I can see Carl beeing in an awkward position.

I'd guess that the Championship have two options with there being no Middle 8 fixtures:

1) Increase to 14 teams from 12 with everyone playing each other home and away plus a Summer Bash game giving 27 fixtures, or

2) Stick with 12 teams, play 23 games, then split into two groups of 6 and play a further 5 games to provide 28 games.

League One will either have two teams fewer with 12 teams instead of 14, or they'll have 14 teams like now.

If League One drops to 12 teams, they'd probably have to take option two from above to make their fixtures to 28, but that might overload the system if they want to have a play-off arrangement for teams 2 to 5 for the second promotion spot (assuming it's a 2 up, 2 down).

Three teams going up this season would certainly help the Dons as it opens up the possibility of playing at home in the play-off final rather than away to York or Bradford.

Well Mike , there will be a 14 club Championship in 2019 with no Championship clubs relegated automatically in 2018.
Team who finish top of C1 will go up automatically .
Team who wins the play offs teams 2-5 will join them .
The team who loose the play off match will play the bottom club from the championship , do not know the venue . This will be called the £10 match .

Only joking about the last bit .

Well, Paul, that's very interesting. I nipped out to get my fish and chips and missed the announcement as it happened! I like your £10 match idea though!

So, if we lose in the play-off final, we'd be playing the bottom team from the Championship in a play-off match. From what I've read, it's believed home advantage in the play-off match will be decided by the toss of a coin. That's not a joke, by the way. Here's the link:

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/championship-confirms-increase-to-14-teams-lifeline-for-bottom-club/

Surely, the best way would have been to have played the game over two legs with neither side then getting an advantage?

I'll be interested to see what the longer-term financial structures look like as that will prove whether this 'deal' is in the interests of the game or a 'power grab' by the Super League clubs.

Do not think the 2019 C1 teams have a good deal with a reduced number of games .

I agree. League One currently has a 26 games season; a 22 match season is too short. That's five games fewer than the Championship will now have (including their Summer Bash) and seven games fewer than Super League.

I wonder if League One will have their own version of the Northern Fail (sic) cup to make up the fixtures?

I wonder if we should call it the Million Pence game... or am I over valuing it?

Gary Hetherington's view of the changes:

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/leeds-rhinos/leeds-rhinos-headingley-chief-hetherington-unhappy-with-league-changes-but-says-leeds-accept-them-1-9350785

Well it is £10,000 ... so probably yes in terms of immediate prize money ... but no in the long term.

It'd be interesting to know what the difference is between the RFL central funding for the teams promoted to the Championship compared to the League One funding. I know the Championship funding was previously decided by the finishing positions in that league. The teams at the top got considerably more than the teams at the bottom with the relegated Super League team getting a substantial parachute payment.

The new promotion/relegation rules are what we'll be focusing on now but the real issue is how the RFLs cake is going to be sliced up in the future. I hope this information comes into the public domain.