8

Athletics

If an NFL division has no teams with a winning record, that division should lose its playoff berth.

Currently in the NFL we have seen some very competitive football - except in the NFC South. Every team in the NFC South will end the season with a losing record.

by Zachary Adam Zell on December 15th, 2014, 11:58 pm PST. This Ivia has been viewed 5,125 times. Last improved on December 22nd, 2014, 12:48 pm PST.

The NFC South 

Non-Division : 11 - 30 - 1

Pt Diff Non-Division : -227

Carolina Panthers

Pt Diff Division : 19

Pt Diff Non-Division : -85

Overall : 6 - 8 - 1

Division : 3 - 2 - 0

Non-Division : 3 - 6 - 1

Atlanta Falcons

Pt Diff Division : 73

Pt Diff Non-Division : -78

Overall : 6 - 9 - 0

Division : 5 - 0 - 0

Non-Division : 1 - 9 - 0

New Orleans Saints

Pt Diff Division : -26

Pt Diff Non-Division : 0

Overall : 6 - 9 - 0

Division : 2 - 3 - 0

Non-Division : 4 - 7 - 0

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Pt Diff Division : -66

Pt Diff Non-Division : -64

Overall : 2 - 13 - 0

Division : 0 - 5 - 0

Non-Division : 2 - 8 - 0

Predicament

11 and 30 and 1. This division has only won 26% of their games against other teams, while the Philadelphia Eagles, with 9 wins and 6 losses, are currently outside the playoff picture. The Eagles have outscored their opponents by 66 points, while the entire NFC South has been outscored by 227.

The only way the NFC South would have deserved a champion is if the New Orleans Saints won enough games to put them at 8 - 8 - 0 to end the season. Instead that didn't happen, leaving the Carolina Panthers most likely to end the season with the division title at 7 - 8 - 1. It will be said that it's not their fault for being in this division, which is true, but it certainly is their fault that they were unable to win against quality competition - something that the Eagles, Packers, Cowboys, Seahawks, and Lions, one of whom will be left out in favor of this division "champion" - have done.

People want to see the best teams play in the postseason. Divisions are arbitrary groupings of teams based on geography, or in the case of the Cowboys, nothing. This is a simple and fair fix.

Proposal

The NFL Competition Committee changes the postseason qualifications to mandate that a team must have 8 or more victories to qualify for a division title. If a division leader finishes with 7 or fewer wins, they go into the wildcard pool, with the playoff seed normally reserved for the division champion going to the most qualified of the wildcard teams. If there are two or fewer wildcard teams with stronger records than the 7-win division leader, this team would enter the postseason as a wildcard, garnering a number 5 or 6 seed and thereby losing home-field advantage.

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About the Author

Zachary Adam Zell
Petaluma, California, United States
Founder and CEO at ImproveVia
Sonoma State University

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