Proposed Rule Change Could Radically Alter Bucs Playoff Fortunes
May 19th, 2025
Do-gooder.
Joe guesses the Lions are still peeved at the Bucs.
This week, at the request of the Lions, NFL owners will vote on a proposed new rule for the postseason that seeds the seven playoff teams by record, not by division winners and wild cards.
What that means is if a division winner doesn’t have one of the top four records in the conference, it would not get to host a first-round game on wild card weekend. This would mean no true home playoff game reward for winning a division, an NFL tradition for decades.
(Back in 2022, the Bucs had a worse record than the Lions, who finished second in the NFC North, but it was the Bucs that went to the playoffs and hosted a playoff game because they won the NFC South. Lions-types must still squirm about this.)
If the NFL isn’t going to reward division winners, why have divisions?
Why should the Bucs, for example, be stuck hosting a regular season game each season with the Stinking Panthers, the Dixie Chicks and the slimy Saints when the Bucs could, in theory, host a game or two from teams that pull more fans into the stadium and eyeballs to the TV?
At least when the Bucs were good under Father Dungy and played in the NFC Central, the Bucs always were involved in high-profile games. Moving to the then-new NFC South hurt the Bucs in the long run from a marketing and prestige standpoint.
Maybe it’s just Joe, but Joe senses more of a rivalry exists between the Bucs and the old NFC Central foes like (Lions, Bears, Packers. Vikings) than among the current NFC South teams, aside from possibly the slimy Saints?
Sadly, this proposed new playoff format all boils down to TV ratings, not what’s fair or right.
May 19th, 2025 at 12:33 am
Meh. Lets leave well enough alone. Cant make this thing perfect. Go Damn Bucs!
May 19th, 2025 at 12:48 am
100 percent agree. Why have divisions if winning the division means jack lickity squat. Hope this rule goes nowhere.
May 19th, 2025 at 12:55 am
Imagine having multiple teams with the same record. There will be some sore teams due to wild tie-breaker rules.
May 19th, 2025 at 1:05 am
As an NFC Central fan if my Buccaneers, the Lions should maybe not let their recent success go to their head. We can still bounce spank that…adversary like it was October 31st, 1999.
Split many a game over the years with them 32-29 isn’t like they’re dominant. So what that rusted junk yard of a city thinks, they missed their window.
Bye Felicia.
May 19th, 2025 at 1:16 am
Please stop this nut job!
Go Bucs!
May 19th, 2025 at 2:04 am
I don’t think this new rule is unfair at all. Most often teams that barely get into playoffs as division winners come from divisions that are mediocre at best. Need to stop rewarding mediocrity with home field advantage against a powerhouse. Bucs have been that team the last few years. Playoff berth is good enough for the mediocre. Cannot have it all.
May 19th, 2025 at 2:59 am
I could argue either side for this rule change. The division winners still get in, just the seedlings change. Meh, so win more games.
On the other hand, let’s not romanticize the old black and blue division too much. Chicago won a SB and so did the Packers. Detroit and Minnesota are still looking for their first. In fact, since the Bucs expansion days, the NFC South has been just as successful in winning championships as the North. Chicago has sucked forever, Detroit has had a successful recent history and the Vikings remain the bridesmaid. Only GB is royalty in reality and they’re by far the smallest TV market, however with a huge fan base. The South has the Atlanta and Charlotte TV markets. Hello? Add in party city and a two-time SB winning TB that’s as successful as the other Bay has been in the past 50 years and you have the potential to be the SEC of the NFL. Just win baby and nobody will put the NFC South in the corner.
May 19th, 2025 at 3:32 am
Joe … ‘Sadly, this proposed new playoff format all boils down to TV ratings, not what’s fair or right.’
Nice bottom line Joe. But isn’t that the bottom line to most of the changes the NFL makes these days? TV = $$$ nowadays, especially for some of the smaller markets.
May 19th, 2025 at 4:46 am
Divisions rise and fall every year – it’s only when a small ratings team benefits from an existing rule everyone starts to complain. You win your division you host a game!
May 19th, 2025 at 5:56 am
The current system is fair. Why would you take away a home playoff game from a team if they win in a tougher division just because they lose more games than a team that plays in a weaker division?
May 19th, 2025 at 6:14 am
Winning the division would guarantee you make the playoffs. Pretty sure that’s a good reason to care about winning the division. This rule change would incentivize teams to win more games, you want better seeding win more. Bucs have been the beneficiary of a terrible division over the last few years.
If the Bucs had finished with 12 wins, lost the division and had to go play the 9 win (insert team) most of you would complain about it.
May 19th, 2025 at 6:41 am
Every thing in life comes down to money. It’s not about Doing the Right Thing. Under the throne of the NFL lead by It’s emperor Goodell it’s about money and power.
