Jamie Nye: Too early to judge new Scotties/Brier format

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts’ new format isn’t getting rave reviews through the first few days. It’s the same format for the Brier coming up in Regina in a couple of weeks.

A few of the teams are clearly out of their league and it’s leading to some blowout victories. But there is no ideal way to do this.

Some believe it should be the top 12 teams based on rankings. Well, that would mean all the territories and two or three provinces wouldn’t be represented. So much for a national championship.

I say give this format time. The bottom teams get eliminated midway through and then the top eight teams go head to head to come up with a final four.

The final four days of the Scotties are going to see the drama play out, with some drama midweek to see who gets the final couple of spots.

No one will ever be happy, but let’s judge the event on its entirety and not just the first three days.