The Lions’ Roar for a More Equitable NFL Playoff System
The National Football League, a multi-billion dollar behemoth, thrives on engineered parity. The draft order rewards failure, the salary cap restricts talent hoarding, and schedules are designed to punish success. This system, while frustrating for fans of consistently good teams, fosters competitive balance, offering a glimmer of hope to every franchise and fueling the league’s enduring popularity. Yet, this obsession with leveling the playing field shouldn’t come at the expense of recognizing and rewarding true excellence.
The Detroit Lions, a team historically more familiar with the lower rungs of the NFL ladder than the penthouse, have proposed a change to the playoff seeding format that could reshape the postseason landscape. Their proposal, set to be voted on at the upcoming league meeting, seeks to prioritize regular-season record over division titles when determining playoff seeding, specifically allowing wild-card teams with superior records to be seeded higher than division winners. This seemingly simple adjustment could have profound implications for playoff matchups and home-field advantage.
Currently, the NFL’s playoff structure automatically grants the top four seeds in each conference to division winners, regardless of their overall record. This system can lead to scenarios where teams with mediocre records, simply by virtue of winning a weak division, secure a higher seed and a home playoff game over a more deserving team that finished with a better record but failed to win its division. This is the problem the Lions are trying to address.
To understand the need for change, consider the evolution of the NFL’s divisional structure. Back in the 1980s and 90s, the league featured six divisions, each typically comprising five or more teams. This meant that a significant portion of a team’s schedule was dedicated to divisional matchups, making the pursuit of a division title a genuinely challenging and meaningful endeavor. A division title then felt deserved.
However, the NFL’s expansion to 32 teams in 2002 led to the creation of eight four-team divisions. This change, coupled with the addition of a 17th game in 2021 and the looming possibility of an 18th, has further diluted the significance of divisional play. With a smaller percentage of the schedule devoted to divisional games, a team can now win a division with a record that barely reflects its overall quality.
The NFC South provides a prime example of this phenomenon. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have reigned supreme in the division for the past four seasons, securing a home playoff game each time. Yet, their regular-season performance during that period has been far from dominant, with an average record of 9-8. In fact, their overall conference record has often been middling, yet they’ve consistently benefited from the automatic playoff berth and home-field advantage afforded to division winners.
This isn’t just a recent trend. The 2008 Arizona Cardinals, famously dubbed the "worst playoff team ever" by Cris Collinsworth, rode a division title all the way to the Super Bowl, hosting two playoff games along the way. Similarly, the 2010 Seattle Seahawks, with a losing record of 7-9, not only won their division but also upset the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round, fueled by the home-field advantage.
The NFL’s expansion to a 14-team playoff field has only exacerbated this issue. With more teams qualifying for the postseason, mediocre division winners are increasingly finding themselves in positions of undue advantage.
On the other side of the coin, the current system can unfairly penalize teams that excel in the regular season but fall short of winning their division. The 2022 Minnesota Vikings, who finished with an impressive 14-3 record, the most wins ever by a wild-card team, were relegated to the fifth seed with limited hope of playing a postseason game in front of their home fans. This is patently unfair.
The Lions’ proposal aims to rectify this imbalance by prioritizing regular-season performance. It’s not about eliminating the reward for winning a division, but about ensuring that the best teams, regardless of their divisional affiliation, are properly seeded and given the best chance to succeed in the playoffs.
By seeding wild-card teams based on their overall record, the NFL can create more compelling matchups, reward teams that have consistently performed at a high level, and incentivize competition throughout the entire regular season. With seeds on the line until the final whistle of week 18, there is more to play for.
When the Detroit Lions proposed this change, it would be easy to assume that they are trying to game the system to their benefit. In reality, the Lions’ proposal is a step in the right direction, championing meritocracy and rewarding excellence in a league often obsessed with parity. It’s time to prioritize regular-season performance and ensure that the best teams have the best chance to compete for the Lombardi Trophy, regardless of their divisional standing. The NFL should embrace this change and usher in a new era of fairness and competitive integrity.
