New Orleans Saints could be victims of preposterous playoff format

Halo · 12-17-2010, 08:23 PM

The most surprising thing about the NFL’s playoff format is not that New Orleans could go 13-3 and end up playing on the road against a 7-9 team in the wildcard round. It’s that similar absurdities happened so rarely in the first eight years of the preposterous current system.

When the league went from six divisions to eight in 2002, it asked the wildcard with the best record in each conference to travel to the division winner with the worst record on the opening playoff weekend. That’s a recipe for ridiculous matchups.

Somehow, only one situation arose comparable to what likely will happen to the Saints this year. In 2008, Indianapolis went 12-4 in the AFC South and finished second to Tennessee. The Colts played at 8-8 San Diego in the first round (the Chargers had been 4-8) and lost in overtime, a game they almost certainly would have won at home.

The league bigwigs can talk about protecting the value of winning a division all they want, but rewarding the champion of a horrible division while penalizing a legitimate Super Bowl contender makes no sense.

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12-17-2010, 08:23 PM	#1
Halo Site Donor MONTHLY Join Date: May 2002 Location: New Orleans, LA Posts: 20,252 Blog Entries: 45	New Orleans Saints could be victims of preposterous playoff format The most surprising thing about the NFL’s playoff format is not that New Orleans could go 13-3 and end up playing on the road against a 7-9 team in the wildcard round. It’s that similar absurdities happened so rarely in the first eight years of the preposterous current system. When the league went from six divisions to eight in 2002, it asked the wildcard with the best record in each conference to travel to the division winner with the worst record on the opening playoff weekend. That’s a recipe for ridiculous matchups. Somehow, only one situation arose comparable to what likely will happen to the Saints this year. In 2008, Indianapolis went 12-4 in the AFC South and finished second to Tennessee. The Colts played at 8-8 San Diego in the first round (the Chargers had been 4-8) and lost in overtime, a game they almost certainly would have won at home. The league bigwigs can talk about protecting the value of winning a division all they want, but rewarding the champion of a horrible division while penalizing a legitimate Super Bowl contender makes no sense. READ THE REST HERE Attached Thumbnails