I’ve posted the MLS conference-only standings before, and there’s a simple reason: the MLS schedule is silly.

What you have in MLS is two leagues, Western and Eastern, each playing a full round-robin (with a bit more added out West, to make the schedule work) - plus a number of exhibition games against the other league / division.

It’s quite obvious that mixing all of these games together, when it comes to playoff seeding and qualification, is nonsense. It’s highly dependent on which teams from the other conference land on your schedule.

There are still a couple of games to go in the season, but let’s look at the playoff picture, if we remove cross-conference games.

WESTERN

Rk Team Points GP PPG W-L-T GF-GA GD
1 LA Galaxy 49 25 1.96 15-6-4 55-41 14
2 Vancouver 41 24 1.71 12-7-5 40-33 7
3 Houston 41 25 1.64 11-6-8 34-26 8
4 Los Angeles FC 39 24 1.62 11-7-6 40-32 8
5 Colorado 38 24 1.58 12-10-2 45-46 -1
6 Salt Lake 38 24 1.58 10-6-8 49-42 7
7 Portland 37 25 1.48 10-8-7 53-43 10
8 Minnesota 35 24 1.46 10-9-5 41-37 4
9 Seattle 35 25 1.4 9-8-8 29-29 0
10 Dallas 33 24 1.38 9-9-6 41-37 4
11 Austin 28 25 1.12 7-11-7 25-35 -10
12 St. Louis 24 24 1 5-10-9 32-46 -14
13 Kansas City 23 26 0.88 6-15-5 40-51 -11
14 San Jose 14 25 0.56 4-19-2 32-58 -26

Out west, the playoff teams don’t change, and - par for the course for the West this year - there’s a pretty jumbled mess of teams behind the Galaxy. That said, this does show how strong Vancouver and Houston have been against the West this year, and how much Seattle has struggled.

The Sounders managed to get five of the worst eight teams in the East on their schedule this year, including three of the bottom four - and their one game against a decent Eastern team was the game against Columbus, when the Crew had to play a defender in goal for more than half the match. And so Seattle rolled up five out-of-conference wins and might host a first-round playoff series.

Minnesota, on the flip side, had one of the hardest cross-conference slates. They had to play two of the East’s top three, plus road games against three other playoff teams in the East - as well as a road game against Atlanta, which might still make the playoffs. They managed three wins in those four road games, an impressive haul - but they also blew a stoppage-time lead against D.C. at home, and turned three points into zero, which means this is partly their own fault.

EASTERN

Rk Team Points GP PPG W-L-T GF-GA GD
1 Miami 53 25 2.12 16-4-5 56-36 20
2 Columbus 48 24 2 14-4-6 48-25 23
3 Cincinnati 41 25 1.64 12-8-5 40-34 6
4 New York City 41 25 1.64 11-6-8 41-33 8
5 Orlando City 37 25 1.48 10-8-7 44-36 8
6 Charlotte 36 25 1.44 10-9-6 32-27 5
7 New York 34 25 1.36 8-7-10 39-37 2
8 Atlanta 32 25 1.28 8-9-8 35-32 3
9 Nashville 30 25 1.2 8-11-6 26-32 -6
10 Philadelphia 29 25 1.16 7-10-8 47-39 8
11 Montréal 29 25 1.16 7-10-8 37-50 -13
12 Toronto 28 26 1.08 8-14-4 32-45 -13
13 New England 26 25 1.04 8-15-2 27-51 -24
14 D.C. United 26 25 1.04 6-11-8 33-48 -15
15 Chicago 24 26 0.92 5-12-9 31-43 -12

At the top, Miami and Columbus are still looking good, but FC Cincinnati less so - they’d be back in the pack without their wins against the West, including against San Jose and St. Louis (and, as a credit to them, also Colorado and Minnesota).

At the playoff line, Atlanta and Nashville can feel a bit hard done by. Atlanta only got one non-playoff team from the West on their schedule this year, and had to play both Los Angeles teams and Real Salt Lake; the Five Stripes got only two points in those six games, and are currently outside the playoff picture.

Nashville also had to play both L.A. teams… but got just one point from games against Austin and San Jose, and so can blame only themselves.

Toronto, meanwhile, avoided the top three from the west, and got to play three of the bottom five, beating Dallas and Austin to jump up the standings (though they also shot themselves in the foot by losing at home to Sporting KC).

Overall, Inter Miami and the LA Galaxy won’t split the Supporters’ Shield. But what I’m telling you is this: maybe they should! It’d make more sense!