Yup - wouldn't want some upstart non-AQ team to even get the hint they might play for a [gasp] Nashunal Champeenship. That just wouldn't be right. Could upset the apple cart. Make the cows nervous. Then they'd start droppin' sour milk. And the chickens? Well, wouldn't want the chickens to stop layin'. Then the apple trees would all shrivel up. And then Aunt Lou couldn't bake her famous pie for the skool's presdint.
All hell would break loose upon the firmament and we'd go into a financial and economic downspin, with people losing their jobs and defaulting left and right on their mortgages and lose or just walk away from their houses and start living in their cars.
Oh. Wait. Guess it can't get any worse, now, can it?