National Football League

NFL needs to rethink playoff seeding

Published Dec. 30, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

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They will be on display Sunday night for the football world to see in the final regular-season game of the 2010 season: The 7-8 St. Louis Rams and 6-9 Seattle Seahawks battling in a winner-take-all game for the NFC West title.

With that, of course, comes not only qualifying for the playoffs but getting a home game in the first round. Naturally, that has rekindled the debate about whether a division winner should be assured a playoff spot if they have such a mediocre record.

That would especially be the case if Seattle wins the division with a 7-9 record. Two years ago, the San Diego Chargers won the AFC West with an 8-8 record. There have been other .500 teams to advance to the postseason, but no team has entered the playoffs with a losing record except for the 1982 strike-shortened season, when teams played only nine regular-season games and the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams. The Rams would win the West at 8-8 if they defeat the Seahawks.

"I don't pass judgment on that," Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo said when asked whether a 7-9 team should be in the playoffs. "Until they tell us that we're not in, we're still fighting to get in there. And if we happen to get in there, it won't matter to me what the record is. It doesn't matter how you get in. It doesn't matter if you're a wild card or if you're a divisional winner. If you're in, you've got a chance to win it all."

Said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, "No, I don't have any problem with it at all. You remember, guys, I went to this BCS thing and those systems and all of that stuff. I've never been a guy to criticize a system; I'll just go with it and try to make the most of it. So the system says if you win your division, you get a home playoff game coming up, and that's what we're going for.

"We didn't set our sights to make the playoffs. We set our sights to win our division from the first day we ever came together, and so here we are in the last week of the season with a chance to do that and that's what we're directed at. The rest of it, I don't care about and we're going to make the most of it."

Still, it's one thing to be in the playoffs. It's quite another to have a home game against a team with a significantly better record.

Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chair of the league's competition committee said: "You need to continue to emphasize and reward teams that win the division. The reshuffling and reseeding has been discussed time and time again. There's arguments for and against it, but the bottom line is that teams need to be rewarded for winning the division. Their fans deserve an opportunity to have a home playoff game."

It can be argued that the reward is simply being in the postseason. As for the fans, why shouldn't fans of a wild-card team with a superior record have a home playoff game?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been on the wrong end of this situation twice. In 2005, the Jaguars were 12-4, but the Colts won the division with a 14-2 record. The Jaguars went on the road and lost to the 10-6 New England Patriots. Two years later, the Jaguars were a wild-card at 11-5 and traveled to play 10-6 Pittsburgh, but they won that year.

Still, Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio is a proponent of seeding the first round by record.

"I shared my sentiments regarding that with the competition committee when we discussed it," Del Rio said recently. "I was a big advocate to allow teams to earn their way based on record, but that was shot down. The room was decidedly in favor of continuing to maintain the ability of a division winner to have a home playoff game. That's that. I had my say, and nobody really cared."

Some have argued that a system shouldn't be changed based on what happens in one season. However, the inequities with this home-game issue have been there since the NFL went to the present division setup in 2002, and they haven't gone away.

In the eight seasons from 2002-09, there have been eight such matchups. The home team won four, including the past three.

The biggest discrepancy between teams came in 2008 when the 8-8 Chargers hosted the 12-4 Colts, and San Diego won. In all the other games, the difference was one or two wins.

This year, it will be at least three if the Rams win this weekend to go 8-8 and New Orleans loses to wind up 11-5. It could also be a whopping five differential if Seattle wins the division at 7-9 and Atlanta or New Orleans is the top-seeded wild-card with 12 victories. This will be the third consecutive year that the NFC West winner plays host to a wild-card team with a better record.

Plus, it will also happen in the AFC, where the fourth seed in the opening round will have nine or 10 wins and the top wild card will have at least 11. That will make it three of the four seasons (2007 and 2008 were the other two) in which one of these matchups occurred in both conferences.

In only two seasons (2004 and 2006) has there not been at least one first-round game in which a division winner played host to a wild card with a better record.

In an atmosphere in which commissioner Roger Goodell wants to minimize as much as possible teams having little to play for in the final weeks of the season, he would have a better chance at that if the home game for a division winner wasn't automatic.

This Sunday, for example, the Jets and Kansas City would be playing to try to secure a home game, rather than have their games have little bearing except for seeding.

It's about time the NFL eliminates this inequity. Or, better yet, eliminate divisions entirely and simply have each team in a conference play everyone else in the conference once.

But that's a discussion for another day.