again, i really don't have an opinion one way or t'other (well, i guess to be honest i do otherwise i wouldn't have brought the point up). i guess my main point was that there is an argument to be made contrary to what the current (NFL) reasoning is.
to your last, regarding rewarding division winners for having a better record than wild card teams, it would seem to me that the whole conference would have to be seeded according to their conference records. you could still have divisions but then their significance would be somewhat diminished.