Week 17 has concluded and the NFL playoff picture is set! It was another quasi-exciting end of a season. If I do not seem as excited about that ending as everyone else, it's only because the things still up for grabs (and there were a number of them!), it was ultimately just a race to mediocrity. The NFC North, NFC East, and the last AFC Wildcard spots were all up for grabs, with the first two featuring "winner takes division" games. In the NFC North, we had the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears play in a game that decided who wins the division. The same thing happened in the NFC East between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. And yet, of those teams, only Philadelphia has arguably looked good this season. (To be fair to Green Bay, the best quarterback in the league did miss a good chunk of time.)
Still, had the Bears won, it would have been a 9-7 team winning the NFC North instead of the 8-7-1 Packers. And in the NFC East, the Cowboys could have won it with a 9-7 record as well, instead of the now 10-6 Eagles. In the AFC, we had a fearsome foursome of 8-7 teams looking to grab that last remaining wildcard spot. In a race to mediocrity, the 8-8 Pittsburgh Steelers very, very, very nearly made it in as a wildcard team. Fortunately, we instead got the ever-so-barely 9-7 San Diego Chargers.
This season, fortunately, does not feature any .500 or below teams. This is obviously good. Only the best teams should make it to the post season. Still, this steadfast support for breaking things down by conference certainly opens the doors to mediocrity in the post season. Consider 2004 where the NFC saw two 8-8 teams get in on the NFC wild cards. Meanwhile, the AFC had three above .500 teams that missed out.
Sure, it doesn't happen often, but it does happen a fair amount where mediocre teams (or slightly above mediocre teams) get a playoff spot, while legitimately good teams in a much tougher division or conference miss out. Everyone seems to downplay these instances by saying, "Well if the 10-6 Cardinals beat the Saints earlier this year, they would have been in the playoffs! They've no one to blame but themselves." But even then, you'd still have a good 10-6 Saints team missing the playoffs while a mediocre 9-7 Chargers (or potentially 8-8 Steelers - or even an 8-8 Dolphins for that matter as they could have won the spot if all four teams lost) made it on wild cards.
The problem lies in an antiquated conference system. Maybe it was cool in the 1960s and '70s to see NFL teams square off against formerly AFL teams in the championship games, but who cares about that in today's NFL? It's all the NFL! The post season should always be reserved for the best. Look at the NBA's playoff system. Granted, they need to scale theirs down, but imagine if the NBA went to a "top 16 teams" instead of a "top 8 in each conference." This year, we're going to see a bunch of crappy Eastern Conference teams duke it out (but also, not really because it's going to be Miami or Indiana), while some goo Western Conference teams miss out. The fact that the NBA always has sub .500 teams in the playoffs (always in the Eastern Conference) makes it a bit of a joke.
Sports fans are oddly traditional and almost instantly reject new or different things, so I know most people will disagree with me here. That's fine. I know the NFL won't change it (even if it seems like maybe they could given they've already made the Pro Bowl non-conference based - not that anyone cares about the Pro Bowl). What they should do is quite simple and would promote only the best teams in the league.
12 Playoff spots.
8 Divisional Winners get in.
4 Best teams outside divisional winners get the wild cards.
Seed each team 1 through 12.
Top 4 seeds get first round Bye Weeks.
Top 2 seeds get homefield advantage.
Then just break it down into a normal bracket! It's not that difficult. The playoffs would play the exact same way. Four "wild card" games the first weekend (5 seed vs. 12 seed, 6 seed vs. 11 seed, 7 seed vs. 10 seed, 8 seed vs. 9 seed). Then four games in the "divisional round" weekend (1 seed vs. lowest remaining seed, 2 seed vs. second lowest remaining seed, 3 seed vs. third lowest remaining, 4 seed vs. fourth lowest remaining). And then you get two games during "Championship Weekend," (highest seed remaining vs. lowest seed remaining, second highest seed remaining vs. second lowest remaining). Then the Super Bowl is just whoever has made it that far! It'd play exactly the same. The only difference is that you won't get "Conference Champions," because there are no conferences anymore.
People will hate that, even though everyone readily admits that winning the conference championship doesn't mean anything. All that matters is winning the Super Bowl. It is this guy's opinion that we should feature only the best teams in the pursuit of a Super Bowl champion.
Get rid of conferences. They don't mean anything and they open the doors to mediocre teams getting into the playoffs.
