So, your team is winning their division. But is that because your team is good, or your division stinks? This thread provides the answer to that question.
How do you rate divisions? You can’t just add up the wins, you have to factor out all divisional games first. So here are the official divisional standings, in order of best to worst.
NFL Division Rankings through Week 4
#1 NFC East (7-2)
Led by the Eagles & Giants, both undefeated outside the division, the NFC BEast lives up to the preseason hype.
#2 AFC South (6-4)
The Colts’ loss to the Patriots plus the underperforming Titans keep this division well behind the juggernaut that is the NFC East.
#3 AFC West (6-6)
Despite the terrible start of the Chiefs, the Chargers and Raiders have helped the Broncos keep this division respectable.
#4 AFC North (4-4)
Big Ben is keeping hope alive in the Steel City, while the Bungles and Browns have eeked out some wins outside the division. The Blackbirds aren’t helping the cause by losing to winless teams.
#5 NFC South (6-7)
The low flying Falcons are the only team of note in this division, other than the fact that the hapless Bucs are the only team in the league to have gone 0-4 in interdivisional play.
#6 AFC East (4-5)
Overall a disappointing ranking for the only division with two undefeated teams. The problem is twofold: three teams have had a bye already, and this is also the only division with two winless teams. The less said about Ricky the better.
#7 NFC North (3-5)
The North keep getting their clock cleaned by the NFC East. The AFC doesn’t look to offer easier pickings, as they are matched against the AFC’s best division in the South, but the Deadskins certainly will provide some wins for this beleagured division.
#8 NFC West (3-6)
Oh how the mighty have fallen. No matter how good the Seahawks are, they can’t prop up this sad excuse for a division. The 49ers have a DNR order, but the Rams and Cardinals are clinging to life support yet.
Conference Ranking through Week 4
#1 AFC (5-4) #2 NFC (4-5)
The AFC leads the NFC in interconference play by a slim margin despite the Browns taking multiple beatings at the hands of the NFC East. In fact, the NFC would be leading if only Joe Gibbs could manage a clock.
Comments? Feedback? Trash talk is welcome, but I specifically avoided the Pit for this thread because of the train wreck that the Steelers March to the Superbowl has turned into. So keep it above board, folks.
I’ll keep my comments where my allegiance lies – the NFC East, and I don’t think they’ll hold on to that top spot indefinitely. Here’s why:
While I’m thrilled beyond belief that my Giants are playing the way they are, they’ll probably still have a few stumbles along the way. Still, 10-6 is looking more and more possible every week.
I’m still holding firm to my pre-season statement: The Eagles are a bunch of overblown, overrated losers who will be lucky to finish with an 8-8 record. Now I’d really appreciate it if someone would clue them in to this fact, already! But seriously, the Scumbirds will collapse, and I’m thinking there’ll be a Thanksgiving trip to Giants Stadium right in the middle of that collapse to boot.
Both the Cowboys and Redskins won’t be doing much the rest of the year to help prop up the division’s rep. Neither are playoff bound (I hereby take back my preseason prediction of the 'Skins winning the division), and they’ll be lucky to finish at .500.
Look for the AFC East and NFC South to get some signifcant improvement in the next few weeks.
And nobody cares. That’s cool, because this is information I want, and can’t find anywhere else. So I will doggedly continue to update this in the face of overpowering indifference.
Due to the fact that the AFC South has overtaken my beloved NFC East by the previous standard, I have changed the ranking order from wins to winning percentage. I have also added a new entry for current week performance.
NFL Division Rankings through Week 5
#1NFC East 7-3 (70%) 0-1 this week
Despite the futility of the Redskins, which dropped the nosebleed percentage of 78% last week by 8 points, the NFC East continues to be the class of the NFL, with virtually no competition in sight.
#2AFC South 8-6 (57%) 2-2 this week
The juggernaut that is the Colts rolls on, joined late by the Titans who are finally showing signs of life. On the other hand, was the fast start of the Jags a fluke? Despite a heartbreaking loss, the Texans may rally to get above .500 for the season, despite already having two losses to the overrated NFC North.
#3AFC North 5-4 (56%) 1-0 this week
I could dig up my dead grandmother and play her ironman one against eleven and still beat the Redskins. Boller is the worst starter with a winning record in recent memory. Regardless, the AFC North has moved up a spot from 4th to 3rd this week, and could actually take the #2 spot next week if Big Ben keeps it going and the Chiefs continue to rally.
