Posted by moranis on 12/20/2013 7:41:00 PM (view original):
Posted by MikeT23 on 12/20/2013 10:38:00 AM (view original):
Why have divisions if a division championship means nothing?
It would mean you are automatically in the playoffs no matter your record. So that 7-9 Seattle would be in the playoffs (instead of10-6 NY or 10-6 Tampa) they just wouldn't be hosting a playoff game against a 11-5 New Orleans team that had beaten Seattle by 15 during the season.
Burnsy's post on the previous page said if a division winner is worse than the 7th place team, they don't get in. That's pointless.
Bottom line: Win the games you need to win. SF lost winnable games at home to Indy and Carolina, and got blown out of the water in Seattle. And as was previously pointed out, if KC beats Denver even once, they're in the driver's seat for top seed.
The only way to create a truly "fair" playoff scenario would be to have two 16 team conferences, no divisions, each team plays every other team in the conference once, with the 16th game against the team in the other conference who finished at the same place in the standings the previous year. Then you let the top 6 in each conference in.
As long as there are divisions, winning the division has to mean something.