I said I don't want the 7 seed. Both 7 seeds this year were badly outpayed, yet again, and the only reason the Dolphins came close to winning was the Bills trying to concoct the worst choke job ever. You advocated adding more teams, which would only make things worse. Go back to six teams, no guaranteed home game for division winners, basically perfect.
I only advocated adding one more team for this year specifically to get rid of the first round bye since Cinci & Buffalo were denied the chance to compete for it.
But I agree with getting rid of the 7 seed and only have 6 teams get in.
4 division winners is a flawed system because it opens up the possibility of terrible teams such as this year's Bucs getting in.
2 division winners, 4 wild cards. Best system IMO.
I only advocated adding one more team for this year specifically to get rid of the first round bye since Cinci & Buffalo were denied the chance to compete for it.
But I agree with getting rid of the 7 seed and only have 6 teams get in.
4 division winners is a flawed system because it opens up the possibility of terrible teams such as this year's Bucs getting in.
2 division winners, 4 wild cards. Best system IMO.
But two divisions is also flawed. Now at least you get a home and away with the division teams. With seven divisional opponents, how do you balance the schedule? And interconfernce games? Do you get rid of those? Because the NFL added the 17th, and eventually 18th game, to have more of those. They didn't like that Brady-Rodgers or Brady-Brees could only happen every four years, so they did the extra games to have more interconference games. Two divisions will never happen, but of course...
Quote:
Originally Posted by KelVarnsen
The NFL loves money. The 7th seed isn’t going anywhere.
...neither will getting rid of the 7th seed. And "temporarily" adding the 8th seed? Lol, you think the NFL is going to "temporarily" make more money and decide to give it back? Once it goes to eight teams it's permanent. I actually think we'll eventually get to 12 teams in each conference: Top four teams, regardless of division winners, get a bye, and we get Super Dee Duper Wild Card weekend with three games Saturday, three Sunday, and a MNF doubleheader. Product gets worse, NFL gets richer, the almost certain solution to this.
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Last edited by Senator Clay Davis; 01-17-2023 at 06:09 AM.
I said I don't want the 7 seed. Both 7 seeds this year were badly outpayed, yet again, and the only reason the Dolphins came close to winning was the Bills trying to concoct the worst choke job ever. You advocated adding more teams, which would only make things worse. Go back to six teams, no guaranteed home game for division winners, basically perfect.
Problem giving division winners home field more than the 7 seed. Really if Miami has Tua and Allen plays the same way then Miami probably win that game. Seattle had that game close at halftime, we might see a game next week be more out of hand.
There were 6 9-8 teams this year (including the Giants at 9-7-1).
Two made the playoffs and won their game, two made the playoffs and lost, two didnt make the playoffs.
To me in a league where you only play 17 games, and where the schedule has such a heavy imbalance you need to have more playoff teams. Looking at Seattle and Detroit for example...its tough that one team gets a game and one team didnt when the schedules are so different.
To me 2 divisions and having fewer interconference games would be better, because at least youd have more balanced schedules within the conferences to determine playoff seeds. But yeah you lose some of the premier matchups in the regular season (although thats pretty random anyways)
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 01-17-2023 at 07:09 AM.
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The thing is though what makes the NFL the king of sports is the parity. What other sport can you be the Giants and Jags, pretty much hopeless at the end of last year, and now you're three games away from a title? We complain about mediocre and bad teams making the playoffs, and then 30-40 million of us watch every playoff game anyway. The NFL will not make wholesale changes to the cash cow, they will add teams to the playoffs and add another game to the schedule, we'll still watch no matter what, and that'll be that. We're basically fiends and they're the dealers, we'll whine and about quality, then get our parlay in, pick our fantasy team, and they'll count the money.
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Last edited by Senator Clay Davis; 01-17-2023 at 07:31 AM.
But two divisions is also flawed. Now at least you get a home and away with the division teams. With seven divisional opponents, how do you balance the schedule? And interconfernce games? Do you get rid of those? Because the NFL added the 17th, and eventually 18th game, to have more of those. They didn't like that Brady-Rodgers or Brady-Brees could only happen every four years, so they did the extra games to have more interconference games. Two divisions will never happen, but of course...
SuperMatt pretty much nailed it, the schedule is already very imbalanced in the current system. Case in point the Bucs get to play a boatload of games vs terrible teams because of the division they're in, yet still finish below .500 and get into the playoffs. Meanwhile, basically the opposition situation in a division like the NFC East.
Every divisional opponent home & away is not necessarily a requirement, IMO.
I don't hate 7 teams. In the 6 team system the 2 seed was getting a similar reward to the 1 seed with a bye. So even if its going thru the motions it's playing another game and games can be random as we saw with Miami putting up 31 points with like 250 yards of offence.
At least now when there is a bad Division winner there's one less team getting shafted. I wouldn't be against the idea of seeding the 3 to 7 teams based on records.
