Question About Playoff Seedings (1 Viewer)

[Bad_Mo]

14-teamer. Playoffs begin Week 14 and end Week 17.

Top 3 teams in each division are in, and there are two wildcard spots.

Seeds #1 through #6 are determined based on overall record, head to head, then points for (if necessary).

Question: What is the fairest way to treat the two wildcard teams (i.e., automatically #7 and #8 seeds based on their records)? If not the #7 and #8 seeds, do you throw all playoff eligible teams into one group and determine seeds based on overall records and other tiebreaker rules?

Example of a weird situation is...suppose that Wilcard Team A has a 7-6 record. Should that team be seeded higher than a team who is 6-7 but got in because of their finish in the top-3 in their division? Do wildcards always get treated as the lowest posible seeds?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Bad_Mo]

I looked at the AFC playoff seedings from last year and here is what I found:

#1 IND (14-2)

#2 DEN (13-3)

#3 CIN (11-5)

#4 NE (10-6)

#5 JAX (12-4)

#6 PIT (11-5)

Since JAX and PIT were wildcards, I think I found the answer to my question above (if all teams that get in by virtue of being a top division finisher are treated like division winners - in the NFL).

 

[perry147]

Throw all playoff eligible team that have not already qualified for the playoffs into one group and determine the seeds based on overall records and other tiebreaker rules.