row_33 Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 -------------------- as noted earlier, the NHL late 70s and early 80s play a fully interlocking schedule with 21 teams meeting 2 home and away. and they STILL kept divisions and conferences for playoff entrance, the top four teams in each division got in. not sure if any team was horribly ripped off and missed out to a team with 15 points less for making the playoffs during this format. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/nhl19271980.html and the Sabres schedule that season, 2 home and away against 20 teams http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/team_results.php?tid=33&sid=1980 1
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 6 minutes ago, row_33 said: not sure if any team was horribly ripped off and missed out to a team with 15 points less for making the playoffs during this format. That was the era when the Islanders would just have it on ‘cruise control’ for the season slog, then turn up the engine for the playoffs.
jahbonas Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 Divisions were fine when you had 5 teams /division - you were sure to get a quality Division winner in each. The only worries were the AFC/NFC Central because they only had 4 teams and could sometimes have a Div winner at 8-8. Now with all divisions at only 4 teams its very likely wild cards would have far better record than a division winner. Go back to 3 Divisions and you will get top division winners again. Also let teams in the AFC play only the other AFC teams keeping many of the schedules fairly similar compared to the wild differences between hard/easy schedules we see today.
1st&ten Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 Add more Wild Card teams & seed the teams by record. If there is scheduling problems to fill spots, have the Patriots & Cowboys play each other 4 times a year---that's who the sport's media want to talk about anyways. Also, they could have the Patriots play in London 4 times a year. 1
row_33 Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 57 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said: That was the era when the Islanders would just have it on ‘cruise control’ for the season slog, then turn up the engine for the playoffs. then they went to the unbalanced schedule and the Horrible Norris Division held the Leafs who got to game 7 of the second round after a 25-48-7 season 1
TheFunPolice Posted December 12, 2019 Posted December 12, 2019 It sounds like they are going to up the playoffs to 7 teams per conference with only 1 bye To me, that makes the most sense. The best 14 teams in the league get into the tournament. Sometimes wonky things happen, but that doesn't mean you need to change the system.
thronethinker Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 Since were getting rid of divisions why not just get rid of Conferences too. I swear every time something pops up we have to be instantly appeased or its the end of the friggin world.
Samwell Tarly Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 You could leave the schedules and divisions intact.Then seed the playoffs based on record and if you win a crappy division but don't qualify for the playoffs, oh well, season over. A second idea could be to abandon conferences, play half of the league each year, and simply seed the top 12 teams. This should increase the likelihood if 12 most deserving teams making it and creates the best odds for a highly competitive Super Bowl.
Orlando Buffalo Posted December 13, 2019 Posted December 13, 2019 20 hours ago, BuffaloBillies said: One fairly small change that might appease some would be to keep the division format, but then seed playoff teams by record. So Dallas (or Philly) would still get in, but would be the 6th seed (and no home game) vs being the 4 seed. This has a legitimate chance of happening- and I think shoud- because the NFL still cares about divisions titles and the luster it provided. 1
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