Reformat Playoff Seeding

[jlove]

I was just talking about this the other day with a coworker. It started because the new NBA Commisioner (Adam Silver in Feb) recently mentioned getting rid of the Divisions due to poor teams getting top seeds/home court advantage in playoffs becuase they win their Division. I was telling him I could see the NFL doing something about their playoff seeding as well especially when looking at records and the Division leaders right now. You could essentially have a Division leader with a .500 record or less win their Division and get a Top seed and a first round bye, leaving out teams with a better or great record having to play 1st week or not getting a playoff birth at all. At the time I wasn't even thinking about the Cardinals, I was thinking more about the NFC East (which went from the best Division to basically the worst) and a team like KC that would not get a bye because they didn't win the Division.

I'm not sure about the whole expansion to a 14 team playoffs, but I wouldn't leave it black and white as to Division winner getting a Top birth/bye. I'd let Division leader get a playoff spot but it would come down to record as to their seed. Best record to worst.

 

[Bert]

Dont the top 2 teams from each conference already get a bye? lol What am I missing.

 

[CardsFan88]

It would suck to not make the playoffs but these are the rules.

I am however for expansion of the playoffs and have been for years. To me it is a greater evil to keep a good team out of the playoffs then to allow a 7-9 or 8-8 team in. You accept that little bit of mediocrity to reduce the number of good teams missing out. But I don't feel this would happen very often. Quite the opposite really.

We used to have 3 divisions and 3 wild card spots, and the change to 4 to 2 screwed up what I felt was a good balance before. 4 and 3 imo restores that.

I also feel it's good for a large number of teams to feel they are still in it, and thus later in the season more teams are in the hunt and the quality of the NFL overall increases.

The NBA routinely has sub .500 teams in it, sometimes multiple. It wouldn't surprise me to see 3-4 in the East this year considering there is only 3 teams above .500 in the east right now. But the NFL is also different in that it's only one game. As we saw our first Warner playoff run, .500 teams in the NFL can be pretty good. If they lose, they're out and so it's not quite the same as having to see 4 games for the #1 seed to knock off the inferior opponent.

Even then most of these inferior teams don't come from the wild card, but from winning a crappy division. So while we may focus on letting in bad teams, this situation wouldn't really change that. As long as each division winner makes the playoffs this will be possible. What this is about is making sure that extra division winner doesn't keep out a good team in another, tougher division.

So I'm all for an additional 9-10-11 win team in each conference making the playoffs, and I don't see it as changing a situation that is working, but restoring the 3 wild card teams that I saw as a situation that worked better.

 

[Cardiac]

I'm all for it because it eliminates the possibility of good teams not getting a chance to be in the tournament. The bottom line is enhanced for the owners as well.

I should have just quoted Totally Red and said "Yeah That".

 

[Jetstream Green]

I say they implement a rule which if taken to the playground not a single kid would argue with it...if you beat a team, they are not allowed to leap frog you into the playoffs if your tied in season wins. If the Cardinals and the Panthers are tied, then we should go

 

[crisper57]

I say they implement a rule which if taken to the playground not a single kid would argue with it...if you beat a team, they are not allowed to leap frog you into the playoffs if your tied in season wins. If the Cardinals and the Panthers are tied, then we should go

But the Panthers beat the Niners. And the Niners beat us. 2 spots available. Who goes?

 

[Jetstream Green]

We do and the Niners because the color 'red' should also be a deciding factor

 

[Cheesebeef]

We do and the Niners because the color 'red' should also be a deciding factor

lol.

 

[NJCardFan]

The "uproar" over an 11-5 Cardinals team missing the playoffs isn't going to be anything like the year New England didn't get in. It also isn't going to be as loud as the complaining about how we hosted the NFC championship game against the Eagles who had a better overall record.

Which had nothing to do with the Cards. In the AFC that season the Chargers won the West at 8-8. The Cards would have lost out to the Bucs based on conference record(8-4 as opposed to 7-5).

 

[jw7]

I like the current system. It emphasizes division rivalries.

BA was so pissed to lose division games. Win the division and let the playoffs sort 'em out.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

If I was running it, the teams with the top six records would be in, with no preference given to division winners.

I've never really understood why beating someone in your division should be more valuable than beating someone who isn't.

Why should a team with nine wins be on the outside looking in at two teams with only eight wins?

 

[Stout]

But the Panthers beat the Niners. And the Niners beat us. 2 spots available. Who goes?

As of now. Almost all playoff scenarios for us have us beating the Niners in the final game, making us 1-1 versus the Niners. We beat the Panthers in head-to-head games, Panthers beat the Niners in head-to-head games, Niners beat neither of us in head-to-head games (tied). It would be an absolute no brainer. Why on EARTH would you go to the second tie breaker when the first tie breaker actually breaks the tie? It makes no sense.

 

[cardpa]

Heard a idea yesterday on Moving the Chains by one of the hosts. Get rid of all divisions and go back to two conferences. Everyone plays everyone in their conference and they get one outside game against a natural rival. They gave Jets/Giants as a natural rival. Then the top 6 teams make the playoffs.

Not sure I like it but I thought why not go to 2 divisions and the top 4 teams from each division play off at the end of the year and then there is a conference Championship game between the two division winners. You get 3 weeks of playoffs same as now and you get 2 more teams into the playoffs.

NFC South
Arizona
Dallas
SF
TB
NO
Carolina
St Louis
Atlanta

NFC North
NY
Philly
Wash
GB
Det
Chicago
Seattle
Minn

You could go East and West too.

NFC East
NY
Phil
Wash
Carolina
TB
NO
Det
Atl

NFC West
AZ
SF
Sea
St L
Minn
Dal
Chi
GB

The NFL makes more money with 2 more teams in the playoffs and the season isn't any longer. You have 14 home and home games and 2 inter-conference games or you could just play each division member once and then play one of the other AFC divisions to get to 15 games and then one game against a NFC rival division. You could even keep a natural rivalry and have them play home and home as the 16 game, so for example:

AZ/Dal
Sea/SF
Chi/St L
Minn/GB

would play home and home every year since they are natural rivals.