Home Dogs

This weekend’s NFL Wild Card playoff games feature something interesting about the matchups: all four home teams are underdogs. This means that most people think that all four of the Wild Card teams are better than the division winners they are playing. This situation is further proof that the existence of divisions are unnecessary and counterintuitive to the goals of a playoff. The goal of a playoff is to pit the top teams against each other to determine who is the champion of the season. So explain to me why the 8-8 San Diego Chargers deserve to compete for the championship while the 11-5 New England Patriots aren’t good enough to compete for the Super Bowl? The Patriots, Jets, Cowboys, and Buccaneers each have records better than the Chargers this season. The Broncos, Texans, Redskins, and Saints all have the same record as the Chargers this season. That puts the Chargers somewhere between the 16th and 20th team ranked by regular season record. By regular season record, the Patriots rank tied for 7th.

I’m not a Patriots fan, so I’m not arguing that “my team was robbed.” I’m a sports fan arguing for fairness when it comes to determining eligibility for the postseason. The existence of divisions makes the playing field unequal when it is possible to have an 8-8 team in the playoffs and an 11-5 team not in the playoffs.