# A football playoff ranking proposal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 30, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286 "2008-12-30T22:05:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286/1 "2008-12-30T22:05:54Z")

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Every year, in the final weeks of the NFL season, we see teams that have secured their playoff positions and essentially take a pass on the final games. They have no major incentive to win and pull many of their best players to preserve them for the upcoming playoffs. So we see unpredictable upsets with first-rate teams suddenly become fourth-raters.

My proposal? Give late-season games a preferential bias in determining the playoff schedule. I’d still make win-loss ranking the primary means of determing playoff seeding. But if two teams have identical an win-loss record, the tie breaker is whichever team had the most recent victory. If Miami and New England both have 11-5 records, then the team that won in Week 17 beats the team that lost its final game. If they both won or lost in the final week, go back to Week 16 and so on.

With such a system, teams would have an incentive to keep playing their best in the final weeks.

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**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286/2 "2008-12-30T22:30:32Z")

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Maybe make total points scored during the season count for something…

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286/3 "2008-12-30T22:51:25Z")

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Teams are already playing for bye rounds and home field advantage. This would put too much emphasis on schedule and on the strength of your opponent, IMO.

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**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-football-playoff-ranking-proposal/479286/4 "2008-12-30T23:37:04Z")

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[NFL Playoff Tiebreakers | 49ers Webzone](http://www.49erswebzone.com/nfltiebreaker.php) When teams tie it is possible for the point for and against differential to settle who gets in. To a small degree a lot of things can matter.