That's like saying that you always should punt on Fourth and One at midfield. It's what everyone believes, but statistical analysis after statistical analysis show that you are no worse off going for it (see, for starters, The Hidden Game of Football by Bob Carroll, et al.).
Facts are annoying things, but I had a few minutes this morning, went back 15 years and analyzed what happened to the Number One seed in the two conferences (total of 30 data points):
--Ten of the 30 were one and done, losing in the Division Round (as we painfully recall is possible)
--Seven of the 30 lost their Conference Championship Game
So, over half the Number One seeds don't even make it to the SB.
--Seven of the 30 lost in the Super Bowl
--Six of the 30 won the Super Bowl.
So, based on these data, there's a 20% chance of winning the Super Bowl from the Number One slot, but an 80% chance of winning it from another point on the food chain . There's also less than a 50% chance that you even get to the Super Bowl (43%).
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This is skewed logic, this 80% would only mean something if the Pats had a choice of having the 1 seed or ALL FIVE other seeds (note, not just one of the remaining five, ALL other FIVE). That, of course, is impossible since one team only gets one spot. Therefore, this argument has no legs.