Expanded Playoffs
 

Sounds like expanding playoffs could be a real possibility. 14 teams instead of 12. Meaning only 1 team gets a BYE to 2nd round instead of 2.

I wouldn't mind them doing this. NFL has fewest playoff spots despite having most teams in north american pro sports.

14-16 range would be good for amount of playoff teams because all those teams are still over .500(might be some exceptions in NFL history,but not many recently I'd guess).

This years playoff picture using the format would've had:
NFC:
Panthers vs Cards
Eagles vs Saints
Packers vs 49ers

Seahawks BYE(doing the whole reseed thing where they face the worst of the 3 teams that win the first round)

AFC:
Pats vs Ravens
Bengals vs Chargers
Colts vs Chiefs

Broncos BYE(same as above,they face the worst of the 3 teams that win in first round)


I know there wasn't any real difference from how this year actually went,other than just adding Pats-Ravens and Panthers-Cards, but I think it'd be better that way. And 1st in the conference would be much more important because that'd be the ONLY BYE in the league.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

I like it the way it is. No need to water it down any more.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

6 teams is fine and perfect as it is.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

I like the proposal of 1 more per conference, but can't just say I want more than that without understanding more of how it'd work and understanding historically the types of teams that have missed out because of the current format. 4 division winners and 4 wild card teams is literally half of the league getting in and for some reason feels like a much bigger leap than adding 1 more wildcard for each conference which I'm in favor of - preserving a reward of a bye for the #1 seed in the process.

Perhaps going to 8 per conference with the 7 and 8 playing each other as a kind of play-in, and returning byes to #1 and 2 would be a context I could get behind.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

I think it's perfect as is.

As it stands, only the top 1/3rd of the league makes it into the Tournament and I feel that is more than adequate. Adding more teams devalues the quality of games.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

I get that people want to keep the current format, but think about it...the format was introduced in 1990, when there were only 28 teams in the league(14 per conference). So 6/14 teams making it didn't seem so bad back then. But NFL has added 2 extra teams to each conference since, so how can people say that a format that worked with 28 teams is fine with 32.....

The game has to evolve some day. Sure at the beginning it'll seem abit strange, but as time goes on, it'll become normal.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

What do you mean how can they say it?

What do you want to do? Add a new playoff team for every expansion team that's been added? That doesn't even make sense to me.


To me, 6 out of 14 was too many. 6 out of 16 is perfect.

Re: Expanded Playoffs
 

I think 6 per conference is perfect. It keeps enough teams in the hunt that even late in the season, most games have relevance. And the two bye spots keep the top teams motivated.

But it isn't too many. I don't want to see the regular season turn into the NBA regular season. :zzz: