bottom six were trying to avoid the one automatic relegation spot and the relegation/promotion play-off against a Championship side. Upon their release of the fixtures, the SPFL pointed out that the split usually provides additional excitement, with clubs battling for a top-six place up until the 33rd fixture.
Albeit Falkirk secured the final place with a game to spare this time. However, cleaving the division in two after 33 matches can also produce some anomalies... Livingston and Falkirk will have an imbalance of home and away games Clubs play 16 or 17 home games in the 33 before the split - with a minimum of two, and a maximum of three, home fixtures after it.
Ideally, they should play 19 of each by the season's end, but that is not always possible - and this is the second season in a row that there has been an imbalance. In compiling its initial fixtures, the SPFL tries to predict which clubs will end up in the top six and bottom six to best avoid such a scenario, but this season promoted Falkirk have overperformed and sit in sixth spot. As a consequence, they will play 20 home games and Livingston will have 18.