I don't see the correlation.

Just hate seeing really bad teams get into the playoffs because they happened to be better than 3 other really bad teams. The divisions aren't large enough for a division champion to really mean anything anymore.

Yep. Just look at the NFC:

Falcons, Bucs, Saints, Packers, Bears, Giants, Eagles. Not all 7 of those good teams can make the playoffs. In the meantime, the ****ing Rams/Seahawks are going to piddle around and win the division with an 8-8 record, taking up ANOTHER slot that could have gone to one of these competitive teams.

I see the two wildcards coming from the NFC South. That means Packers/Bears will get left out. Same thing with Giants/Eagles.

Think how well all 4 of those teams have played all year. I think people were talking about the Super Bowl for all four of those teams at least once this year. Now two of them can't even make the playoffs?

That's just how it works I guess.

Give it up, it was a terrible idea.

What is probably going to happen is that Division winners will be guaranteed a playoff spot like usual, but they will seed the spots by W/L record... Thus the NFCW winner would be seeded last (if they have the worst record of the 6 NFC playoff teams). This will give teams that have locked up their own division incentive to win the rest of their games too (call this the anti-Indy rule). By winning the most games in your conference you guarantee the #1 seed for yourself.

Honestly, it makes too much damn sense, there is no reason it shouldn't have been done before... which also means the NFL will probably never do it.

I think this idea should be incorporated anyway. It's just silly to reward some 7-9 or 8-8 team with a home game. I'm just saying, they shouldn't be in the playoffs at all. Would people be more for my proposal if we lowered the restriction to 9-7? All rules are the same, except for times where a division winner is 8-8 or worse. Those teams are disqualified (call it a skunk rule, or whatever) and add another wildcard.

But yeah, seeding should be independent of division winner status.

It does suck to see a bad team make the playoffs but it really doesn't seem to happen than often, hopefully The seahawks win out to make it to 10-6 so they will live up to your standards

Make it 9 and I could get behind this, actually the more i think about it the more i like it (but at 9).