#4AFC West 8-7 (53%) 2-1 this week
Are the Chargers for real? The Jaguars had better hope so, or they are in for a long season. The Broncos breathe a sigh of relief to escape Carolina with a win, but the pathetic Raiders need the OL to protect Collins, who really needs to protect the ball. Scary Kerry has singlehandedly dropped this division from #3 last week to #4 this week, but luckily for the division he stays inhouse next week hosting the Broncos.
#5NFC North 5-6 (45%) 2-1 this week
If only the Packers didn’t suck, this division might have a chance. Oh, wait a minute, they play the NFC East and AFC South. Never mind. Even still, the Vikings and Lions shoot this division up 2 full spots from #7 to #5. Speaking of the Lions, how exactly are they winning with all their key injuries? Give some credit to a beleagured Matt Millen for his faith in Harrington, but most of the credit goes to perhaps the most underrated coach in Bay Area history.
#6AFC East 4-5 (44%) 0-0 this week
No action, no change. Will the Bills and Dolphins ever get a win? Will the Jets and Patriots ever get a loss? Well, they have to play each other eventually, so the answer will be yes for at least two of them.
#7NFC South 6-9 (40%) 0-2 this week
Apparently, the Falcons cannot continue to rely on the defense. Vick will not be a good passer for several years to come, if ever, and as such must rely on his feet. If he continues to stay in the pocket, he will continue to suffer record numbers of sacks. The Panthers, though plagued by injuries, will likely win this porous division, which dropped two spots from #5 to #7.
#8NFC West 3-6 (33%) 0-0 this week
This division plays wonderful, competitive games against itself. Too bad there are 28 other teams in the league eager to pad their stats against this awful division. No action means the NFC West keeps its strangle-hold on dead last.
Conference Ranking through Week 5
#1AFC 8-5 (62%) 3-1 this week #2NFC 5-8 (38%) 1-3 this week
The AFC is beginning to widen the gap, and may never look back all season.
This is pretty interesting stuff. I didn’t catch it the first time around. If you continue to post I will continue to read it. And I won’t be terribly surprised if the NFC South fades to the bottom of the pile when all is said and done.
#1NFC East 9-4 (69%) 2-1 this week
Will wonders never cease? The lifeless Redskins beat the Bears while Ritchie Anderson’s helmet gives Big Ben his fourth consecutive win to begin his career. The relentless Eagles continue to beat up on the rest of the league, while Big Blue was off resting up before a three week campaign against the remainder of the NFC North.
#2AFC South 9-6 (60%) 1-0 this week
With the Colts off and the Texans and Titans playing each other, the Jags were the only representative for the pride of the AFC this week. They, of course, beat the struggling Chiefs. Despite the 1-0 performance this week, the South had better watch out or the North will overtake their #2 spot completely.
#2AFC North 6-4 (60%) 1-0 this week
They only had one active interdivisional game this week, but oh what a game it was! Fantastic play out of the Steelers’ WR position helped Big Ben to his Phil Simms-tieing fourth straight win as a rookie. The Steelers are looking good and playing better. Their only concern now is the schedule, which still contains all three remaining undefeated teams. But for now, the AFC North has moved up into a two-way tie with the AFC South for the #2 spot, both still well behind the NFC East.
#4AFC East 6-5 (55%) 2-0 this week
The Patriots and Jets finally get to exert some authority over the rest of the league, slowed in the early season by the multiple divisional games and early byes. This week saw the division shoot up 11%, moving up two spots from #6 to #4. If the East can hold on next week, when only the scrubs will be active outside the division, they can firmly entrench themselves in the top four.
#5AFC West 8-9 (47%) 0-2 this week
Despite Scary Kerry staying in the division, this week was a freefall for the struggling West. Both the Chargers and Chiefs lost heartbreakers to the Falcons and Jags respectively, which plummeted the West down 6%, dropping them from #4 to #5.
#6NFC North 6-7 (46%) 1-1 this week
The Vikings did their job, holding on to beat the upstart Saints, but the Bears let down the division in a big way by losing to the hapless Redskins in a snoozer. This middling effort inched the North closer to .500, though not by enough to maintain the #5 spot. The Bears singlehandedly drop the North down one spot from last week, from #5 to #6. Sorry, Vikings.
