Tuesday, Sal Paolantonio was one of the guests on Mike Missanelli’s Philadelphia Eagles Roundtable on 97.5 The Fanatic. While Sal appeared to be living in a fantasy land when it pertained to his belief that Marcus Mariota would somehow end up with the Eagles, one thing that he repeatedly said throughout the show is that no matter who starts at Quarterback for the Eagles, they will make the playoffs because the league will expand the amount of playoff teams for 2015.
Earlier this season, Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested that the league is likely to expand it’s current 12-team playoff format to a 14-team format.
"“I do believe it will be approved for the 2015 (season),” Goodell said. “I think we want to see one more year of, will it impact the regular season in a positive way from a competitive standpoint? Will it create more excitement, more races toward the end of who’s going to qualify for the playoffs?”"
The NFL can try to spin the expansion anyway that they want, it my very well excite the fans with more football, but they are doing it in for the extra money that will be lining their pockets. The league will make even more off of television deals, and owners will make more by hosting an extra playoff game and getting more TV and merchandise revenue themselves.
One of the things that makes the current NFL playoff format so special is that it feels like just enough teams get into the playoffs without it feeling like every marginal team gets in. Currently, just under 37.5% of the league’s 32 teams make the NFL playoffs. Per this ESPN Stats and Info chart, adding two teams would increase that percentage to 43.7%.
"LeaguePercentage*- Proposed 14 teams**- Includes wild-card teams–ESPN Stats & InformationNBA53.3NHL53.3NFL43.7*MLB33.3**"
This new system would also take away the first-round bye for the Wild-Card round from the number two seed in each conference, as they would now have to face the seven seed in each conference. You can do the math on exactly how that would have changed the course of this year’s playoffs–and that’s through just one week–but in the NFC, it might have been rather drastic considering Aaron Rodgers’ calf injury.
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As we all know in Philadelphia, the Eagles would have traveled to Lambeau for the second-time this season under this format, which frankly makes me thankful that this format wasn’t in place this season. Some Eagles fans would have preferred to see the Eagles play another week, regardless of the outcome.
A year ago, the scripts were flipped. The Eagles beat the Cowboys in a win-or-go-home Week 17 showdown to clinch the NFC East title and as the title suggests, send the Cowboys home. Because of the strength of the top-heavy NFC in 2013, the Cowboys would have still missed the playoffs behind the 10-6 Cardinals. But in many years, the 8-8 or 9-7 team that loses out on the division and normally the playoffs, would make the playoffs under the 14-team format.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who saw his team go 8-8 in three consecutive years prior to 2014, lobbied for this change last off-season. Strangely enough, the change wouldn’t have put the Cowboys in the playoffs once in that three-year run. Had they gone 9-7 in 2011, they would have made the playoffs, potentially even as division winners.
In my mind, the fact that the NFC has seen three straight seasons of having a 10-6 team miss the playoffs, makes the regular season that much more interesting and important. This doesn’t feel like College football was under the BCS, where the system was truly broken, it feels like tampering with something that should be left untouched.
Yes, everyone that doesn’t live in Carolina is upset that the Panthers were able to sneak into the playoffs at 7-8-1 because they won what was a very poor division in the NFC South. And the 10-6 Eagles, regardless of whether they collapsed or not, are a much better team that is sitting at home. But that’s a once every five year thing, if that.
The NFL isn’t going to just get rid of divisions and just let the six best teams into the playoffs, because that would water-down divisional rivalries, which takes money out of the league’s pockets. I’d love to see the NFL say that if a team in the division doesn’t at least go .500, then that team loses their playoff spot for that year. But that won’t happen.
What will happen, is that the league will add an extra playoff spot in each conference next year. Are you for or against the expansion?