In NFC, (L)east gifted in playoffs
It’s one thing to accept mediocrity and quite another to reward it.
Yet that is exactly what the NFL is going to do this postseason.
As the playoff picture stands now, the winner of the very lackluster – to put it nicely – NFC East will host a wildcard game while either San Francisco or Seattle will have to hit the road.
That’s right. The Seahawks and the 49ers are two of the best teams in the NFL, 10game winners already, and, for one of them, it won’t count for anything. They could squeeze into the postseason with a Week 17 win, and the result would be much the same.
Yes, barring a collapse, the Niners or the Seahawks will get the easier wild-card opponent. But they still have to play away from the comforts of home. No small thing for
teams that are both 5-1 at home so far.
Plus, no team has won three road games in the playoffs since the Packers did it in 2010, which is what the Niners or Seahawks are facing. What has happened, several times, is that a team with a worse record is gifted a home wildcard game and knocks out a team with a better record.
This absurdity is the result of the NFL’s archaic system for playoff seeding. Unlike the more meritocratic NBA, the NFL continues to award its top four seeds to division winners, regardless of their records. That means a Dallas or
Philadelphia team that likely would be shut out of the playoffs if not for winning the NFC East will get preference over a wild-card team with a better record.
The Cowboys are currently 6-6, with games left against Chicago, the Rams, Philadelphia and Washington. The Eagles are 5-7, with the Giants, Washington, Dallas and another game against the Giants still to come.
In the best-case scenario, Dallas would claim the NFC East with 10 wins or Philadelphia with nine wins.
Worst-case, and this is not so farfetched, the NFC East winner finishes below .500. Either way, they still get a top-four seed.
Over in the AFC, the 8-4 Chiefs are seeded ahead of the 9-4 Bills because
Kansas City would be a division winner and Buffalo a wild card. But Kansas City at least has a winning record.
I understand the NFL wanting to put a premium on winning the division. But in the case of the Niners or Seahawks, it is also minimizing the importance of actual victories.
Teams can’t help what division they’re in, obviously, nor can they control their schedule. In fact, the strength of the divisions vary wildly, a disparity that can be compounded by the out-ofdivision and out-of-conference schedules set by the league.
Besides playing each other and the Rams twice, the Niners and Seahawks also got New Orleans, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Oakland. Dallas and Philadelphia got two games each against the
Giants and Washington, as well as the Jets and Detroit.
But the NFL can take all of that into account. And when the stakes are so high, it needs to, both for the sake of fairness and entertainment.
The NBA wisely recognized this four years ago, ditching its preferential treatment of division winners for seeding solely based on record. You win more games, you get a better seed. You don’t, well, you made your bed, didn’t you?
The NBA’s formula could, theoretically, keep a division winner out of the playoffs. The NFL doesn’t need to go that far – yet. Simply reserve playoff spots for all four division winners, but seed by record.
Everybody wins, particularly the teams that actually have.