NFL considering changes in playoff HFA, seeding

[Patsrock]

BTW, for those suggesting tinkering with the current schedule/conference system, remember that the NFL believes that one of its goals should be having every team host every other team on a regulis.

And remember we Patriots fans have had things on the other foot in the past: back when the Squealers were in the NFC, the Pats once played them in Pittsburgh nine times in a row.

Steelers have never been in the NFC since the merger. But point still stands

 

[Deus Irae]

Who deserves the home game is a debatable point: it comes down to what you want to reward/punish.

There's not really a logical argument for allowing the WC a home game. The "more wins" doesn't stand because of the unbalanced schedule.

The only way to be "fair" on something like this is to eliminate divisions and move strictly to a conference system. The problem with that is that you don't have enough games to make that work and still keep rivalries. The league would have to, basically, go to playing 15 conference games and one game against the opposing conference. Absent that, division winners getting the home games is much more "fair" than granting the home games based solely on wins.

 

[JMC00]

Jerry Jones came out yesterday in favor expanding to 8 teams per conference this week and his son Stephen Jones represents the Cowboys on the Competition Committee that came up with this new system.

Jerry just trying to increase the odds of Dallas getting in the playoffs. Hilarious thing is had it been 8 per conference these last 3 years, Dallas still wouldn't have backed their way in after choking the division away on the last day.

 

[Deus Irae]

Jerry Jones came out yesterday in favor expanding to 8 teams per conference this week and his son Stephen Jones represents the Cowboys on the Competition Committee that came up with this new system.

Jerry Jones favors expanding the playoffs | ProFootballTalk

Personally, I think the change is a good one. The extra wild card in baseball paid off with so many teams in the hunt down to the last week of the season. Mostly, I have a problem with the Packers hosting the 49ers tonight after Green Bay squeaked in with an 8-7-1 record.

I'm a believer in Parcells' "You are what your record says you are." Divisions are artificial vestiges of the past. Two conferences, top six, two byes and let's do it. Or go top 8, lose a regular season game, and add a round of playoffs. Best records should get the benefit of their regular season wins.

There are too many teams in the playoffs already. They don't need 4 more. Let the greedy bastards live on 9 billion dollars instead of further weakening the game.

 

[goheels22002]

There are too many teams in the playoffs already. They don't need 4 more. Let the greedy bastards live on 9 billion dollars instead of further weakening the game.

Jones' plan has half of the teams getting a playoff berth. It diminishes the importance of the regular season, but so what? The playoffs are great. It's not like MLB, NHL or NBA with their endless 7-game series. It's like adding two more game sevens.

 

[JMC00]

If they want to expand the playoffs scrap the divisions, dump the 4th preseason game and make it a 15 game regular season (2 bye weeks for each team). Each team in the same conference would play each other once, no AFC vs NFC games. Seeding based on record.

 

[Deus Irae]

Jones' plan has half of the teams getting a playoff berth. It diminishes the importance of the regular season, but so what? The playoffs are great. It's not like MLB, NHL or NBA with their endless 7-game series. It's like adding two more game sevens.

The reason you can get away with it in MLB, NHL and NBA is precisely because there are multi-game series. In a one-and-done, having #8 knock out #1 because of a one game upset is a very, very bad thing.

 

[Wheelman]

Jerry Jones came out yesterday in favor expanding to 8 teams per conference this week and his son Stephen Jones represents the Cowboys on the Competition Committee that came up with this new system.

Jerry Jones favors expanding the playoffs | ProFootballTalk

Personally, I think the change is a good one. The extra wild card in baseball paid off with so many teams in the hunt down to the last week of the season. Mostly, I have a problem with the Packers hosting the 49ers tonight after Green Bay squeaked in with an 8-7-1 record.

I'm a believer in Parcells' "You are what your record says you are." Divisions are artificial vestiges of the past. Two conferences, top six, two byes and let's do it. Or go top 8, lose a regular season game, and add a round of playoffs. Best records should get the benefit of their regular season wins.

