Expanded Playoffs approved - 14 to 16 teams IF games are cancelled

[N4L]

Here is another interesting angle I hadnt thought of until right now -

The players and owners agreed that players would not get paid for games that dont happen. Meaning cancelled games actually save owners money

Playoff games are not paid like an 18th week, every player on the roster makes an extra 50k or whatever

Playoff games have higher ratings and generate extra revenue

 

SO, by not finishing out the regular season out properly by simply adding an 18th week, the NFL will cut costs, and probably not miss a beat on revenue (depending on the amount of cancellations) 

the balls on these owners.... 

 

ALSO - I wonder how much this has to do with their handshake agreement with the NCAA. As in, the NFL doesnt want to directly compete with things like the national championship game or bowl season etc. adds a little bit of color why they are so resistant to the obvious solution of adding one more goddamn week

Edited November 11, 2020 by N4L

[Shanedorf]

21 minutes ago, N4L said:

Here is another interesting angle I hadnt thought of until right now -

excellent post...playoff pay is handled by league and the per game payouts = less than vet minimum until you hit Conference Champ game

Wild Card Round—Division Winner: $29,000
Wild Card Team: $27,000
Divisional Round: $29,000
Conference Championship: $54,000
Super Bowl Winner: $118,000
Super Bowl Loser: $59,000

 

[Wyld Stallyns]

14 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

Watch a 6-10 team get hot and win the Super Bowl. 

Giants knock out Brady in the NFC championship game and then get destroyed by the Chiefs in the Super Bowl 

I can’t see a 6-10 AFC team making it to the playoffs but with the NFC East it’s bound to happen. 

[pf9]

As a fan of the Packers, I am about to provide another compelling argument in favor of removing seeding priority for division winners.

In 2011, the Packers went 15-1, but for the second time in five seasons, lost to a eventual champion Giants team at home in the postseason. During this point in Eli Manning's career, the Giants had been particularly good in postseason games that were not true home games. The Giants in 2011 were 9-7 however, and this was a major low point for the NFL.

The Giants actually earned a home playoff game that year because they had won a terrible (as usual) NFC East. The two wild card teams, Atlanta and Detroit, both had better records.

Without seeding priority, the Giants would have been the #6 seed and had to open the playoffs in the Superdome against the Saints, who did not lose a home game that year. Even though in their recent playoff runs they did well away from New Jersey, in 2011 they were on the wrong end of a 49-24 beatdown by the Saints at the Superdome. The Giants last won a road game against the Saints in 2005, but that was because it was relocated from the Superdome due to a hurricane; it marked the only time the Giants ever played a road game in Giants Stadium against a team other than the Jets, who have shared a stadium with the Giants since 1984. In fact, the Giants had not won in the Superdome since a 1993 MNF game (and still have not as of 2020, Drew Brees is just that good of a quarterback).

But because most NFL owners were adamant that division winners start the playoffs at home, the Giants got the #4 seed, which would come back to haunt the Packers. They would not finally beat Eli Manning in the postseason until 2016, their first postseason win over the Giants since the JFK administration (ironically, JFK was assassinated in the home city of another NFC East team, the Cowboys).

It disappointed me because the Packers failed to do something their hated rivals, the Bears, did in 1985 - win the Super Bowl as a 15-1 team. The next 15-1 team's failure at winning the Super Bowl ties into this - the Panthers were beaten in Super Bowl 50 by a Broncos team led by Eli's brother, Peyton. Cam Newton has never been the same since then.

[Acgott]

If the Packers had an owner, I’m sure they can push for reseeding. They could have also learn how to defend a Hail Mary.

[pf9]

Right now, under my playoff format, the Giants, despite leading the NFC East, would be the #8 seed due to their record and have to open the playoffs in New Orleans - the very same thing they avoided in 2011 because of the insistence of most NFL owners that division winners get a top 4 seed and at least one home playoff game, which ultimately benefited them.

In Major League Baseball, another New York team (and one I root for), the Yankees, were on the wrong end of a similar thing in 2012.

The Detroit Tigers had the worst record of all playoff teams in 2012 at 88-74. But because the Tigers won the AL Central, and that MLB also give priority to division winners in seeding, the Tigers got to skip the inaugural AL Wild Card Playoff Game. They upset the A's in the ALDS then swept the Yankees in the ALCS (the Yankees' third postseason loss to Detroit since 2006).

Had seeding priority been removed from division winners in MLB, the Tigers would have had to play at Baltimore in the Wild Card Game, which was a one-and-done affair back then. If the Tigers had lost in that game, their season would have been over - no game 2 in order to tie the series like in 2020, or a winner-take-all game three like in 2020.

The Yankees crosstown rivals, the Mets, benefited as well from a similar situation in 2015. That year, the NL's top 3 teams were all from the Central - St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. But because of the playoff structure, the latter two had to play in the wild card game, and the winner had to face St. Louis in the NLDS. The two other division winners, the Dodgers and Mets, thus got to avoid the NL Central until the NLCS, and it worked to the Mets' benefit, where they swept the Cubs in the NLCS (only a year later the Cubs finally broke the curse of Fred Merkle). This came the same year the Astros shut out the Yankees in the Wild Card game (the Astros have always had the Yankees' number - dating back to the combined no-hitter against them in 2003, later beating them in 2 ALCS, one of which came during the sign-stealing scheme).

The NBA realized early the problem of giving division winners seeding priority, as explained here. Thus, from 2007 onward, the NBA only gave division winners a top 4 seed, and years later, completely removed seeding priority from division winners, as well as the guarantee a division winner would even make the playoffs (though in practice, all division leaders play well enough to make the playoffs).

And when the NHL had its modified playoff format in 2020, though teams were still divided by conference, division leaders weren't guaranteed a top 2 seed. In fact, they held a round-robin in each conference to determine the final playoff seeding for the four best teams in each conference starting with the round of 16. Notably, the best team of the regular season, the Bruins, failed to win a single round-robin game and were seeded #4 in the East.

[Matts4313]

Hopefully this somehow messes up the draft picks for every team ahead of us. 

[Mastercheddaar]

If a team win their division but has a sub 500 records they lose their home game? Sounds fine? Don't Suck?

MC