If you give the conference winners 2 weeks off, yeah they'll get to rest up, but they will arguably be at a disadvantage to teams that are coming off of 2 straight victories in the prior two weeks. The constant week to week playing helps teams in a lot of ways, although obviously it also has disadvantages in terms of injuries and recovering from them. If you add another game during the season, then why not add 2? Why not then, in 2020, expand to a 20 or 21 game format? Then 24 games by 2030, with 75% of teams making the playoffs? I don't want football to go in that direction. The way things work now, there's a tiny possibility of a 7-9 team getting to the playoffs (as happened with Seattle a few years ago), and occasionally an 8 win team will make it, but generally speaking almost all of the playoff teams have winning records. The playoffs, more or less, really do have only teams that are "pretty solid" or better. If you open it up to where 14 or 16 teams make the playoffs, you greatly diminish the meaning of the regular season. With that many teams in the playoffs, any above-average team will have an excellent chance of making the playoffs- and any team that is actually good, their season isn't really worth watching because it's never in doubt. That makes the regular season a lot less interesting, and it makes making the playoffs much less of an accomplishment. Right now, it's watered down, but it's still at the point where teams who make it to the playoffs are at least 8-8 almost always. If you expand the playoffs, below-average teams will routinely make the playoffs, and that is bad for the sport. Yes, I know that it's a "Rocky" moment / exciting or whatever for a 6-10 team that makes the playoffs to then go on and end up winning the Super Bowl. I get that. I understand that now all the mediocre teams have more to play for, etc. But I think it's more exciting for the playoffs to have only really good teams, and a few teams that are pretty good. When one of those "pretty good" teams with the 9-7 record wins the Super Bowl, you still get the sense that they earned it, that they were a good team that got great at the right moment. When a 6-10 team wins the Super Bowl, it makes you wonder "what's the point of being good in the regular season?" I think that what you will see if they expand the playoffs, is the last 2 or 3 weeks becoming irrelevant for a lot of teams. You will see a lot of teams resting their healthy start players 1 - 2 games during the season to keep them fresh for the playoffs, because it's absolutely fine if you lose a few extra games in the regular season- you want to be as fresh as possible for when you make the playoffs, and it's not that much of a struggle to get there. Right now the mantra is "every game matters", and while they will still outwardly say that no matter what, in terms of strategy, you will see a big shift away from trying to win every game, and towards "let's keep our guys fresh for the playoffs". That means that Weeks 16 and 17 will be a lot more boring, because the better teams will clinch a playoff spot much earlier and will then have a strong incentive to rest players, making the last weeks less competitive overall. Yes, there will still be teams fighting for the last wildcard spot or two, but they will be below-average and barely average teams who really don't deserve to be in the playoffs by normal football standards. And then as far as adding another game to the schedule goes, while I don't think that would be as harmful as expanding the playoffs, it would still be bad for football by diminishing the importance of any given regular season game. The big change that I would be in favor of, would be expanding to an 18 week regular season format- but still have only 16 games. Every team gets 2 bye weeks. Then you could arrange it so that your Thursday night game always comes after one of your Bye weeks- and you could even add Tuesday Night Football and Wednesday Night Football, with both teams having one of their bye weeks the week before their Tues, Weds, or Thursday night game so that they have time to prepare for the game. That would help the NFL make more money by expanding the season, result in NFL games being played more days per week, and yet not cause the problems of adding more games or expanding the playoffs. I think that'd be the way to go, personally.
From my POV this might actually cost the NFL money. I'm dropping NFL ticket because regular season games aren't meaningful and all the playoff games are televised on the networks. This year NFL ticket gave me a ton of crappy football games for a pretty significant piece of change. I will never pay for it again. It's also going to cost the league at the stadium. If seats are purchased by companies while they get the added benefit of their adds shown in the local market the lack of fans in the stands cost the teams significant revenue in parking, food, beer and merchandise. Lets face it with the exception of a couple of games, the product week in and week out during the regular season kind of sucks especially on any kind of value basis. The playoffs are free on network TV. I could see this having a net negative impact on overall revenue as fans stop buying season tickets that include 2 pre-season games now. There is a point where increasing prices to a watered down product will not increase revenue.
Good points. I like your idea of expanding the season to 18 weeks because while I hate the Thursday games, I know they're here to stay. This makes things a bit better by allowing more time off after the game. Unfortunately that doesn't help the fact that the Thursday game will be teams playing off of short rest - a fact that has made the Thursday night of a lesser-quality than the Sunday versions. Most experts agree on this. I am against the added playoff team. It would water down the integrity of the league's season. We have so much parity now, all another playoff team will do is give us all more tie breakers to worry about. The extra team that qualifies from each conference will almost always have the same W/L record as a few others. To me it's ridiculous. As we all know, it's another money grab for an already rich league. I really don't get it. It's almost impossible to f*ck up the NFL, yet Goodell and Co. will give it their best shot at doing just that. Rack this up as another horrible idea - though one not quite as asinine as putting a team in Europe. I'd only be in favor of another playoff team if somehow they expand again. At minimum, LA and some other city. But I really don't want that either.