#7NFC South 7-12 (37%) 1-3 this week
Please disregard last week’s prediction of the Panthers winning this division. In defense of that pick, it is hard to tell which bad team is the least bad. The Falcons won a nailbiter, but the other three teams first got beat up, and then got beat down. Still, as bad as the South is, they may never approach the historic ineptitude that is the NFC West of 2004.
#8NFC West 4-8 (33%) 1-2 this week
Why can’t every week be divisional games? Well, the Rams pulled off the win against the Bucs, and the Cards had the week off, but the Seahawks and 49ers entered the buzz saw that is the AFC East. Don’t worry, it will all be over in eleven weeks. Twelve if you’re the Falcons, who barely beat a mediocre AFC team.
Conference Ranking through Week 6
#1AFC 11-6 (65%) 3-1 this week #2NFC 6-11 (35%) 1-3 this week
The AFC is already almost doubling the wins of the NFC. All signs point to another AFC Superbowl champion, because the good NFC teams, like the Eagles, simply aren’t getting tested the way the AFC teams are. There is strength to be gained from adversity.
Dammit, I have a mental block about the Falcons and the West for some reason. Obviously, that dig should be in the NFC South section.
The numbers are all correct; I do them first, and then put in the writeups afterward. I just double-checked and they are indeed the correct numbers as far as I can tell.
Oh man, that error is bugging me, but at least there is consolation in that nobody reads this stuff. :dubious:
I read it, I just have nothing to contribute. The thing about this thread is that since you’re going with hard numbers it’s really impossible to dispute.
If you want some controversy, though, I will say that the best division in football is the AFC North, but only because the Steelers are in it.
I of course root for the NFC East (damn you, Ritchie Anderson!) for the same reason. (Go Big Blue!)
But you may very well be right. Looking back on the rankings, the AFC North was #4, then #3, then tied for #2. I see a pattern there. And how about those Browns? How in the hell are they undefeated at home? It’s too bad about the Bengals, though. You hate to see a wily veteran benched for an underperforming “rookie”.
As a darkhorse, I say watch out for the AFC East, in particular Buffalo. If the Billies get some OL protection for Bledsoe, they could turn up the heat in a big way. We’ll find out next week when they face, IIRC, the Ravens.
This is why I’m not a big fan of the division system in most sports, and in the NFL in particular. Playing in a weak division is a huge advantage - you get 6 of your 16 games against those weak teams, plus they’re your competition for the division title. On the other side, sometimes you get a division like the AFC East a couple years ago, where Buffalo, Miami, NYJ and NE spent the year beating up on each other, and all end up around 10-6.
It was a lot wors a couple years ago, when it seemed every team in the league was crammed into the AFC Central. 10 division games, between teams that hate each other to the point of rivalry.
Don’t feel so bad about the Falcons, I have a hard time remembering that Seattle changed conferences.
Like Airman, I cannot argue against statistics. I’ve been reading your thread since the start but I’ve had nothing to add.
I’d like to ask you about the statistics: What trends do you see, other than the AFC North? Is there a particular type of offense dominating in the better divisions, or is it all one big crap shoot?
I disagree completely. I made an offhand reference to this very question when discussing the conferences this week:
If you follow that logic to its conclusion, the Superbowl teams should be represented by the tougher divisions. This is the first year I’ve bothered to keep track, but I’m curious about the previous years. The Eagle’s weak division the last three years might help explain their troubles handling the better teams in the Conference Championships. The AFC East has always been very good, which may help explain the unparalleled success of the Patriots, who I liken to tempered steel.
I originally started wondering about the division rankings the first year of realignment, when the Texans were added. The Bengals still sucked, but Chris Collinsworth made the passing comment on Inside the NFL that he thought the Bengals would beat a midlevel finesse team, because “teams hit harder in the North” and that would be too much for the finesse team to handle. I don’t remember the result, but the concept stuck with me.
Basically, part of your team makeup is decided by your division. Things you do well will be tested more heavily by your divisional rivals. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the four best young safeties in football: Roy Williams, Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, and Troy Polamalu, are in the NFC East and AFC North, where they can help shut down Shockey, Heap, and Winslow.
I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the AFC East has been all about running, with Ricky, Travis, Curtis, and now Corey, because the AFC East is all about defense, with the exception of the Jets, who are now jumping on board the defense train with the addition of Vilma.