May 19th, 2025 at 6:52 am
Yeah at the previous owners meeting this year, it was decided according to multiple media outlets that the original measure wouldn’t pass 24 owners accepting it due to losing known revenue of winning the division and having the first home game, so tabled for this meeting as likely to use existing way for first round of playoffs, and to uphold division winner relevancy, then likely re-seed after round one using this new proposed measure. It was said owners would approve that. At this upcoming meeting.
May 19th, 2025 at 6:56 am
I’ve considered this myself from time to time ever since the Seahawks became the first team to ever do this a long time ago. The more I thought about it I came back to how this league is structured. Having all these divisions promotes intense rivalries. When we went to this current league structure the realignment made sure certain rivalries were left undisturbed. For instance Dallas remained in the NFC East even though they’re 2000 miles from the east coast while Arizona went to the new NFC West. Reason? There was a huge rivalry between the Redskins, Eagles, Giants, and Cowboys, but not so much the Cardinals. The Falcons and Saints were kicked out of the NFC West to the new NASCAR division because they didn’t matter much anyway. Same with the BUCS getting evicted from the NFC Central. We didn’t matter the others were always huge rivals. We were the red headed stepchild. When they did the realignment they were more scrupulous about keeping rivalries together than geography. Basically we have eight little fiefdoms. Winning your division makes you the village champion. It isn’t always fair, but what does fair even mean? If you win the pennant you are the local champion even if your record is meh. If you win 12 games, but your division mate wins 13 or wins on a tie breaker…you lost your division none the less. You play on the road. Otherwise why not do away with divisions and conferences and rivalries all together and just have one big free-for-all?
May 19th, 2025 at 7:11 am
Lions hosted the Skins, and got the floor wiped by them. Lot good home field did them. This season they need to worry about winning their own division. If they think that’s a given, they won’t even make the playoffs.
May 19th, 2025 at 7:29 am
If your going to go just on record, you would have to consider a strength of schedule. what if a team has a better record than a division winner but had a weak easy schedule ? Stick with the way it is, it will never be “fair”, to many things to consider.
May 19th, 2025 at 7:29 am
Yeah its just you.
There is more of a rivalry today with South teams then before when the Buxs got Stuck in a Northern division in 1977, with Gauranteed longer travel every year. I guess it was better then 1976 AFC west like they started in.
The 1st 2 seasons they played every team 1976 AFC/ 1977 NFC,
Then settled into normal Division play,
1979, 81,82 they went to the playoffs, then 15 years of the first lost Decade and a half until 1997.
1997-2002 they had 5 of 6 years of vwinning teams and Lombardi #1.
Then its the NFC South until now.
The Bucs were such a dormat for so many years that real rivalries did not develop much. Yeah in the late 90’s, Bucs and Pack- Sapp and Farve, and then Sapp blasting Chad Clifton on a int return was fuel to some fire. But the Black and Blue NFC Central teams played against each other, some like GB and Chicago goes back to the 1920’s. The Bucs were always like the new kid that others did not care about, and with the Bucs being terrible so much, Rivalry was really a foreign concept lol.
There is more of a rivary today, in the NFC South, even though its not like older traditional rivaries of teams in the long storied history of the NFL.
May 19th, 2025 at 7:38 am
Home-field advantage is not the reason we have divisions. Playoff seeding has everything to do with matchups. Wild Card Weekend is already boring when the crappy teams get blown out by the real contenders. Why do we have to give the crappy team a home game? If they want to host a playoff game, they need to play better during the season.
May 19th, 2025 at 7:42 am
We have the Tezmanian Devil — the ultimate unfair advantage. He’ll bring the ratings needed to make this a non-issue.
Or something.
May 19th, 2025 at 7:56 am
From everything I hear from the SiriusXM NFL gurus, this is unlikely to pass. You need 2/3 of the teams agreeing to it and it’s unlikely that will happen.
May 19th, 2025 at 8:17 am
No issue with that at all.
May 19th, 2025 at 8:33 am
The same could be asked “Whats the point of having a good record if a team with a worse record is rewarded more?”… I am fine with this. Good records deserved to be rewarded more than a a mediocre team winning a bad division.
May 19th, 2025 at 8:34 am
That would have made us a non playoff team the last 4 years I think?
May 19th, 2025 at 9:02 am
“If the NFL isn’t going to reward division winners, why have divisions?”
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This hits the nail on the head and is a very valid point.
May 19th, 2025 at 9:07 am
Keep tampering with it and the NFL will become the NBA, which has ratings that are dyeing
May 19th, 2025 at 9:18 am
Get rid of divisions. Have every team in the conference plays each other once. That would be 15 conference games and 2 non-conference games for 17 game season. That would make tie breakers pretty straight forward since every team would play each other. Top 7 teams make playoffs.
May 19th, 2025 at 9:19 am
weird I read just days ago that the reseeding was only for AFTER the first round
May 19th, 2025 at 9:22 am
Detroit had presented a similar rule change in advance of the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach back in late March, but that proposal based home-field advantage in the playoffs strictly on record. There wasn’t enough support for an official vote, as owners didn’t like the idea of completely stripping divisional winners of home-field advantage.
