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MTZehvor on 03 October 2015
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RolStoppable said:
noname2200 said:
MTZehvor said:

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.

Oh please, what constitutes an undeserving team is wishy-washy anyway. Remember how the 7-9 Seahawks beat the Saints in the playoffs? Who is the less deserving team here, the one with the worse record or the one that got outplayed by a team with a 7-9 record? Also, each year we usually see at least one division winner with a good record who plays lousy and is one and done. Then you have strength of schedule which gives teams a 10-6 record because they beat all the mediocre and bad teams, but lost all of their games to above average teams.

Yes, half the league being in the playoffs would be too much, but 14 teams wouldn't be a bad idea. More playoff games, more opportunities for teams to meet again in the same season. Those are good storylines, when a team had an embarrassing loss early in the season, but then got their act together and gets a rematch in the postseason.

I mean, if that's your argument, you might as well let every single team in the playoffs. Who knows, maybe the 6-10 team might be able to outplay a 10-6 team for a single game, and we wouldn't want to refuse any team who might be able to beat another on any given Sunday. Also, I fail to see what line is suddenly drawn that makes 14 the optimal number of teams but 16 really sucks.

You want into the playoffs? Win enough games to at least have the 6th best record in your conference (or, at least, that's how it should be). I say this as a Patriots' fan, arguably the team that got screwed over the worst by this back in 2008. Fix the "division winners automatically advance and get a home game regardless of record" rule, and we're fine.