Crazy playoff thought -- let the highest seed pick its opponent

That thought has crossed my mind before but, I don't think that's a can of worms we want to open.

Oswlek said:

That's precisely why NE lost to Miami in 2005, because that would give them the #4 seed and Jax had already been locked into #5 for a couple weeks at that point. It wasn't due to any bizarre nonsense about being afraid of the Steelers, which I still hear repeated to this day. Hell, the Steelers weren't even assured a playoff slot at the time of NE's game.

Prep time, not fear.

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This is immediately what I thought about when I saw this thread. I don't think it was fear of the Steelers, but I think Bill saw Jax as a very favorable matchup, especially having to come north in January.

AndyJohnson said:

The fear of fans has no impact on the game.

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Whew! Good thing you told me that, because I was under the impre....

Oh, never mind.

Sounds like a Manning rule.

Pass.

SacPete1 said:

Wow, that would be the ultimate disrespect card to the team chosen.

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Not really (not that it's going to happen) - it has much more to do with matchups than anything else.

And while it's not going to happen - because obviously as the top seed you want home field advantage and the bye - it's not like teams - including the Patriots - haven't lost on purpose so they could play a team in the playoffs with a better matchup

No one on the coaching staff or even players will ever admit it but I'm pretty sure the Patriots lost on purpose against the Dolphins on their New Years Day game in 2006 (the Flutie Drop kick game) in order to face the Jaguars in the Wild Card game (The Fins tried to GIVE the game to the Patriots with an INT followed by a TD - but darn it, that 2 point conversion just wasn't even close!)

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/playbyplay?gameId=260101017&period=4

Sicilian said:

If I were the head coach in that scenario, I would very publicly flip a coin to decide.

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Flip, but use a double-headed coin so you still end up getting the team you want to play!

rlcarr said:

Flip, but use a double-headed coin so you still end up getting the team you want to play!

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The Harvey Dent gambit!

Wow, I've had this thought as well, I guess I'm not crazy or you're as nuts as me.

Only problem I see is the disrespect issue. It will almost make the #1 seed undesirable to have to publicly state who you think your team has a better chance of beating.

JoeSixPat said:

Not really (not that it's going to happen) - it has much more to do with matchups than anything else.

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Yes and I'm sure the team chosen would see it as a just a case of matchups and no disrespect at all

That really is a crazy idea, but so was going to four 4 team divisions and having teams playing totally different schedules. I've been complaining about that dumb idea since they came up with it. My guess is that it was done to rescue P6 from the AFCE and put him in a pancake division with a free trip to the playoffs every year. Too bad for them they didn't see B&B coming.

The funny thing is, if that rule were in place this year there's no way that Seattle would have picked anyone but 8-8-1 Carolina, the team they ended up playing.

The Super League (Rugby League) in the UK does this in the play offs.

The higher seed gets to choose who they want in the semi finals.

IllegalContact said:

the only change I would suggest is to have seeding and home/away be strictly by record and bag the whole division winner.....Carolina should have had no right to have a home playoff game

I would think that the league would still want a 1 seed versus 2 seed scenario for conf championships

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Teams don't come close to playing the same schedule. This year, the AFCN matched up with the AFCS and NFCS, the two worst divisions in football. It's no surprise that the AFCN had three teams "qualify" for the playoffs.

What a god awful idea.

Here in England, Rugby League's top league, the Super League does this for the playoffs - the highest ranked remaining team picks their opponent for the semi final...it works pretty well tbh.

I'm going to go completely off the rails here and take this suggestion one step further. Let's assume the inevitable happens and they expand to 7 playoff teams per conference. The common thought is that the #1 seed gets the bye week and that's it, but lets give them one more incentive for that top spot: They get to choose all three matchups for the Wild Card round in their conference.

The division winners (seeds 2 through 4) can't play each other, so each one gets their home game, but the #1 seed decides who they each play. If we're gonna do this, let's go balls out, eh?

rlcarr said:

Had a crazy thought the other day...

At the divisional round, let the #1 seed pick the team they want to play (other than the #2 seed, so the #2 seed still gets its home game). Could do the same thing at the WC round with the #3 seed picking which of #5 and #6 they want to play. (Again, leaving #4 out of it so they keep their home game).

It would increase the advantage of being the #1 seed (and the #3 seed, relative to the other WC round participants), which may or may not be a good thing.

It would also provide some interesting opportunities for gamesmanship, bulletin-board material, etc.

I know it'll never happen, but it's intriguing to think about.

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When they were talking about re-seeding because of the Panthers weak record i thought the same thing. It would be cool, but will never happen

As noted above, this is done in Rugby. It's also done in bridge championships where the top seed gets to choose which lower half team to play (and the second seed chooses the next team and so forth).

One of the main advantages of this is that it takes away any advantage of tanking; it is always advantageous to win.

I'm all for it as it's a better system in my mind. But I doubt it will ever be implemented; many here don't seem to like it - probably because they've never actually experienced it. I see no downside. Some team feels disrespected (and the corresponding team not selected feels respected)? Who cares? You have to choose someone. Better to have the choice than not.