CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Let’s start with the following acknowledgement: This is all about money.
The NFL’s idea of expanding the playoffs to one additional team per conference has led to plenty of tweets about who would have made the playoffs under this format and how it might benefit coaches on the hot seat who just missed.
But this is, at its core, really about money and two more games on TV during Wild Card weekend -- and it’s probably not coincidental this push is coming with new TV deals on the horizon.
Hey, the NFL’s a business. As for the potential 17-game schedule? We’ll see.
The new playoff format? I like it. Here’s why:
1. It’s not too much
The NFL is never one to shy away from excess -- the draft is three days long, after all. Adding one team to each conference’s playoff picture doesn’t qualify as excess.
I’ve never had a problem with the idea of good teams missing the playoffs. I’ve always appreciated baseball’s minimalist approach, even as they’ve added wild-card teams. Yes, it stinks in years when a 90-win team misses the postseason, but quality is better than quantity in the playoffs.
Adding a seventh team opens the door to a little more mediocrity in the playoffs, but it could also benefit teams who scuffle through difficult early schedules or teams who get hot toward the end of the year.
At some point, the league will go too far. This isn’t it.
2. It increases the importance of the top seed
I’m always in favor of doing as much as possible to benefit the best teams in the league, and this benefits the best team in each conference. Home-field advantage throughout was always a nice carrot, but it hasn’t always been the end-all, go-all-out carrot this would offer.
Having an opening-week playoff bye has been valuable, and now you’re reducing it only to the team with the best record in each conference. Teams will go all-out for it at the end of the season.
3. The ‘In the Hunt’ graphic is even more interesting
Who doesn’t love seeing their team on the “In the Hunt” graphics in December?
While the top teams battle it out for seeding, this allows for a few more teams to wrestle around at the bottom of the playoff pool. More scenarios, more teams with a faint shot, more meaningful games -- Why not?
Does it mean we end up with a couple undeserving teams playing the first weekend? Probably. They’ll get weeded out. Are you really going to complain about another two football games on Wild Card weekend?
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