In the NFL there are always going to be bad teams, but when an entire division is under .500, there is a serious issue with the NFL’s system.
Quoting the NFL, the following rules are invoked in terms of who qualifies for the Playoffs.
1. The division champion with the best record.
2. The division champion with the second-best record.
3. The division champion with the third-best record.
4. The division champion with the fourth-best record.
5. The Wild Card club with the best record.
6. The Wild Card club with the second-best record.
Let me explain what this means. It is possible that a 12-win team will miss the postseason while a 5-win team will make it. There is no reason for this other than tradition. Worse, the division champions get home field advantage.
This has happened before. In 2010, The Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West by virtue of being the best of the worst in the division.
As a result, despite the New Orleans Saints going 12-4 to Seattle’s 7-9 record, New Orleans went to CenturyLink Field – where the Seahawks have arguably the best home field advantage in the NFL – and Seattle won.
Last season, San Francisco despite having a 12-4 record had to travel to a below freezing Lambeau Field even though Green Bay went 8-7-1. San Francisco won on a field goal.
The NFL should change its playoff system, It should merely be the six best teams in each conference instead of the division winners and wildcard system.
If a team can have 12 wins and miss out on the playoffs because of a divisional winner having 5, it’s clear that there is a major issue with this system.
The owners may like the current system, but quite a few fans do not. Tradition is not a good enough reason to keep an extremely unfair system.
If the NFC South debacle this year doesn’t make a clear point to the NFL that it needs to change, then absolutely nothing will.
It will prove that NFL is willing to defy everything up to and including common sense just to keep their owners happy. If so, the NFL will continue to annoy and frustrate their fans when it is clear that the playoff system is one of the worst in sports.
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