However, the proposal received a modification that would continue to include four divisional champions and three wild-card participants per conference, and allow divisional champs to still host their first-round playoff game. Under the modified proposal, once the second round is reached, the No. 1 seed would host the lowest remaining seed, and then the reseeding would take place. The remaining team with the next-best record would host the team with the second-lowest record.
this was in NY Times 3 days ago. did something change?
May 19th, 2025 at 9:23 am
This will kill the NFL look at the NBA…
May 19th, 2025 at 9:28 am
For the Bucs, winning the weakest division is the NFL is a good achievement, but not great. The Bucs need to stop playing down to the division, going 4-2 the last two years, and starting sweeping the division by blowing opponents out. Also, fix the night games and start beating quality teams. Then the Bucs don’t need to be concerned with playoff seeding. Just Win Baby!
May 19th, 2025 at 9:40 am
records are flawed too though. all of this connects to the division winner getting the hardest schedule (theoretically) the following year. if we reseed, then the seeding should reflect the next year’s schedule or something right? not fair to division winners to put them on the road AND give them the hardest schedule? if everyone played the same teams, sure, reseed. but they don’t. i don’t have a problem with it in round two, though.
May 19th, 2025 at 9:54 am
no matter how you set it up, there’s a bunch of scenarios where it’ll be “unfair” on the surface. let’s say you’re in the hardest division, and everyone good beats each other up and goes 11-6. say, the eagles cowboys and commskins… they could all be far better teams than a 12-5 falcons or whoever, who went 6-0 in the worst division but only 6-5 elsewhere, but since it goes by record it doesn’t matter that all three would be big favs against the falcons, and it doesn’t matter which team won the East. they travel to atlanta and win by 30. OH! how about NFL power rankings decides it and the league can hand-pick the matchups like the NCAA did by jerking the late-season rankings around! good times. any meddling with playoff format could wind up starting a snowball down a mountain and we wind up playing Whac-A-Mole for ten years to patch all the new leaks
May 19th, 2025 at 10:23 am
It all boils down to greed and what will make the NFL more money.
May 19th, 2025 at 11:22 am
To be the best, you must beat the best. No short cuts to a championship. You are what your playing record says you are. That’s the beauty of the NFL. No faking, lying or fake news. Just Facts.
May 19th, 2025 at 11:34 am
Hate it.
Reward the division winners. If the division isn’t very good… Wait a few years, it all cycles around. If you’re not going to do this, then get rid of division and just have two conferences and completely change how they do schedules.
Hate the concept of that.
Stick with the divisions and the rivalries
May 19th, 2025 at 11:57 am
From what I read awhile back when this was discussed at the owners meeting – it sounded like the only way it would pass is by adding the clause that the team with the better record (who didn’t win their division) gets the home game ONLY if the team that won their division had a LOSING record…
So a 9-8 division winner gets a home playoff game…. but a ‘division winner’ with an 8-9 record (like the 2022 Bucs) would have to go play on the road.
I would be OK with that.
May 19th, 2025 at 12:11 pm
This! It’s all about the bucks (not the Bucs)!
“Costa Rica John Says:
May 19th, 2025 at 10:23 am
It all boils down to greed and what will make the NFL more money.”
Imagine if MLB gave the Mets, the Dodgers, the Cubs and the Astros automatic playoff slots every year. It’s a very bad idea, but that would make money. So why not give all 32 teams participation trophies and force the playoffs to include 1 team in each of the top 8 NFL media markets, regardless of their records? Although a bad idea, that would give the NFL playoff game exposure in every top 8 market.
(sarcasm intended)
May 19th, 2025 at 12:37 pm
I hope this proposal fails miserably. If you don’t like it, win your division or win on the road.
May 19th, 2025 at 2:40 pm
There are more teams that should benefit from the current rule than the new proposal. Hence the proposal should be vetoed.
Also – if a team has a losing record it should automatically be disqualified from the playoffs no matter what their division.
Todd going 8-9 for the privilege of getting beaten like a rented mule at home the hands of the woeful Cowboys was so embarrassing, there are still horrible flashbacks.
May 19th, 2025 at 2:55 pm
My understanding is that this has very little traction with owners/coaches.
Not much chance anything changes.
May 19th, 2025 at 3:06 pm
If the shoe were on the other foot Bucs fans would be singing a different tune. Only really fair way to do it is NFC 1-6 or 8 and AFC 1-6 or 8 depending how many teams are getting in the playoffs. Then you need every conference team to play one another at least once each season. Then and only then will you have a fair seeding structure. Doubt they will really do it though.
May 19th, 2025 at 6:36 pm
What Mort said!!!
May 19th, 2025 at 11:08 pm
I’m old school and would hate this. The NFC and AFC should be eliminated if this happens.
May 20th, 2025 at 10:04 am
Where were the Lions on this one for the last how many years? Pfff jog on