Well, gosh gee, whoever would have thought this could happen?
How about any neutral rugby observer or perhaps even a biased one who instead opted to apply clarity as they sat in a Sanzar board room.
The countdown is on to next weekend's quarterfinals of the 2016 Super Rugby tournament, the only rugby competition of its kind to play across two continents and a multitude of time zones, so this weekend the top four performing teams will be looking to confirm their status and receive home quarterfinals.
Or in reality, the best teams from a couple of also-ran conferences will be looking to confirm their status for home quarterfinals, with the knowledge that the next best sides on the table who will be coming to face them have been superior in every way that counts.
I've been on the record with my concerns over the tinkering with the Super Rugby format by the introduction of different rules for try bonus points plus the inclusion of another South African team and the Argentina franchise - making an already unwieldy format further ungainly due to the distances teams would have to travel.
Sanzar's enigmatic solution to the travelling issue - the introduction of four conferences with the winner of each allocated a home playoff - has ultimately been exposed for the complete farce that it is.
Heading into this weekend there are three New Zealand teams 'technically' holding down 5th-7th on the table despite running roughshod over opponents from across the sea.
Somehow, with 39 points and a 69 per cent winning record, the Aussie conference leaders the Brumbies could get the right to host the Crusaders (50 points, 79 per cent wins) in Canberra.
Teams which have either avoided playing a lot of the New Zealand teams this year through the draw or have just outshone fellow weak franchises in their other matches, get an advantage which has nothing to due with on-field consistency.
Look no further than the current leaders the Golden State Lions - 11 wins in 14 games but part of an obviously inferior Africa 2 conference with the erratic Sharks and the hopeless Jaguares and Southern Kings.
The Lions three defeats this year? Only to the Highlanders (34-15), Crusaders (43-37) and then the Hurricanes in a 50-17 slaughter on their own patch in Johannesburg.
Sense a pattern there?
Super Rugby is no longer a competition played on merit which then receives television money for the content it provides, but a made-for-TV concept sold to broadcasters to suit their needs.
So, despite three of the top four teams in the entire competition being Kiwi, with the fifth-placed side in the Hurricanes just behind on for/against, only the Chiefs in Hamilton would receive a home playoff, based on current standings.
NZRFU chief executive Steve Tew cut to the heart of the matter this week when he branded the scenario as "just not fair".
"But there needed to be a final in every TV market or else the value we would have got for our content was seriously reduced."
There you have it - Super Rugby is no longer a competition played on merit which then receives television money for the content it provides, but a made-for-TV concept sold to broadcasters to suit their needs.
And with five years to run on the current contracts, that cannot change until 2019.
Isn't it interesting that in any case, with finals in every country, the television ratings across the three nations are still dropping?
It's just not wise to let television companies put their spin on your intellectual property.
Sometimes, lowest denominator content designed to generate big numbers simply won't be sustainable long-term, over quality programming that reflects the current public ethos.
Just ask TV3 how axing Campbell Live and slashing their news teams in favour of more trashy reality shows has worked out. On second thought, don't ask, they won't give you an honest answer.
Many Super Rugby players themselves commented at the start of the season that they barely understood the conference concept - for once, the "one game at a time" philosophy held merit, instead of trying to figure out where each victory would place them on each table.
Ultimately, viewers aren't stupid.
The South African and Australian audiences, who with football games and NRL have other options on their TV remote controls, are fully aware that it doesn't matter who lifts which local conference trophy.
They know their squads are being outplayed by the teams from those two little islands in the far corner of the South Pacific, and they're voting with those same remotes.