Was initially undecided but the more I read on the pros and cons and seeing all the arguments offered I'm in the FOR camp.

The intial 12 team 2 league structure will see people going tooth and nail to be in certain positions and avoiding others.
The spilt will in theory rid us of blow out scores and give the higher lower league teams realistic indications of were they are playing the lower end of SL, also scope for heavier lower league investment.

I don't buy the loading teams full of journeymen argument either, if you're good enough you're old enough, franchising hasn't exactly made us any better on the international front either, if anything this new structure gives more options to the young guys without having to find another job in the semi professional set up, more teams will be able to go fully pro, slowly but surely.

Reducing dead rubbers in the round of 22 games.

Middle Tier Round 2
SL Team A finish joint fourth on 9 points
SL Team B finish joint fourth on 9 points

Give fourth place to the team who finished highest in the first round of games.

If one of the tied teams is from the Championship settle fourth by another method relevant to the second stage only.

That is to operate on a one season delay. The top 8 from 2014 will enter the cup at round 5 in 2015. The top 8 from 2015 will enter at round 5 in 2016 and so on.

It has not been mentioned whether the other four top 12 teams would enter at round 4 as now or at round 3, or whether the teams in the second tier of 12 would enter at round 3 as the championship teams do or at round 4 as the SL teams do.

The only major issue I see with the new system is the resetting of points after the split for the middle tier.

Magic Super Beetle has suggested that maybe more advantageous home ties for the higher placed teams could balance this out. Or maybe the highest placed SL1 team getting to play all the championship clubs first. So giving them the advantage of racking up points against the 'easier' sides.

I still think a 9th placed team would be extremely unlucky to get relegated. I just can't forsee it, especially given they will be likely spending £1.5 - £1.8 million compared to those spending £900k tops.

Well I know SL is not very good at fairness but the only way the kiddle tier can work is by zeroing the points and just to pee you off a little more, the Champ sides will get 4 home games

*middle

Thats just it though, if they lose to 3 othe Sl sides and at least one championship one, they deserve to go down. But as you say, given that a team in 9th (think it was HullKR last year) will be a hald decent side, they're very unlikely to lose to evry team that they came above in the SL and a championship side as well.
The system is quite good as for a championship club to get promoted, they dont just have to be consistantly good in their league, they Have to beat SL opposition as well.

Don't forget, in the middle tier 4 v 5 playoff for the fourth promotion spot. To be automatically relegated you'd need to finish below not one but at least two champ teams.

The second twelve should, if they can afford operate with the same salary cap as the first twelve otherwise it's a stacked competition. Say for instance Batley get a beneafactor that enables them to buy far better players and can easily compete salary wise with Leeds why should they have to operate with a lower cap.

If the whole of the second 12 could then this would be fair enough, but as it stands the competition is going to be stacked somewhere. With the amount of money coming in now it just isn't going to work how you suggest.

What about quota rules, how will they work?

then what's the point in them being in it?

Because people would complain if there were 9 teams in "the playoffs"?

I agree 9th falls into the awkward category of not good enough for the playoffs but probably too good for relegation. In an ideal world 1 - 8 would continue to compete and 11 and 12 have a playoff with the championship clubs.

Unfortunately that would leave 9 and 10 only playing 23 games which has been deemed not enough financially.

Seems like an inherent flaw in the system. If the 9th and 10th teams are going to be comfortably good enough to stay up, then their games are likely to be blowouts, almost certainly against the 3rd and 4th placed sides.

I think every system will have flaws, no doubt, but then the reality is, if a club is looking for promotion they're going to need to be able to play teams far better than 9th, so they might as well test themselves. This isn't of benefit to the team finished 9th - but then reward those who finish in the top half of the table!