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Should the NFL go to NBA-style playoff seeding?  

8 members have voted

  1. 1. Should the NFL go to NBA-style playoff seeding (i.e.: Winning your division only guarantees you a playoff berth and nothing else)?

    • Yes
      1
    • No
      7


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Posted

With it now likely whoever wins the NFC East has no more than eight wins, it was time to bring this back up:

If NBA-style seeding were used (where a wild card with a better record than a division winner would have home field and a division winner is only guaranteed a playoff berth), using last season's final records, this is how seeding would have been:

AFC:
Bye: #1 Ravens
#7 Steelers at #2 Chiefs
#6 Titans at #3 Patriots
#5 Bills at #4 Texans
(Effectively no chance from how last season actually went, Texans would be seeded 4th because if teams have the same record, a division winner would still get preference over a wild card for seeding, but ONLY as is)

NFC:
Bye: #1 49ers
#7 Rams at #2 Packers
#6 Eagles at #3 Saints
#5 Vikings at #4 Seahawks
(Vikings and Seahawks would jump ahead of the Eagles in the seed order with the Eagles falling to the #6 seed).

This has worked in the NBA and is more fair.

Posted

No. It is what it is. Winning your division should give you a home game. If the logic is winning a piss poor division shouldn’t guarantee a home game, then why guarantee a game at all? Why give a playoff berth to a team with a poor record in a weak division over a team with a better record in a much tougher division?

 

If you’re going to make the change, go all the way with it, otherwise, leave it as is. 

Posted

The problem is the nature of the NFL scheduling is imbalanced. They only get 16 games, 6 are home/away against their own division. There aren't enough games to play the entire league. Why punish teams from a division who played against stronger opponents? If you win the division, you host a playoff game. If you don't win the division, you go into the playoffs on the road. That's it. NBA scheduling is more balanced. After 82 games, they've already played against the entire league. You can tell which divisions are stronger because they have all played against the same opponents.

Posted
8 hours ago, toolg said:

The problem is the nature of the NFL scheduling is imbalanced. They only get 16 games, 6 are home/away against their own division. There aren't enough games to play the entire league. Why punish teams from a division who played against stronger opponents? If you win the division, you host a playoff game. If you don't win the division, you go into the playoffs on the road. That's it. NBA scheduling is more balanced. After 82 games, they've already played against the entire league. You can tell which divisions are stronger because they have all played against the same opponents.

You can usually tell in 16 games.  The idea is mainly that if it just happens the two best teams in a conference are in the same division, especially since only the team with the best record now gets a bye (meaning they are still playing for THAT), you don't punish the second best team in the conference by making them play on the road against a team potentially with a losing record that happened to win an extremely weak division.  Instead, the second best team would in that scenario play a team that won a bad division, but they would host that game as #2 vs. #7 as it should be.   And that's even if the Eagles do win the NFC East again with a weak record, last year, as noted until this format they would have been in New Orleans for the Wild Card game instead of hosting the Seahawks because they would have dropped to a #6 seed.

Posted
10 hours ago, EagleJoe8 said:

No. It is what it is. Winning your division should give you a home game. If the logic is winning a piss poor division shouldn’t guarantee a home game, then why guarantee a game at all?

That's how it's been done in the NBA.  It used to be a division winner in the NBA could not be seeded lower than the 4th seed, however, now it's where such a division winner can be seeded 8th if it wins a very weak division.  They actually did toy with making it where even winning a division didn't guarantee a playoff berth but ultimately made it so they made the playoffs but if they happened to have the worst record of a playoff team, they would be seeded 8th. 

Posted
8 minutes ago, Wallyhorse said:

That's how it's been done in the NBA.  It used to be a division winner in the NBA could not be seeded lower than the 4th seed, however, now it's where such a division winner can be seeded 8th if it wins a very weak division.  They actually did toy with making it where even winning a division didn't guarantee a playoff berth but ultimately made it so they made the playoffs but if they happened to have the worst record of a playoff team, they would be seeded 8th. 

I don’t care about the NBA. If you want to make the NFL the NBA, just go watch the NBA. 
 

I stand by my opinion. Getting a home game is a good reward for winning a division. However, I would also be accepting of the top 7 teams per conference getting berths, period. If you’re going to tell me that a team with a poor record shouldn’t be assured a home game, then I don’t see how you can even justify them making it in over a team with a better record, but in a tougher division. 

Posted
On 10/7/2020 at 6:14 PM, EagleJoe8 said:

I don’t care about the NBA. If you want to make the NFL the NBA, just go watch the NBA. 
 

I stand by my opinion. Getting a home game is a good reward for winning a division. However, I would also be accepting of the top 7 teams per conference getting berths, period. If you’re going to tell me that a team with a poor record shouldn’t be assured a home game, then I don’t see how you can even justify them making it in over a team with a better record, but in a tougher division. 

The idea, again, is simple:

If you win your division, you make the playoffs, but that is all you are guaranteed.  Anything beyond that is SOLELY based on record other than getting a seed preference if you are a division champion tied with a wild card with the same record.  Otherwise, if a wild card has a better record, the wild card gets the higher seed and home games if warranted.  You may not like the way the NBA does it because it's an "inferior" league in popularity but it would not kill the NFL to go to NBA-style playoff seeding. 

Posted
12 minutes ago, Wallyhorse said:

The idea, again, is simple:

If you win your division, you make the playoffs, but that is all you are guaranteed.  Anything beyond that is SOLELY based on record other than getting a seed preference if you are a division champion tied with a wild card with the same record.  Otherwise, if a wild card has a better record, the wild card gets the higher seed and home games if warranted.  You may not like the way the NBA does it because it's an "inferior" league in popularity but it would not kill the NFL to go to NBA-style playoff seeding. 

I understand the idea. 

Posted

I'm good with how it is, presently. No need to change anything, in my opinion. Other than cancelling this season and purging the records of all reference to any games played. 

Posted
1 hour ago, VaBeach_Eagle said:

I'm good with how it is, presently. No need to change anything, in my opinion. Other than cancelling this season and purging the records of all reference to any games played. 

I agree.

They shouldnt go changing things based off of an anomaly, especially considering that this year is so messed up anyway. 

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