NFL considering significant change to playoff seedings

NFL owners are preparing to vote on a proposal that would result in a significant change in the way teams are seeded for the postseason.

The Detroit Lions made a proposal to league owners in March that called for playoff teams to be seeded strictly by record rather than factoring in which teams won their respective divisions. The seven playoff teams in each conference would still consist of four division champions and three wild card teams, but those seven teams would then be seeded by record. Division champions would not automatically have higher seeds than wild card teams.

If a division winner and wild card team were to finish with the same record, the division winner would earn the higher seed as the first tie-breaker.

The March proposal has since been amended to also call for teams to be re-seeded after the first round, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. That means the No. 1 seed in each conference would play the lowest remaining seed in the Wild Card Round rather than the winner of the No. 4 versus No. 5 matchup, and so forth.

Breer notes that only a handful of teams were ready to vote the proposal through in March, but more owners are starting to warm up to the idea. The benefit for the NFL overall would be that games late in the regular season would become more meaningful, as teams that already have their divisions wrapped up would still have to compete with potential wild card teams for playoff seeding.

One particular NFC team would have greatly benefitted from the Lions’ proposal last season, which may have played a role in why it was submitted.