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noname2200 on 02 October 2015
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MTZehvor said:
RolStoppable said:

The argument against mediocrity being allowed into the playoffs doesn't hold water when under current rules the winner of a division goes into the playoffs with home field advantage regardless of their record. Likewise, the requirement being a positive record would lead to years where playoff spots get cut, even under the current rules of only six teams per conference. It would be really odd to have only five teams of a conference in the playoffs every now and then.

What happens more often than not is that teams with a winning record get left out of the playoffs, so an additional spot per conference is a good idea. It's not just that though, because seven playoff spots per conference would keep teams longer in the hunt and result in more meaningful games down the stretch of the season. Because the biggest failure of America's franchise system for sports is that teams that have no chance to reach the playoffs anymore have no real reason to win games anymore. Quite the opposite actually, because the rules for the draft make losing attractive.

I agree that the rules in place are bad because they allow division winners in regardless; but that simply means the solution is to get rid of that rule as opposed to just opening it up to teams that are, more often than not, barely over .500 squads that shouldn't be in the postseason.

We've seen the flipside of having half your conference make the playoffs with the NBA. So many teams that should never be in the postseason. There's much easier ways to fix some undeserving teams being let in the postseason than by letting even more undeserving teams be in the postseason.

I agree. Part of what makes the playoffs so enjoyable is that, with possibly one exception a year, every team in it has tended to be worthy of being there. And while there is often a team with a too-late surge who falls short, I not only think expansion would inevitably drag in at least one more bad team each year, but I kind of enjoy the last game of the season due to the drama of whether the 7th team will squeeze in or not. But it's hard to argue that half the teams in the league shoudl actually be in the playoffs.