(01-17-2019 11:28 AM)CAJUNNATION Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 11:20 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Bowls are where conference tie-ins should matter, but playoffs should be about excellence. No affirmative-action for conferences when it comes to playoffs.

Yeah, those stupid conference tie-ins to the NFL playoff are sooooo yesterday.

Remember, the NFL's divisional races are significantly different from how college conferences choose their champs (the NFL's method is clearly better), and, the NFL system isn't done strictly based on what is competitively fair either, it is done for marketing reasons, as the NFL is a business.

I mean look at this year's playoffs: The Saints are favored to beat the Rams this Sunday. Why? The game is in New Orleans, where the Saints have a huge Dome-Field Advantage. But the Saints and Rams have the same record, so why is the game in New Orleans? Because the Saints won their head to head game. But ... that game was played in New Orleans, where the Saints have a big advantage! Not really fair, eh?

And last week, the Patriots got to play the Chargers at home, after a week off bye, while the Chargers first had to travel 3,000 miles and win at Baltimore to even get to play the Patriots, even though the Chargers had a better record than the Patriots. Why? Patriots won a terrible AFC East division. Not really fair, eh?

If you want to argue conference champ auto-bids on marketing grounds, that's a different issue.