How can the 11-5 New England Patriots miss the playoffs this year, while the 8-8 San Diego Chargers host a playoff game?The same way two teams with losing records – Atlanta and Philadelphia - made the NBA playoffs last season, while the 48-34 Golden State Warriors missed out.
Divisions and dinosaurs running those leagues.
The NFL is locked into divisions that make no sense. Questionable teams like Arizona play their way to a divisional title by beating up patsies San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis, while San Diego can lose 8 of its first 12 games and still make the playoffs. [Yes, Arizona and San Diego won wildcard playoff games AT HOME, but they should not have been playing at home since they did not possess the better records and would not have beaten Atlanta and Indianapolis on the road.]
We should have each team in the NFC play each other during the regular season, while each team in the AFC plays each other. That makes 15 games. Then, each team plays one other team from the other conference, based on how well they did the previous season. For example, next year, the top seed in the NFC, the New York Giants, would play the top AFC seed, the Tennessee Titans, in the regular season. And the winless Detroit Lions would play the AFC’s doormat, Kansas City.
Besides making for a fairer and more interesting schedule, you wouldn’t have 8-8 teams hosting playoff games when there are 11-5 teams sitting at home.
As for the NBA, league bigwigs either should cut the playoff field from eight to six teams like the NFL does, or pass a rule that no team with a losing record can make the playoffs if there are still winning teams left. If one conference doesn’t have eight teams that won at least half of their games, then a winning team from the other conference that is left out makes the weaker conference’s playoffs. If there is not a winning team left from either conference, then the loser in that conference can go.
The schedules can be managed so each team plays one another about the same number of times during the regular season. Purists say that doing away with divisions takes away from historic rivalries. So what? Do you want to see a fair playoff system that rewards teams based on performance on the field, or do you want to continue with the system in place that favors teams based on their luck of being in a weak division? Rivalries such as Dallas-Washington and Green Bay-Chicago will remain intense, as they will still play each other once a year and perhaps another time in the playoffs.
I thought it was rich that things went so against the Cowboys on Sunday after Jerry Jones got the NFL to change the time of the Eagles-Cowboys game. Jones thought Oakland would lose to Tampa Bay and take the Eagles' edge off, but the football gods wouldn't hear of it.
ReplyDeleteThese are some comments received on the blog's RSS feed on Facebook that I thought should be here as well:
ReplyDeleteGeorge Stavros at 10:06pm January 1
Four Team Divisons Suck you only have 6 "Division" Games, so you could go 0-6 in your division and win you division.
I say do 4 eight team divisions, that way you would have 14 Divison Games, the 4 Teams that win the division get the Bye, then take the 4 best teams from each conferance and do the wild card round.
They are talking about a 20 week regular NFL Season with 2 byes, and only 2 exibition games, so that would give you 4 non division games per year in the regualr season.
Or get rid of divisions all together, you play every one in your conferance once a year (15 games) and 3 games per year against the other conferance. If you play your division opponent at home this year, you go on the road next year.
The 4 Teams that win the division get the Bye, then take the 4 best teams from each conferance and do the wild card round.
Kevin Shay at 4:04pm January 2
Hey, George, nice idea. That is better than what is in place now. It's sad that teams like New England that go 11-5 don't make the playoffs.
Steve Spurlock at 5:25pm January 2
Hi George and Kevin. I like that 4 eight team division idea. fixes the problem but only lets a team play about 9 different teams in a year. Whichever idea keeps Dallas out of the playoffs is a good one since I can't stand to watch Romo give the ball away anymore.
Kevin Shay at 6:49pm January 2
Under the 4-division system, Dallas likely makes the playoffs this year rather than Arizona, whose record was inflated due to its weak division. But then, Arizona holds the tiebreaker since it beat Dallas head to head on that infamous blocked punt TD.
George Stavros at 7:53pm January 2
Not that Jerry Jones would go for it, but if you put people in geographical divisions, it would look something like this.....
The New NFC
NFC East
Giants 11-3
Steelers 11-3
Ravens 9-5
Patriots 9-5
Jets 9-5
Eagles 8-5-1
Bills 6-8
Browns 4-12
NFC West
Cowboys 9-5
Broncos 8-6
Cardinals 8-6
Chargers 6-8
Texans 7-7
49ers 5-9
Raiders 3-11
Seahawks 3-11
The New AFC
AFC North
Colts 11-4
Vikings 9-5
Bears 8-6
Packers 5-9
Bengals 2-11-1
Rams 2-12
Chiefs 2-12
Lions 0-14
AFC South
Titans 12-2
Panthers 11-3
Falcons 9-5
Dolphins 9-5
Buc's 9-5
Saints 7-7
Redskins 7-7
Jaguars 5-10
Kevin Shay at 10:33pm January 6
I like that. We'll have to send this suggestion on to the NFL office to see if it will change anything.