Not addressed to me, but I’ve been thinking about this very question all season. I would hate to see the NFL go the way of the NBA, with basically two divisions and you play everyone pretty much equally. I agree wholeheartedly with ownership that the sanctity of division rivalries should be protected. That reasoning kept Dallas out of the NFC South, when the Panthers so clearly would have been a better fit in the East. Rivalries beget stories, which begets ratings, especially when it’s a storied rivalry.
But I am bothered a bit about the lack of having “strength of schedule” based on last year’s performance. The only idea I could come up with to fix this would be the following: Instead of playing all four teams in a division from the other conference, you should play all four teams from the other conference who finished in the same rank in their division. So, instead of the Patriots (for instance) playing the Cardinals, Seahawks, Rams and 49ers (WEAK!!!), they would be playing the Eagles, Panthers, Packers, and Rams, which would be much stronger competition.
This is a very simple idea, and I’m sure it was discussed in the league offices. I’m pretty sure I know why it wasn’t adopted. For however many years Elway and Marino were in the league together, they only played each other twice. Twice in like 15 years, and once was in their first year, and once in their last year both being in the league. The NFL really missed out on some great matchup opportunities because of that scheduling irony. The way they have it now, every team will play every other team every four years at a minimum. This makes sense to me, despite the lack of strength of schedule matchups.
Well, I don’t have Tivo or the NFL package, so I only get to see the games broadcast in the New York and New England markets. (LOVE being on a border and getting both NYC and Hartford network feeds.) As such I really don’t know much about the other games except what I see on highlight shows.
As far as divisional team trends for the good teams:
NFC East: Traditionally a hard-hitting division, in particular when they play each other. The Giants have been pretty hard hitting this year, as have the Cowboys, (Roy Williams scares me), but the Eagles and Redskins seem to be playing more of a finesse game from what I can tell. I would think the Eagles, who usually are the hardest hitting team in the East, would try to get back to that, but they may be gunshy from all the injuries. Regardless, I think if they continue to beat up on scrubs easily using their finesse game, they will be in for a rude awakening before the playoffs even begin.
AFC South: I haven’t seen much of these games, but from what I can tell, only the Jags have any kind of defense, though now they’re moving toward the shotgun on offense, which is not a good way to complement solid D. The Texans appear to be mimicing the Colts in philosophy, and the Titans are praying their ground game can prop up a struggling McNair. I see nothing good happening for this division.
AFC North: This division is the real deal. I know the answer to the question I asked: “How are the Browns undefeated at home?” The answer is because they are battle tested, playing everyone in their division once, plus two of the NFC East teams already, with the Eagles coming to town this week. This is a hard hitting, brutal division that relies on the ground attack and swarming defense to break the opposition. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a single chink in the armor in the North. The rest of the league had better watch out when they face anyone from this division, even the disappointing Bengals, because when you are baptized by fire, you are a force to reckon with.
AFC East: Defense, defense, defense. I still hold out hope for the Billies. If they get on a roll, the East could very well crush the rest of the league into dust. Imagine how amazing this division would be if Ricky hadn’t gone AWOL? At the very least, they’d be locked into a close showdown with the NFC East for best division in football.
As far as offensive strategies, the West Coast Plague has really taken root. The Eagles, Jets, and Colts, all currently undefeated, play the West Coast system. Now even teams that don’t fit the system are trying it, like the Falcons. I am not a fan of the West Coast System, for two main reasons: One, it makes for less entertaining football, with 99% of the plays seeming to be dinks and dunks. Screens, anyone? The other main reason is that it artificially inflates the passer rating statistic by allowing QBs to easily throw completion percentages in the high sixties, or even seventies. This, btw, was the real dig on Donovan McNabb. In a system designed to provide high completion percentages, he consistantly threw in the fifties for years. This is simply inexplicable based on the West Coast System. Now that McNabb has gotten his percentage up, I have heard the comment that it takes four years to learn the system properly. It took Chad two years on the bench to learn it, but hey, that’s Chad. Speaking of Chad, he’s the poster boy for “artificially inflated” passer ratings. Wasn’t his first year total season rating over 100? Come on, that’s not a guy making plays, that’s a guy dumping off high percentage passes all season long and getting TDs through YAC. Look to the Vikings if you want to see a QB earn a high passer rating. Look at McNabb of last year to see a QB living off of YAC TDs. It takes a true passer to throw the ball into the endzone. It takes a West Coast punk to dump off a sceen at the 10 and get a YAC TD. (In defense of McNabb, this year it’s like he’s a totally different guy. Passes accurately, not afraid of pasisng into the endzone, throws it deep, and still can run. My apology thread is still on my to-do list around mid-season, but I wouldn’t be stunned if the Eagles lose in Cleveland this week.)
