So, writers across the country are trying to fill space between playoff games by deriding Roger Goodell’s idea for expansion of the playoffs solely because of this weekend’s particularly sucky games.  Granted, it’s an over-reaction, but any time anyone gives Roger Goodell shit for being a National Disgrace, it’s also a good thing, so I have mixed feelings.

The reality is that until someone tries to impress an actress by actually killing Goodell, we are stuck with him and the expansion of the playoffs will probably happen.  That doesn’t, however, mean that it needs to be particularly shitty.  In fact, and I have brought this up before, the best way to implement the eight-team-per-conference playoffs is to adopt/adapt the Australian Football League’s (AFL) Double Chance system.

It’s very simple to comprehend once you get used to it.  As an example, I will use last year’s AFL Finals series bracket:

Here is how the teams finished the regular season last year:

1- Sydney Swans

2- Geelong Cats

3- Hawthorn Hawks

4- GWS Giants

5- Adelaide Crows

6- West Coast Eagles

7- Western Bulldogs

8- North Melbourne Kangaroos

There are no First Round Byes.  Everyone plays.  Higher-seeded teams always host.  The key difference is that the top 4 teams get a Double Chance.  #2 plays #3 in the First Qualifying Final while #1 plays #4 in the Second Qualifying Final.  The Winners get a bye past the next round directly to a Preliminary Final. The Losers play again the next week.

But wait, there’s more!  The #6 plays #7 in the First Elimination Final while the #5 plays #8 in the Second Elimination Final.  The flipping of the seeds with the “First” and “Second” will make sense, just stick with me. The Winners of the Elimination Finals play the Losers of the Qualifying Finals in Week Two, otherwise known as the Semi-Finals.

The Winners of the Semi-Finals play the Winners of the Qualifying Finals in what is known as the Preliminary Finals.  As you can see in the bracket above, the system is set up so that playoff re-matches will only happen once, in the Grand Final.

Bringing this back to the NFL, we can maintain the Division system and give the Division winners the top four seeds.  The four best remaining teams get playoff berths (Wild Cards, if you want to keep calling it that) based on the existing NFL tie-breaking procedures.  Using this year’s final standings, we would get the following playoff fields:

AFC

1- New England Patriots

2- Kansas City Chiefs

3- Pittsburgh Steelers

4- Houston Texans

5- Oakland Raiders

6- Miami Dolphins

7-Tennessee Titans

8- Denver Broncos

NFC

1- Dallas Cowboys

2- Atlanta Falcons

3- Seattle Seahawks

4- Green Bay Packers

5- New York Giants

6- Detroit Lions

7- Tampa Bay Buccaneers

8- Washington Redacteds

The Qualifying Finals would be exactly the same as this next weekend’s games:

Houston at New England

Pittsburgh at Kansas City

Green Bay at Dallas

Seattle at Atlanta

The Elimination Finals would be much more competitive and worth a watch:

Tennessee at Miami

Denver at Oakland

Tampa Bay at Detroit

Washington at New York

That’s two division rivalries in Elimination games!  You’re telling me that wouldn’t be a lot more fun?  Granted, it wouldn’t happen every year, but the likelihood of divisional matchups in the Elimination Finals is much greater under this system.

The Semi-Finals would be highly compelling as you have matchups of teams that lost against teams that won.  Who would have the momentum?  Can the losing team rebound well against an allegedly inferior opponent?  I could see some upsets in this round as well.

Then we are on to the Preliminary Finals which lead to the Conference Grand Final and then the NFL Grand Final (Or Superb Owl, if you want to keep calling it that).  This system is supposed to give an advantage to those that finish in the top four (i.e. division winners) which maintains the integrity of the divisional system.  It makes the regular season mean MORE as it is now highly important to win the division.

At the same time, it’s not impossible for lower-seeded teams to succeed.  You remember who won the Grand Final last year, don’t you?

What say you?  I think it makes a lot of sense.  So much so, of course, that it will never happen, but I still hold out hope that somewhere some NFL intern will see this article, rip out the part where I say Roger Goodell has no dick, present it to his higher ups, and get a promotion like in those Michael J. Fox movies from the 80s.

What can I say, I’m an optimist.  Yours in the comments.