Shortcomings and Weaknesses & Inequities with the Single Elimination Tournament Format.   

A Single Elimination format works fine if you have exactly 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 teams, but in the real world, this rarely occurs.  

Take for example a 16 team rec-league.  At playoff time, prior to the start of the season, the board of directors determined that approximately 40% of these teams should qualify for the season ending playoffs, or 6 of the 16 teams.  Using single elimination format, the top two teams are awarded a first round bye into the semi-finals.  In this instance, the example was applied to a softball playoff, where inning restrictions applied to pitchers.  To be direct, this is an overwhelming advantage that no one team deserves over another team.  More importantly, there is no chance for the best team to redeem itself in the event of an unusual occurrence.