I presonally prefer the East Coast Offense, which the Giants employed to near-perfection in their superbowl run of 2000, and which the Vikings have been using for a while now. Stretch the field vertically, employ a large number of mid-range (8-12 yards) passes, and pound the rock inside the tackles and off tackle. Sweeps are for punks. Get the TE heavily involved, and dump off to the RB only as a last resort, as opposed to the West Coast system which features the RB catching passes. I haven’t been able to figure out the Tom Coughlin system yet, but it is looking more and more like the anti-East Coast system to me. Virtually no TE, a preponderence of that horrendous WR Screen crap, and ultra-conservative ball control style. I don’t have a problem with ball control, but I hate seeing Shockey wither away to an afterthought when we’re between the 20s. Oh well, the season is still young.
Wow, this post ended up being much longer than I intended.
Looks like the AFC North is making its move, while the NFC East got used and abused by the resurgent NFC North. While much of this week involved moderation of the extremes in a reinforcement of the gambler’s fallacy, the league’s worst division – the NFC South – somehow managed to actually get worse.
NFL Division Rankings through Week 7
#1NFC East 10-6 (63%) 1-2 this week
The league’s best division was given a reality check this week, getting manhandled by the NFC North. The next couple weeks involve many more East-North matchups, so the slim margin the East is enjoying may evaporate completely by next week. Also, the AFC North will continue their assault on the Eagles next week when the Ravens travel to Philly.
#2AFC North 8-5 (62%) 2-1 this week
Nobody wants to play the AFC North, the hottest division in football. There are still two unbeaten teams in the league, but the AFC North could end both those streaks next week when the Ravens travel to Philly and the Steelers host the Patriots. Both the Bengals and Browns showed the grit of this division, which could easily overtake the embattled NFC East next week for top honors. Distancing themselves from the fading South, the AFC North breaks the tie and takes the #2 spot this week.
#3AFC South 9-7 (56%) 0-1 this week
With Houston off and the Jags and Colts beating up on each other, only the Titans represented the South this week. Unfortunately for the division, Tennessee got used and abused in the North, and singlehandedly dropped this division out of a tie for the #2 spot down to #3, with both the AFC East and NFC North close on their heels.
#4AFC East 7-6 (54%) 1-1 this week
Just how bad is the NFC West, anyway? The winless Dolphins beat up on one of the West’s better teams, while the Bills were outclassed by the AFC North Ravens, which shouldn’t have been any real surprise. Next week the beleagured Billies get to practice on the NFC West Cards, but the Patriots may be in for trouble when they face Big Ben. The East holds on to the #4 spot, but the seemingly never-ending parade of divisional matchups continues next week, making their hold on the #4 spot tenuous at best.
#5NFC North 9-8 (53%) 3-1 this week
Well hello NFC North! Pounding on the league’s best division has to be boosting morale around the Great Lakes, and next week looks to hold more of the same when 3 of the North teams face 3 from the East. Because the AFC East is still locked in sibling rivalry next week, look for the North to break into the top 4. Their strong performance this week shot them up convincingly from the #6 seed to #5.
#6AFC West 10-11 (48%) 2-2 this week
Inching closer to .500 isn’t helping this struggling division. The division leader just got embarassed by the last place AFC North team on a national stage, while the Raiders and Chargers split with the awful NFC South. On the brighter side, the Chiefs humiliated the division-leading Falcons, which just goes to show you how bad the NFC South really is. But holding their ground won’t hold off the hotter NFC North, so the West drops down one spot from #5 to #6.
#7NFC South 9-14 (39%) 2-2 this week
Well, at least this division isn’t as bad as the West. But could somebody please explain how the division leader, who led the league in rushing defense, let up a nickel on the ground?
#8NFC West 4-9 (31%) 0-1 this week
Just when you think this division can’t possibly get any worse, they surprise you and put up an oh-fer. On the bright side, there was only one active game. The fact that that game was a loss against a winless team? Well, that’s amazingly fitting for this sad excuse for a division.
