Expanding the NFL Playoffs

Yesterday most of you were subject to a day of crazy opinion without much substance….or just another day on ESPN.  As usual they made it seem like out of thin air the Commissioner came up with some crazy plan of expanding the playoffs in the NFL to look like the NHL or NBA.  The facts might have gotten in the way, so of course they avoided them at all costs.

Here is the real story: The competition committee has been studying an idea of expanding the playoffs for the most popular game in the world for close to ten years according to Bill Polian.  They have studied and mapped out every scenario they could imagine and now have an idea that might get floated out to the league for more discussion and then finally a vote of coaches and owners.

What they may propose is to add ONE playoff position in each conference, and have only the top team in the conference earn a bye week.  So, 7 teams instead of 6, and the competition for the number one seed increased dramatically. Was that worth the over-reaction from yesterday? Was that idea so bad that it suggested the League and the Commissioner are trying to ruin the game of football?  Don’t you feel just a little silly?  It went so far yesterday that one talk show host asked the question “Why does the Commissioner hate football?”

If that system was the current system then in the AFC:

The Texans ,Broncos, and Patriots would be fighting for the top seed and the only bye.

The 7th spot in the playoffs would be a fight between Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and The Jets with two of those teams making the post-season insteaad of just one.

In the NFC:

Atlanta, San Fran, and Green Bay would be fighting for the single bye week.

The 7th spot would be a fight between Washington, Dallas, Minnesota, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay

I fail to see how this small tweak to a system that keeps teams fighting till the final week of the season is the cause of so much uproar.