The NFL has gone through a few playoff formats since the 1970 offseason officially brought the AFL franchises into the fold. Four-, five-, six- and seven-team brackets have followed. We are now in Year 5 of seven teams per conference qualifying, and this year brought familiar issues.
A 14-3 Vikings team was forced into a road trip to play a 10-7 Rams squad, albeit in Arizona due to the Los Angeles-area wildfires, but this was not the only game in which a home team carried a worse record. The Buccaneers and Texans each hosted opponents (the Commanders and Chargers) who carried worse records than the visitors held. Houston prevailed against the AFC’s L.A. franchise.
Highlighted by instances in which seven-win Seahawks (2010), Panthers (2014) and Commanders (2020) teams earned home games by winning their respective divisions as seven-win teams, the NFL awarding home games to division winners has come under frequent scrutiny. The 2008 Chargers and 2011 Broncos each went 8-8 and beat 12-4 teams (the Colts and Steelers) at home in Round 1.
Division winners did not always earn opening-round home tilts, as the four- and five-team brackets — from 1975-1989, at least, as the NFL did not turn to record-based home-field advantage until the ’75 season — required the division winner with the worst record to begin postseason play on the road. Since 1990, however, every division winner has begun its playoffs at home.
The league will take another look at its seeding format this coming offseason, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones notes. Rather than award home games to the four division winners, the NFL would look at giving them to the four teams with the highest win percentages overall. This would resemble how the NBA seeds its playoffs. Though, it is worth noting proposals along these lines have not made it too far in the past.
A playoff hierarchy that determines seeding based on record would have required the Eagles to play their starters in Week 18, as both the Vikings and Lions entered Week 18 with superior conference records in the event of a tiebreaker scenario. The Packers and Commanders also would have factored into pursuits of a first-round home game in Week 18. The NFL, as Jones notes, also saw its ratings decline by 2.2% from the 2023 season. A format in which wild-card teams and division winners could have more to play for in Week 18 would help the overall product, albeit while devaluing the importance of winning a division.
Whereas the NBA has seen its format deprive the league’s divisions of much meaning, the NFL has seen them retain importance for ages. Changing that figures to be a tough battle, as John Mara had once said a 2008 measure to reseed in this matter “went down in flames,” with Jones adding the effort did not receive meaningful discussion. While the ratings component could conceivably push this issue to a discussion this time around, it will be difficult to envision the country’s most popular sports league making a big-picture change like this at present.
So where’s the motivation to win your division? Whatever the NBA does do the opposite because they have completely demoralized their regular season
Would division winners still make the playoffs but play on the road if their win total is less than a non-division winner?
Man the crybabies about the playoff format is so annoying. Two 14 win teams up until the final week were battling for 1st seed. More stakes is more competition which is more ratings and better football. Having only 1 seed byes in each division brings more competition too. Each game matters that much more
They should move to 8 with two top team BYE or go back to 6 with no BYE. This does make sense because right now you can loose every game in your division but still ‘win the division’ because you have the best record at 8-8 and host a 15-2 team
Can’t have 6 teams and no byes.
Definitely not eight teams. Has a 7-seed beat a 2-seed yet under the current format?
Packers beat the Cowboys last year.
That would make division play meaningless
Thank you!! Finally someone gets it. Imagine if Vikings were 2 seed behind lions. It would make every divisional game meaningless like a domino effect
Also under Consideration = A 32 Team Playoff Format !!! $$$$$$
Next up, playoff games sold to overseas bidders.
All professional leagues are really jeopardizing the meaning of the regular season by messing around with the playoff format.
League getting worse and worse
It is not surprising the NFL is losing viewership. There is gross incompetence from the referees and they are selling advertising for commercial breaks during injuries.
Inconsistent application of replay techniques solely dependent on whether the game is finishing too fast or too slow. There are crazy ball spotting mistakes in every single game.
You have two owners in the state of Ohio, one refuses to pay his triple crown winning receiver, and the other gave the largest guaranteed contract to Deshaun Watson.
With a 13-12 record, a collegiate coach from Colorado is being considered for HC of the most valuable franchise in the league.
Vikings had a chance to win their division, they blew it.
Rams won their division.
A 14-3 team should beat a 10-7 team.
Plain and simple.
Only exception I would make is changes to overtime rules
Instead of kick offs start at opponents 40 trading blows.
TD for TD, FG for FG, similar to college rules.
After first overtime you have to go for 2 if you score a TD.
put a ghost wr midfield
Expanding playoffs to 16 teams and eliminating the bye week is the way to go. Younger the ratings back because you have beat teams playing every week. Also, this would have allowed a 10-7 Seahawks team to make playoffs and have a Bengals team in playoffs that finished with 5 straight wins at 9-8. Also, KC wouldn’t have mailed in the last week vs Denver as they would have cared who would finish in the 8th spot. If it is about ratings add the 8th team and two extra games…
The only benefit of having that Seahawks team in the playoffs was to make the NFL more money. They didn’t deserve it, and neither did Cinci. Win more games and it wouldn’t be a problem.
the NBA has a random in season tournament and only two divisions per conference instead of four.
I’d say if the NBA is doing it, then do the opposite.
plus if winning your division means nothing, then why play each team Twice. it’s not like they are really competing against you in the division.
bro everyone knew the vikings were gonna lose that game
You’re either good enough to win in the playoffs or you’re not. The only way to solve the disparity in records problem would be to award each team a home game and use the aggregate score to determine who advances. I think they used that system at one time in the CFL.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Ratings are great.
All about Ratings and Revenue
May as well just make one big conference and let top 7 in. Or forbid teams without at least 10 wins from making playoffs.
Weren’t they just trying to pimp neutral sites when the games had extreme cold and snow? They also want an international SB… but now they Want to reward wc teams with better records than division winners. NFL trying to hurt themselves when things are going well? Vikings have been soft in playoffs, they lost to a lowly NYG team a couple of years ago.
Goodell is a Dumpster Fire
Might be OK with it, if they limit it to the 4/5 game and some rule on W-L difference (say, if the 5th seed finishes 3 or more games better than the 4th).
oth, I was at the Beast Quake game. It was awesome!
Same here…soon as I saw the 2010 Seahawks mentioned made me smile. What a game and a run…stadium went crazy!
That’s what the vikings get for popping champagne week 16 like they actually won something.