NFL makes decision on big change to playoff seeding

A proposal was submitted at the NFL owners’ meetings this week that called for a significant change to the way the playoffs are seeded, but that change will not be implemented during the 2025 season.

The Detroit Lions made a proposal to league owners 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.

According to multiple reports, the Lions withdrew their proposal on Wednesday at the spring NFL owners’ meetings in Minneapolis, Minn.

The proposal, which was originally submitted in March, had also been amended to call for teams to be re-seeded after the first round. 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.

It is possible that the change could be considered again in the future, especially with the NFL expected to move to an 18-game schedule at some point. The benefit of changing playoff seeding 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, and that scenario will still be in play again in 2025.