Conference Ranking through Week 7
#1AFC 14-9 (61%) 3-3 this week #2NFC 9-14 (39%) 3-3 this week
The NFC is trying to make a comeback based on the weakness of the lower-tier AFC teams. Unfortunately they still have to face the tougher teams, but for the moment the NFC is gaining ground, however slight.
Honestly I’m not sure what would be best. I like rivalry games, and I’m sure that they do produce for the owners & the league. Although you do end up with repeated bad matchups as well - do Seattle fans get fired up for playing Arizona once every 8 games? Maybe they do, I don’t know. And I would guess that there’s probably a net benefit to these annual rivalry games. There are just tradeoffs that have to be made, and you just have to decide what features you want the schedule to have.
For example, you can make the argument that the two best AFC teams are New England and the Jets (I don’t know that they are, really). The way things are set up, one of those teams will finish 5th or worse in the conference, even if they both go 15-1.
I agree, for a few reasons. First, as you say, coming from a tough division a team has experience against strong opposition, which will prepare them for the quality teams in the playoffs. But also, much of the time a team that wins a tough division is just better than a team that wins a weak division. In 2002, NE, NYJ, and MIA all were 9-7 in the AFC East, and Cleveland was 9-7 in the North. I would say that Cleveland’s 9-7 is less impressive than the others, but as it ends up they made the playoffs while NE & MIA didn’t. I think if you swapped NE or MIA for CLE in the North that year, that they probably win that division. As it is, they never got the chance in the playoffs to show how good their tough schedule made them.
There’s also the problem that you might have a division with none of the 6 best teams. I haven’t done the math, but that must happen occasionally. In that case, somebody goes to the playoffs from that weak division, and a better team misses out. A similar thing happens in baseball. You have the Yankess and Red Sox in one division, which makes it tough on the other teams.
Damn, I thought I had made an error free post. I checked and rechecked the NFC West and NFC South writeups to make sure I hadn’t transposed the Falcons again, but I only glossed over the headliner intro. Clearly, I have more issues than just the Falcons when it comes to the South and West. I think I know what it is. Five of the other six divisions are all “original four” divisions, with four teams that have played in the same division for the last couple decades.
The AFC South, NFC South, and NFC West are different in that they are created divisions with few (if any) long standing rivalries. I think the NFC South is the worst, with only the Falcons and Saints having any sort of divisional history, and it’s a boring history at that. At least the only history in the West – the 49ers and Rams – has some sort of history behind it. The AFC South is easy to remember, I guess, because it’s the only created division in the AFC. I’ll try to keep an eye on that in the future; lord knows the Bucs and the rest of the South don’t need any extra negativity when they’ve made so much of their own.
It’s only the third year of realignment, so you need a little more time for rivalries to develop. But I disagree with the Cards and Seahawks example. I remember reading in the offseason before realignment about how some of the new division rivalries had zero appeal, and the Cards/Seahawks was the most commonly named new rivalry that had no heat.
However, one of the things I’ve learned from doing this thread is that the NFC West is playing excellent games against each other, which must be generating appeal for fans in those four markets. When you can go toe to toe with all three of your division rivals, you have a real shot at winning your division. And when those games are consistently exciting, which the NFC West games certainly are, you will start to sell a lot of tickets for those games.
I think you are already starting to see the Seahawks grow some roots in the NFC West, and it is incontrovertible that the Cards are happier in the new division. Sure, they are losing out on money in the one game per year they used to host the Cowboys, when they’d sell out from all the Cowboy fans jumping the border to see the game, but the Cards would be in a world of hurt if they were still in the East. In the West, they have much more of a shot.
This is a strong point. It cannot be overcome with divisions as is unless you water down the playoffs and admit more teams. But I hate that idea; one of my bigger gripes about the NHL and NBA is that more teams than not make the playoffs, devaluing the regular season. I’d hate to see the NFL do that. I think this objection you brought up is unfortunately the price you have to pay for divisional rivalries. Let’s say every year one team gets in over another team that is better. That is a penalty I’d be more than willing to make in order to maintain the following rivalries:
Giants - Eagles
Cowboys - Redskins
Jets - Dolphins
Steelers - Ravens (carried over from when they were the Browns)
Steelers - Browns
Packers - Bears (if it ever gets good again, I mean)
Broncos - Raiders
Broncos - Chiefs
And the new rivalries that are already taking hold:
That’s more than enough matchups to schedule a good rivalry game every week of the season as a national game. For example, this Monday night is Jets - Dolphins, which I truly hope the Jets win. (Oh man, if we lose that one, it will be bad, bad, bad.) But look at the Cards - 49ers matchup. Certainly both teams stink right now. But damn if they don’t play great games against each other. If it were on, I’d watch it, and I’m on the friggin’ East Coast. And I was on the edge of my seat in the 4th quarter of the last Seahawks - Rams game, despite the fact that I don’t care a whit about either team.