Of course Jerry wants it expanded with all his 8-8 seasons...looks like he's accepted that his team will never win more games with himself as GM so he's trying to get into the playoffs another way...

I'm not in favour of increasing the amount of playoff teams simply because it waters it down and makes the regular season less important.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Reseeding purely by record doesn't address the 'easy division' thing at all.

The AFC west and NFC west were probably the two best divisions this year.

The AFC South and NFC East were probably the two worst divisions this year.

Imagine a scenario where the AFC West and NFC West played each other and there were a lot of split divisional games as well as each team going 2-2 in AFC West vs. NFC West games. The winners of the AFC West and NFC West could very well have a worse record than the winners of the AFC South and NFC East because they played tougher competition.

It becomes too arbitrary and really addresses nothing.

I like it the way it is - winning the division should matter it adds an extra wrinkle to the mix instead of it becoming a pure record issue.f

Hate this change and I typically do not knee-jerk hate Goodell changes like most of you yutzes.

Do we know that the AFC West really is one of the best divisions in football this year? They played both the AFC South and NFC East and went 28-4 against them on the whole. That was half their schedule. Is 9-7 San Diego really a better team than the 8-8 Miami Dolphins who had to play a real schedule?

That's why I'm in favor of the current set up. If 12-4 KC is really better than 11-5 Indy, they should be able to beat them on the road.

 

[goheels22002]

In a one-and-done, having #8 knock out #1 because of a one game upset is a very, very bad thing.

Not if it's the Broncos...

 

[ivanvamp]

NFL to consider reseeding playoffs purely by record - NFL.com

Anybody else thinks this is a bad idea? IMO, if you don't win your division, you don't deserve to host a playoff game. If not, what's the point on having divisions? Let's just have 2 conferences, and the top 4-6 of each battling in the playoffs.

WC teams should be grateful to be in the PS, regardless of their record. Also, the last 3 SB champions played 8 out of 9 games (before the SB) on the road.

My opinion (for whatever that's worth)…

Stick with 4 divisions, 4 division winners and two wild cards from each conference. Division winners deserve to make the playoffs. But sometimes you really aren't a very good team and are coming from an awful division, and a better team playing in a much harder division doesn't deserve to have to go on the road against a lesser team in the playoffs. So put 4 division winners and two wild cards into the playoffs, and then seed by record from there. Pretty simple.

Then I wouldn't re-seed after that though. Have the #3 play the #6, with the winner (whether it's the #3 or the #6) playing the #2 seed. Have the #4 play the #5, with the winner playing the #1 seed. No need to re-seed.

 

[Raymond]

Jones' plan has half of the teams getting a playoff berth. It diminishes the importance of the regular season, but so what? The playoffs are great. It's not like MLB, NHL or NBA with their endless 7-game series. It's like adding two more game sevens.

I just don't understand your thinking. The importance of every game in a 16 game season ( and division matchups added to boot) is what makes the NFL season so enjoyable, riveting and special. No other sport can claim that.

 

[BradyFTW!]

If winning the division isn't going to get you a home playoff game, then they should just get rid of divisions altogether. If you let wild card teams host games on account of their records, then that creates its own whole set of issues.

As for Jerry's plan, that's great if you really like the idea of seeing lots of teams resting players for multiple weeks near the end of the season. If you currently have the 5 seed, but will get the 8 even if you lose your last 2, then you'll probably just sit your guys. Similarly, if there's no bye to play for, then a lot of teams will willingly drop from a 2 to a 4 seed if they get to rest their guys, protect them from injury, and help them heal.

Other sports can do 16 team playoffs precisely because they have 7 game series to ensure that the best team will usually advance. The NFL is already any-given-sunday to the point that as often as not the team winning the Super Bowl isn't even one of the five best teams in the league. Why would we want to make it more like that?

 

[Aßßynormal]

Not to be paranoid (glances around) but this seems like we'd get the short stick on this. What other Division suffers from "easy" competition. Maybe when Indy was riding high, other than us.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

I kinda like the idea. Wins are hard to come by in the NFL, teams should be awarded for something for their wins.

