my proposal to make the NFL and it's playoff system better

     

Not that I don't love the NFL or that I don't think the playoffs are great... I LOVE them. both. I love the races at the end of the season, knowing that some teams, in the last 2 or 3 games, MUST win to have a chance to get there... so at this point for them, every game is, in it's own sense, a playoff game for them... and they play like there's no tomorrow... this is what makes the game so great...

and this is the aspect my proposal takes off from...

There are 16 weeks in the NFL regular season. There are now reports that the league is looking to move to 18 regular season games. The players are not excited about this for several reasons, the most important being that there will be two more games of regular wear-and-tear on their bodies and also, their salaries remain the same.. but for two more games, witch diminishes each game check. My proposal eliminates all of this and also makes everything about the league and the playoff race even more exciting.

The proposal:

Make the regular season 14 games (15 weeks with one bye for each team, playing each divisional opponent once). Throughout the entire season, teams are playing for seedings and home-field advantage in the new playoff system. The first round of playoffs would start in week 16 (after 14 games for each team) with EVERY TEAM in the tournament. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be inter-divisional based on divisional seedings (1 vs. 4, 2 vs 3 and winner vs. winner in the second round). This will decide the division champions. Once the division champions are decided, these teams will be re-seeded based upon their regular season records and will determine the match-ups for the next two rounds of the playoffs. At the outset of each round, seedings will determine match-ups and home field, just like they do in the current playoff system with the Super Bowl being the final game: AFC champ vs. NCF champ.

In this format, every team has a chance... if you're a team that gets hot at the right time you could shake up the entire picture. And the regular season is not all for naught... you play for your division, seedings and home-field in the playoffs. This would also appease those who want to make the regular season longer with a longer playoff system.

boom.