This is a bad idea, the current format is fine. Letting in more mediocre teams just opens up the always present possibility (with 1 and done format) that the mediocre team might actually advance at the expense of a better, more deserving team. We see that all the time in the NCAA tourney. It would make for a wild opening weekend, but I also like the exclusivity of the NFL playoffs. It sets them apart from the NBA or NHL playoffs or NCAA tournament.
Every year a team or two with a winning record misses playoffs ,so I wouldn't mind it because that team could be us one of these years
would this new system promote/reduce the benching of starters in the last week of play??? If it will allow the last week of regular season football to become more competitive for more teams, I'm all for it.
F that... its stupid.. i like things the way they are its more suspenseful. i love watching teams need this team to win and that team to lose to get in the playoffs its just exciting. On the other hand i kinda see why they would do it from a money stand point and from teams like the Cardinals that went what 11-5 and no playoffs? they woulda won about every division in the league cept for about 2 or 3. I remember they were saying they wanna get rid of divisions in the NFL also.. which would again take away the suspense.
Awful. Hate it. Only 1 team gets a bye? That's too massive an advantage for something that could be decided by a tiebreaker. I'd rather have 8 teams in each conference and nobody gets a bye. EDIT: What would work for me is a play-in for the second wildcard like they have in baseball now if they're dead set on 7 teams. That way you have all division winners, the non division-winner with best record and then a team that had to play their way in. That gives merit to all teams instead of the second-best team who didn't win their division getting in just because.
Yep. I think it's a great idea. Yeah it's about money but it has other benefits. Giving 4 teams out of 12 a bye is SOFT AS HELL. This is the NFL, not baseball where you are standing still the majority of the time. That's 1/3 of the playoff teams you don't even get to see in the first week. It will make the #1 spot much more valuable and also increase the competition amongst the lower seeds. There's no reason not to do it. Fans will love it, teams will love it, more money is made and less 11-5/10-6 teams in tough divisions will miss the playoffs over an 8-8 division winner. It's a win for everyone. Honestly I hate byes. Teams should not get free playoff rounds, I'd get rid of them completely if it were up to me, but it's not possible without having 8 teams in the playoffs, which is exactly half the league and is too much, IMO. Currently 37% of the NFL makes the playoffs. To put that in perspective 53% make it in NBA & NHL and 33% make it in MLB (although they might have just changed it, don't really follow baseball). If they expanded it, the NFL would have 43% in the playoffs. 7 teams per conference is perfect. I really hope this happens. Traditionalists will obviously oppose it, because they don't like any change ever but without it the world would be boring.
I'm curious as to how it takes away suspense. There will still be plenty, especially amongst the teams in the hunt. Less teams getting byes is a good thing. Nothing is less suspenseful than having 1/3 of the playoff teams sit out the first week of playoffs. I've always found that a bit ridiculous.
Thanks. I might have phrased things incorrectly- I would want the bye week to be before the Thursday game (or the hypothetical Wednesday or Tuesday games.) That would eliminate the problem of not having enough time to prepare for the game- but on the flip side, it wouldn't be a restful bye where you send the players home for a few days. It would be a working bye week where you're prepping for the game. And then after the game, you'd end up with a few extra days of rest and practice for your next game. So, that would be somewhat of an advantage for the following game I suppose, but there would be plenty of time to prep for the weekday game if you always had a bye the week before. And with a longer season overall, the league should be able to make a bit more money (since most fans will still watch even if their team is on a bye) and it should help compensate a little bit for injuries since there would be a little more time to rest during the season.
As someone else said, the NHL/NBA and especially the NBA usually end up having one of if not the best teams win the championship every year because of the 7 game series. It limits the randomness as much as you can without going over the top like 29 game series. I don't think the NFL could ever do a series. You can only play once a week and if someone wins the first two then their opponent comes from a series that comes from the third game, it becomes a bye week. In the NHL and NBA and MLB you can schedule 3-4 games in a week and even back to backs, so series is easier. That is definitely the attraction. It's like March Madness in college basketball. Ugh I would hate Thursday/Friday/Monday night games for the playoffs. Also it brings up the unfair part that the Thursday night people get an 3 days off over the team that has to play Sunday. It makes more sense to stagger them on Saturday/Sunday.
it is only greed if it backfires and the NFL loses interest and ratings as a result. if it grows the NFL, it is smart business and what they should do to strengthen the league.
It might just be me but my interest level in the regular season really dipped this season. Like I didnt even get excited for a single NFL game this entire season because I knew that pretty much nothing that occured in the regular seasosn made that big a difference at the end of the day. I was pumped for the playoffs though but im not going to lie, adding another wildcard would further take away from the meaningfulness of the regular season.
All for adding another team to the playoffs. Being the best team in the conference should allow for you and you only to have a bye week. I don't think coming in 2nd should get the same benefit of a bye week as coming in first
I dont see why it would be a bad idea. For the league, it brings in more money, viewers, etc. For the owners, 2 more organizations will have their teams and fans excited and paying money who ordinarily would be watching other teams from their couch. Grabs more fans/cities and makes them interested in the playoffs. And I dont think you lose out on competition. Arizona would be in, they have a great record. And in the AFC, you'd think Baltimore/Pitt aren't good teams, but then again San Diego went on the road and won a playoff game. Don't see whats so bad about this. They're not adding a round to the playoffs or anything.