 

[Lansdowne]

Really getting tired, in general, of these professional sports leagues fixing what isn't broken.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Not to be paranoid (glances around) but this seems like we'd get the short stick on this. What other Division suffers from "easy" competition. Maybe when Indy was riding high, other than us.

i think our division suffered from people trying to play catch-up and falling short. Not to mention, it probably made owners give a shorter leash to GMs/Coaches who weren't winning enough.

Granted, you would think some of them could have gotten respectable records/WC games, but they really fell short by not having good enough QBs and never really getting one that can win games for you.

 

[AzorianPats]

The key to adding teams to the playoffs (which I do not oppose) would be to get rid of the divisions and put together a schedule that is pre-dominantly a conference schedule. MLB did that in the old days before divisions and wild cards.

Few divisions make sense right now anyway. Realignment along 16 East-16 West lines could be a good idea. Four 8-team groupings to balance travel and make sense of short weeks. I'd love to see the Patriots, Jets, Giants, Eagles, Ravens, Redskins, Dolphins, and Bills in an 8-team East coast alignment. Put the Atlanta - Indianapolis/Detroit teams in a Mideast grouping, the Texas-Arizona to Green Bay crowd in the Midwest together and a West coast cluster. Teams like Buffalo or Jacksonville might get screwed, or one of them could move to LA which should have a team.

I could see playing a schedule like the SEC or ACC where you get certain teams once every year for historical or rivalry purposes and play a rotating schedule of other conference teams every other year plus a set of teams from the other conference.

As much as I would love to see the Pats in the same division as the Jets, Giants, Eagles. Its never going to happen. No way the NFL gonna want to break up the NFC east. You'll have to much confusion with teams wanting to jump ship. I couldn't picture the Eagles or Giants coming over to the AFC, and do we really think the Pats are gonna jump over to the NFC, and play their games on Fox, even though one of the most popular bar/restaurant in the stadium is the CBS scene? I know that might sound stupid, but there's a lot of money involved with that.

My opinion, keep the playoff seeding the way it is, but get rid of the AFC vs NFC regular season games. Realign the divsions. For example, move Baltimore to the east, Indy to the north, and Miami to the south. Each team plays division team twice, and plays the rest of the conference once. Home and away rotates every year. Therefore a team like the Ravens, who already have a rivalry with us, will build off that, but can still keep the rivalry going with the Steelers because they would still see them once a year. Sucks we won't see an NFC team, but really how many rivalries do we have over their besides the Giants? Even then we only see them every four years.

 

[Anteros]

As much as I would love to see the Pats in the same division as the Jets, Giants, Eagles. Its never going to happen. No way the NFL gonna want to break up the NFC east. You'll have to much confusion with teams wanting to jump ship. I couldn't picture the Eagles or Giants coming over to the AFC, and do we really think the Pats are gonna jump over to the NFC, and play their games on Fox, even though one of the most popular bar/restaurant in the stadium is the CBS scene? I know that might sound stupid, but there's a lot of money involved with that.

My opinion, keep the playoff seeding the way it is, but get rid of the AFC vs NFC regular season games. Realign the divsions. For example, move Baltimore to the east, Indy to the north, and Miami to the south. *

Each team plays division team twice, and plays the rest of the conference once. **

Home and away rotates every year. Therefore a team like the Ravens, who already have a rivalry with us, will build off that, but can still keep the rivalry going with the Steelers because they would still see them once a year. Sucks we won't see an NFC team, but really how many rivalries do we have over their besides the Giants? Even then we only see them every four years.

* I actually had to go look at the standings to analyze this. It makes perfect sense.
** Are you suggesting an 18 game regular season?

 

[AzorianPats]

* I actually had to go look at the standings to analyze this. It makes perfect sense.
** Are you suggesting an 18 game regular season?

Ideally no, but either the regular season gets extended 2 games, or they add an extra 2 teams in the playoffs. That scenario, I'd rather an 18 game regular season. One of those 2 options are coming down the pike, sad to say.