Playoff Reseeding Issue Might Be Revisited In Future

There weren't very many supporters for the proposal made by the competition committee at this week's league meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., to revise the formula for seeding playoff teams. The proposal didn't even make it to a formal vote of the owners when it became clear that the measure couldn't generate anything close to the 24 votes among the 32 teams necessary for ratification.

"I think we did a quick show of hands," said New York Giants co-owner John Mara. "There were not a lot of hands."

But there were some supporters. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the members of the competition committee, including Mara, want to try to find a way to reduce the number of meaningless games at the end of the regular season.

This proposal would have attempted to do that by making the third through sixth playoff seeds in each conference available to wild card teams, instead of merely the fifth and sixth seeds. The thinking was that fewer teams would be locked into their playoff seeds in the final weeks of the regular season, leading to fewer games in which at least one club has nothing to gain by winning.

"I supported it," Mara said. "I don't think it's good to have teams going out there like that. It's only one or two games a year, but I don't think it's good."

Most owners, however, wanted to preserve the reward for a team winning its division. The division winner's fans expect a home playoff game, those owners said.

"Most people felt they wanted to keep the tradition with your division rivals so teams know if you win your division, you're guaranteed a home game in the playoffs," Mara said. "People wanted to maintain that tradition."

Opponents of the proposal mentioned the Giants-Patriots game at the end of the regular season this past season. The Giants had nothing to gain in terms of playoff seeding. Yet Coach Tom Coughlin played his regulars and the Giants played well. They lost, as the Patriots completed the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history. But the Giants used the confidence they'd gained and the momentum they'd generated to roll through the NFC playoffs and upset the Patriots in the teams' Super Bowl rematch.

Mara, though, said he thinks that game was a unique circumstance because the Patriots were playing for history.

"People used that example," Mara said. "But in all honesty, if the Patriots had come into that game 14-1, I'm not sure we play the way we did."

Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the competition committee, said he and other committee members were "probably a little" surprised at the strength of the opposition to the proposal. But he added: "I think we knew there was opposition."

McKay said the committee might take another shot in the future at crafting a proposal to try to address the issue. He mentioned the possibility of making only the fourth through sixth playoff seeds available to wild card teams instead of the third through sixth.

"This was an idea we wanted to push this year to get the discussion going," McKay said in Palm Beach. "... It doesn't mean we won't have a new proposal at some point in the future."

Said Mara: "Someone else will have to come up with a proposal."

Mara took the "defeat" in stride. After all, he has a Super Bowl title to console him.

"That's okay," he said. "It's been a pretty good year."

By Mark Maske |  April 4, 2008; 9:59 AM ET  | Category:  League
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