NFL Insider: Should They Really Consider Reseeding in the Playoffs?

After the 7-8 Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs many people felt that something had to be done in order to avoid allowing a team with a losing record to enter the playoffs.  After all, would they even be able to win a single game in the playoffs?  Were they taking up a spot that a team like the New York Giants or Tampa Bay Buccaneers could have had?  It just didn’t make sense.

Well that was then and this is now.  The Seahawks ended up beating the New Orleans Saints and are going to continue on in the playoffs.  No one would believe that the underdogs could defeat the former NFL champs and sure enough they did.  How could a team with a losing record beat the former NFL champs?  That was impossible, right?

When they talk about reseeding the playoffs they are talking about making it so teams without losing records cannot get into the playoffs.  This would mean that, even if someone won their division, if there was a team that had a better record than that division winner, they would make the playoffs rather than the division winner.

This scenario isn’t entirely fair for those teams that win their division in spite of their record.  The thinking is that fans won’t want to watch teams that are less “talented” or “not as good” as some of the other teams that may have a better record or that others may feel would be better deserving of making the playoffs.

A division winner, no matter what their record, is the division winner and deserves to go to the playoffs.  They are the representative of their division and their division should be represented in the playoffs.  That is how it’s been for a long time and that is how it should be.

The NFL shouldn’t make accommodations like this.  They should stick to what they have done before and bring in four division winners and two wild-card teams.  That works just fine and it shouldn’t matter what their record was during the regular season.

If the NFL wants to change things up for the playoffs then they should add two additional teams to the Wild Card Round and make it so that all wild-card teams play one another in the first round of the playoffs.  Perhaps that would take care of the problem that people have with teams that might have a better record than a division winner getting into the playoffs.

The NFL has a habit of making changes to things that accommodate some teams over others.  They also generally make changes to things that work well.  The NFL shouldn’t take a swipe at the way that teams are placed into the playoffs. It’s a good thing and it’s been working so why mess around with it now?  As previously stated, if they would add a couple more teams to the playoffs instead then that would take care of some of their problems in the playoffs.

What’s in place works just fine, there is no need to change it.