Given playoff re-seeding push, NFL should consider eliminating divisions

The Detroit Lions re-submitted a proposal at this week's NFL owner's meetings that could re-shape the way the playoffs look. 

After initially proposing that playoff teams be seeded strictly based on record, potentially stripping division winners the right to host a playoff game if a wild-card team had a better record, the new proposal would shift that re-seeding to the divisional round.

While the original purpose of the proposal was to make it so a 12-5 wild-card team wouldn't have to travel to a 9-8 (or even 8-9) division winner in the opening round, the NFL is pushing a new narrative for the proposal — to prevent more teams from resting starters in Weeks 17 and 18 when they might otherwise already have their seeding locked in place. 

It's a fair point. It might even improve the quality of some of the late regular season games that have typically been reduced to glorified preseason games.

There is a lot to be potentially gained from it for fans, but it might also have an unintended consequence of making divisions themselves less important. It might even reduce the need for them entirely. 

So here's a new proposal for the league to consider: If you want to make the playoff seeding strictly based on team record without any consideration for division winner vs. wild-card team, just get rid of the divisions entirely. 

The 32 teams would be separated into two 16-team conferences, with the top seven teams in each conference going to the playoffs. No other designations or classifications are needed. 

If winning your division doesn't guarantee you something significant — such as the opportunity to host playoff games against teams that didn't win their own division — then there's really no point to having them. 

Sure, the optics of a team with more wins going on the road to face a team with more wins under the current system might look bad, but there are more layers to it than just the records. The quality of the division matters. The quality of the schedule a particular division is playing matters. 

The entire NFL schedule is currently set up to take into account divisions. You play the other three teams in your division two times each. Your division plays another in-conference division and out of conference division on a rotating basis every year. Teams are not playing the same, balanced or equal schedules. 

That can make it harder to weigh the on-field results and the standings. So let's work to fix that.

If you are devaluing the divisions, just get rid of them. Every team plays the other 15 teams in its conference exactly one time, and two teams from the other conference at random. 

Now everybody is playing, for the most part, the same schedule. There is almost change in schedule strength. You get one shot at every team, and every team gets a chance at you. Nobody can say they played a more favorable schedule, nobody can complain they had a harder schedule. 

It's all equal. Which is what you should have if you are simply going to determine playoff seeding based on record.