The preseason results are in: John Lennon, the Beastie Boys and Madonna will all have to hope for next season. Taking their places are the Cure, the White Stripes and Tom Waits.

Here are the rules for the Division game. If you have any questions, ask them below and I will endeavor to answer them.

First of all: NO STRATEGIC VOTING. It can be fun and has its place in some games (Survivor and the preseason of this game come to mind) but I want honest results in this contest.

Each team (artist) will play every other team in their division twice, home and away. Three points will be awarded for a win, one for a tie (or virtual tie) and zero for a loss.

The home team will have the advantage of starting with a one-vote lead and having one of its higher-rated albums or songs playing against its opponent. For example, if the Beatles are at home against David Bowie, they might have their third-rated album on AM (The White Album) facing off against Bowie’s fourth-rated album (“Heroes”).

You will never be voting for one artist against another, you will always be voting for albums or songs. For example, if you prefer the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan but you like Blonde on Blonde better than Let It Bleed, then you have to vote for Dylan in that particular matchup that week.

To win a game, one team must receive three more votes than its opponent. If two teams are separated by two or less votes, it will be a virtual tie and both teams will be awarded a point.

The score of a game will be based on the loser’s vote total on this scale: 0-3 votes (0 goals) / 4-7 votes (1 goal) / 8-10 votes (2 goals) / 11-13 votes (3 goals) / 14-17 votes (4 goals) / 18 votes or more (5 goals). The winner will get one more goal that its opponent for every three votes it has more.

Tie-breakers at the end of the season will be as follows: Goal differential; goals scored; head-to-head matchup, coin toss. The bottom three teams in each division will be relegated and the top three teams in the bottom three divisions will be promoted. The following preseason will determine three artists to replace those that drop out of the Coffee Shop Division.

There will also be a cup tournament with some surprises during the season starting in week 4.

The season will start at midnight Friday (site time) and each week’s matchups will end the following Friday at midnight.

Hopefully this covers everything. Here are the divisions and seeds for the first season of the Divisions game.

STADIUM DIVISION
1. The Beatles
2. The Rolling Stones
3. Bob Dylan
4. David Bowie
5. Led Zeppelin
6. Radiohead
7. Prince
8. Bruce Springsteen
9. The Who
10. Elvis Presley
11. Jimi Hendrix
12. The Beach Boys

ARENA DIVISION
1. The Velvet Underground
2. Marvin Gaye
3. R.E.M.
4. U2
5. The Clash
6. Neil Young
7. Nirvana
8. Stevie Wonder
9. Pink Floyd
10. Bob Marley and the Wailers
11. Elvis Costello
12. The Smiths

CLUB DIVISION
1. Talking Heads
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Van Morrison
4. The Byrds
5. Public Enemy
6. The Doors
7. The Kinks
8. James Brown
9. Michael Jackson
10. Johnny Cash
11. Beck
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival

COFFEE SHOP DIVISION
1. Pixies
2. Otis Redding
3. Lou Reed
4. Roxy Music
5. Blur
6. Sonic Youth
7. Kraftwerk
8. Joni Mitchell
9. Ramones
10. The Cure
11. The White Stripes
12. Tom Waits

Happy to see two of my three got the boot. (I knew Radiohead wouldn't but it was worth a shot.

Great ! As a fan of both music and fotball (the real one, soccer ) I can't wait to play Divisions and World Cup.

Yeah, I mean, I personally prefer American football, but your football has much more of a right to be called 'football' than my football.

I'm very happy with the vote in results. Two of my top ten acts of all time (Tom Waits, White Stripes), and another I like very much (The Cure).

Another soccer fan here and DIVISIONS really sounds like a fun game!

I have slightly tweaked the scoring to keep it a little lower and more in-keeping with soccer. Here is the new scale:
The score of a game will be based on the loser’s vote total on this scale: 0-4 votes (0 goals) / 5-8 votes (1 goal) / 9-11 votes (2 goals) / 12-14 votes (3 goals) / 15-18 votes (4 goals) / 19 votes or more (5 goals). The winner will get one more goal that its opponent for every three votes it has more.