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Meanwhile, basically the opposition situation in a division like the NFC East.
Every divisional opponent home & away is not necessarily a requirement, IMO.
The NFL has a pretty set schedule. The NFC East had tougher Division games, but also got the AFC South vs the AFC North....so the 6 tougher Division games are balanced out with 4 tougher non Conference games.
Things will never be perfect but I think what they have now is at least close. The NFC East was a joke two years ago...but that's forgotten today.
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NFL also values traditional rivalries. We all hate some of the excessive NFC East in primetime, but the league would never get rid of those twice a year rivalries like that. Two divisions a conference would never happen. I also doubt the division champ not getting a home game would ever happen either, because yeah we're two years removed from a crappy Cowboys team possibly hosting a playoff game, and no way would Jerry, or any owner, change that. Just something we'll suffer through as fans.
But as far as radical ideas that would never happen, I'd love a relegation/promotion setup. 16 teams in two leagues, top 8 in each make the championship/promotion playoffs, bottom 8 in the top league play in the relegation playoff, bottom 8 in the lower league play in a playoff for the #1 pick (winner gets the #1 pick).
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The NFL has a pretty set schedule. The NFC East had tougher Division games, but also got the AFC South vs the AFC North....so the 6 tougher Division games are balanced out with 4 tougher non Conference games.
Things will never be perfect but I think what they have now is at least close. The NFC East was a joke two years ago...but that's forgotten today.
But that was also just lucky and random due to how that rotates - in a different year the tougher NFC East could have also gotten the AFC North - and would have have had a double whammy of tough schedule.
An interesting solution would be that everybody plays everyone in the conference once a season (15 games - no home/away split) and then have 2 random inter conference games.
That would probably give you the most accurate regular season seeding at least with more schedule balance outside of the 2 inter conference games.
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Luck has lots to do with scheduling even with a "balanced" schedule. Injury luck, weather luck, timing in the season luck etc...This whole argument started because I said the 7th seed was terrible and adding it accomplished nothing, but that was purely from a fan perspective. It, of course, made the NFL more money, so it will never change to anything but an 8th seed, 9th seed etc... We just have to accept it, it was tough most years to argue there were 12 "deserving" teams, it'll be impossible most years to justify 16, but we'll all be watching when it happens, which is why it's a guarantee that it will.
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But that was also just lucky and random due to how that rotates - in a different year the tougher NFC East could have also gotten the AFC North - and would have have had a double whammy of tough schedule.
An interesting solution would be that everybody plays everyone in the conference once a season (15 games - no home/away split) and then have 2 random inter conference games.
That would probably give you the most accurate regular season seeding at least with more schedule balance outside of the 2 inter conference games.
Yeah but as it is a guy like Mahomes only would get to Seattle every 8th year. Doing it your way...every 32.
When the NHL did away with everyone playing each team at least twice fans hated it. MLB added Interleague play because of this. I think fans would hate seeing a Seahawks vs Giants game every year.
Keep the schedule the way it is. The rotation balances out over time and everyone does at least play everyone else at least every 4th year.
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The thing is though what makes the NFL the king of sports is the parity. What other sport can you be the Giants and Jags, pretty much hopeless at the end of last year, and now you're three games away from a title? We complain about mediocre and bad teams making the playoffs, and then 30-40 million of us watch every playoff game anyway. The NFL will not make wholesale changes to the cash cow, they will add teams to the playoffs and add another game to the schedule, we'll still watch no matter what, and that'll be that. We're basically fiends and they're the dealers, we'll whine and about quality, then get our parlay in, pick our fantasy team, and they'll count the money.
I tend to agree, but since 2000 only 7 teams have played more than 20 playoff games, and 7 teams have played less than 10 games. There are many usual suspects at the top and bottom. Could be explained by management.
I'm fine with the NFL division and playoff formats. The schedules are so short and unbalanced that it is tough to compare teams from different divisions. Makes sense to give the winner of a division, where all teams play similar schedules, a top seed.
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It's hard because 4 team divisions just seems small, it feels like almost every year one division is junk. But 2 feels a tad large, with 8 teams each (I know that's the NHL currently)
What about going back to the classic 3 division format? I know people get hung up on the unbalanced divisions, but is it really THAT big of a deal if one division per conference has 1 more team than the rest? I'd prefer that to an 8-9/7-10 team getting in more often than not. Back to 5-6 team divisions seems perfect to me.
I'm fine with the NFL division and playoff formats. The schedules are so short and unbalanced that it is tough to compare teams from different divisions. Makes sense to give the winner of a division, where all teams play similar schedules, a top seed.
Yeah I think the nfl has the best schedule in North American sports. And a solid playoff format, except for the odd situation where a crappy division winner makes it.
Schedule is balanced, good teams play tougher schedules, playoffs are still an achievement but not too easy or hard.
