By Harvey Van Blerkom
The NFL season is in full swing, and the playoff picture seems to be shaping up. The final NFL team, the 49ers are going strong as ever, though they are only one game up on the New Orleans Saints for the top seed in the NFC, and two games up on the Seahawks in their division, with matchups against the Saints and Seahawks scheduled in the season. However in the AFC, the Patriots undefeated season is no more, but they still hold a comfortable 1.5 game lead over the second place Ravens. At the moment, there are many teams with impressive records that could potentially miss the playoffs, or lose home field advantage. In every sport, it is known that the playoffs are designed so that the winner of every division gets in the playoffs, but is this best for the fairness of the league?
The Seattle Seahawks are 8-2, only losing to the 7-2 Saints and the 8-1 49ers. The Seahawks’ impressive season is good enough for second place in the NFC West, but still, would have to travel to Dallas (5-4) to face the Cowboys in the Wild Card round. Keep in mind this is the same Dallas team that lost to the 2-7 Jets. At the same time, if the Seahawks were in the AFC, they would have a first round bye, and would be in first place in 3 of those divisions, yet they find themselves as the ultimate underdogs in the NFC postseason bracket.
But the Seahawks aren’t the only example of a team with a better record having to travel to play against a team with a worse record. The 6-3 Bills would have to travel to 6-4 Kansas City, solely because of the divisions that they are in.
While home field advantage may not seem like a big advantage to some, throughout the NFL’s history, home teams have won over 55% of home games, and the two loudest stadiums in the NFL, belong to the Seahawks and Chiefs, reaching noise levels of over 135 decibels each. Interestingly enough, these are two teams that would be affected by the format of the NFL Playoffs, the Seahawks negatively, while the Chiefs positively.
Homefield advantage matters for teams in the NFL, and teams are being deprived of that. In 2018, the Seahawks went 6-2 (75% win percentage) at home, while they only managed to go 4-5 (44% win percentage) on the road (including postseason). Meanwhile, the same season, the Chiefs went 8-2 (80% win percentage) at home (including postseason), but only managed to go 5-3 (62.5% win percentage) away from home.
For the Seahawks this 31% decrease in chance to win means a lot in a win or go home game, as last season, their odds dipped to below 50%, and Chiefs fans should be relieved, as they are being given a 17.5% higher chance to win their playoff game.
All of these unfair seedings don’t need to happen, and the problem is truly the structure of the NFL’s Playoff bracket. The only question is how the structure should be changed.
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