Playoff reseading potentially up for vote this week

[tsylvester]

Under the Lions' original proposal, the seven teams in each conference would have still consisted of four division champions and three wild-card teams. However, the big change is that the teams would be seeded by who has the best record. Under that proposal, a wild-card team could have been seeded ahead of a division winner if the wild-card team had a better record. That means that a wild-card team could be seeded as high as No. 2. Under the current format, the four division winners get the top four seeds followed by the three wild-card teams. In the current format, no wild card team can be seeded higher than fifth.

 

Here's what the NFC playoff seedings looked like in 2024:
1. Lions (15-2)
2. Eagles (14-3)
3. Buccaneers (10-7)
4. Rams (10-7)
5. Vikings (14-3)
6. Commanders (12-5)
7. Packers (11-6)

Here's what they would have looked like with the Lions' original proposal:
1. Lions (15-2)
2. Eagles (14-3)
3. Vikings (14-3)
4. Commanders (12-5)
5. Packers (11-6)
6. Buccaneers (10-7)
7. Rams (10-7)

That's a massive change because division winners -- except for the top seed -- would no longer be guaranteed to host a playoff game. CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported Friday that the Lions' original proposal was almost certainly going to face some pushback at the owners' meeting, which is likely why a modified proposal was introduced.

Pushback on reseeding NFL playoffs? Why proposal to change format makes sense for league
Jonathan Jones

One tiebreaker that would be added is that if a wild-card team and a division winner have the same record -- like the Vikings and Eagles above -- the division winner would automatically get the better seed, even if they lost a head-to-head game against the wild-card team.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been showing support for a possible change to the playoff format, so it's certainly possible that this will be approved.

When Goodell was asked about this specific proposal in April, he seemed to be enthusiastic about it.

"I thought it is a very healthy proposal and a very healthy point that we need to evaluate and continue to look at," Goodell said. "It went through many different forms. There was some great data to show that we should really look at some form or version of this."

In less than a week, we'll find out if the playoff format will be changing or staying the same for 2025.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/new-nfl-playoff-format-could-be-coming-for-2025-owners-expected-to-vote-on-huge-postseason-change-per-report/

 

 

[oldno82]

I don't have a good feeling about this. I like the current idea where winning the division has meaning. And, I don't like it that if team A has beaten team B that the latter could be seeded above the former.

[tsylvester]

I'm on the fence to be honest. I do agree about winning a division, but there is something to be said for a team that goes 14-3, comes in 2nd in their strong division and has to go on the road to play a team that won their weak division at 7-9.

Granted, this doesn't happen very often, but it seems to be happening more & more lately.

[papasmurfbell]

I’m all for it.  If you and your div suck and can only get wins amongst yourselves you don’t deserve to host.  

[tsylvester]

Owners, absurdity, allowing, approve players to play in Olympic flag football...(equally absurd)

No way would I want my star players, runningbacks, corners, safeties, wide outs, quarterbacks for the shifty, speedy ones, playing, no freaking way

[papasmurfbell]

It’s advertising internationally for the nfl.

[tsylvester]

It's cowardly leaving it up to the owners to reneg on contracts, high dollar, if a player gets hurt in the Olympics

[papasmurfbell]

They want their cake and eat it too.

[oldno82]

It's a really stupid idea just from the point of view of potential injury. Shoot, Ar'Darius tore his achilles while conditioning last week.

[papasmurfbell]

Ok.  But if they can get other countries to want to host they like the risk.

[tsylvester]

Lions pulled their playoff plan

Though there's a desire among NFL executives to make late-season games more exciting and incentivize teams to play their starters in Week 18, there wasn't enough support from league owners to approve Detroit's proposal, so the Lions withdrew it before a formal vote. It could be revisited in the future, especially as the NFL pushes to expand to an 18-game schedule.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45252578/lions-withdraw-proposal-change-nfl-playoff-seeding