All good points. I just get mad every year because there is always a deserving team or two shut out of the playoffs. But that’s a design decision; as you say the only way to be sure to avoid it is to let in some bad teams as well.
Well, you could keep the division scheduling and change the playoff qualification system. Just take the 6 best records regardless of divisions. That keeps the divisional rivalry games, but avoids the situation where a 9-7 team wins one division but a 10-6 misses out in another. Also it avoids the ranking problem - if the two best records happen to be in the same division, then they get ranked 1 & 2 instead of 1 & 5.
The problem with that is that there seems to be, every year, a team that gets fat on beating up it’s divisional opponents while being weak against other teams. The AFC Central was like this, a few years ago, before the realignment. GB Packers likewise had some good runs where they just beat on TB, Minn, Chicago and Detroit while they were all down.
I kind of like things the way they are. Does that make me a conservative? :eek:
I’m not positive, but I believe that’s how the NBA works, and that setup has removed all meaning from the divisions themselves. There is no point of division rivalries, or divisions at all, if the division winner isn’t guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
Yeah, that’s the way the NBA (and NHL) work. A buddy of mine (and fellow Giants devotee) advocated this idea the first year of realignment, when the Giants were on the outside looking in. (The Saints choked down the stretch, and the Giants won out in December to clinch the wildcard only to choke bigtime in San Francisco.)
There is merit to the re-seeding idea. The league’s stated reason for not adopting it is that it devalues the division leaders. In the league’s mind, winning a division earns a home game, period. I tend to agree with them.
You and me both. I’m not sure about your NFC North example. Haven’t the Vikings been consistently good since 97, when they miraculously knocked the Giants out of the playoffs in the wildcard round? (I mention this because I believe the Giants have beaten the Vikes every meeting since then, most memorably the 41-0 ass-whupping in the 2000 NFC Championship game. Hopefully that trend continues on Sunday.)
You could argue that the league went overboard on division integrity with realignment: 14 out of 16 games for any team are confined to 3 divisions; your own, another in your conference, and one in the other conference. The remaining two games being the only strength of schedule games you get. I kind of like it, mostly because of the other, more insidious, reason that divisions are important.
You don’t normally notice it in the NFL, but it’s highlighted in my Friday Night gamers Madden franchise. We’re all in the same division to keep the intensity up, and we see this insidious division importance up close. Consider the following example, but bear in mind we customized our franchise to put all three of us in the same division:
AFC East
Jets: 14-2
Steelers: 10-6 (9-3 against AFC)
Giants: 10-6 (8-4 against AFC)
AFC North
Ravens: 13-3
Bills: 10-6 (7-5 against AFC)
AFC South
Colts: 12-4
AFC West
Chiefs: 9-7
Both the Steelers and Giants beat the Bills during the regular season. Who makes the playoffs? Both in our Madden game and by the official NFL rules, the Steelers and Bills get the wildcard spots, while the Giants watch on tv, despite the fact that the Giants swept the Bills 1-0 in head to head play, and also have a better conference record.
The reason for this is because if there is a multiple tie, the very first tiebreaker applied is to take only the best single team from each division in the tie. That makes divisional standing extremely important, which is exactly what the league office intended.
I personally like this setup. What it is basically doing is making the divisional games several orders of magnitude more important than all other games. That brings real heat to divisional games. It doesn’t hurt my support of this setup that the Giants are currently 2-1 in the division. Go Big Blue!
You could argue that the Chiefs, at 9-7, should be staying at home while the 10-6 Giants should make the playoffs, but I think the league would respond that the Chiefs won their division, while the Giants placed third in theirs, so the Chiefs really did earn their spot more than the Giants did, despite having a worse record.
The real stumbling block in all this is the fact that in a tie within the division, the first two tiebreakers are division record, then the record in common games, which makes the interconference (AFC-NFC) games more important than they should be, in my opinion.
But seriously, the Scumbirds will collapse, and I’m thinking there’ll be a Thanksgiving trip to Giants Stadium right in the middle of that collapse to boot.