The NFL needs a playoff committee
The NFL needs a playoff committee. I’ll just lob that out there.
It’s a weird time to live in Wisconsin. In the sports world, anyway. It’s still cold as F.
The Badgers just lost to Rutgers. Rutgers? The Packers aren’t in the playoffs. And the Bucks have the most popular player in the NBA.
What? Is this bizarro world?
With the first round of the NFL playoffs over, it’s somewhat difficult to be engaged, considering no Packers — or i could just say, ‘no Aaron Rodgers,’ — and most of the teams are uninteresting.
The NCAA football national champion gets crowned tonight — if you’re not a Central Florida fan.
The state of Wisconsin could have had a stake there, too, if there was a more legit playoff system or the Badgers didn’t blow the last game.
But it’s funny looking at the playoff systems of both the NCAA and NFL, and how there’s a nice middle ground between the two that could have made the state of Wisconsin very happy.
So, I’ll say it again: the NFL needs a playoff committee.
Skipping the rest of the NFL for now, what would the Packers have done in Week 16, coming off a loss to the Panthers, if there was an NFL playoff committee? Rodgers certainly wouldn’t have illegally gone back to the IR.
It’s a tough argument to make now, looking at the final records, but Green Bay was fighting to go 9-7. Does a committee pick a Green Bay team with a healthy Rodgers that just beat NFC North champions Minnesota over an Eagles team with no chance without Carson Wentz?
Or maybe it votes in the Cowboys with Ezekiel Elliott back or even the Seahawks depending on how the final weeks shook out.
In the AFC, there certainly could be some adjustments. The Bills aren’t in. The Titans probably aren’t, either. The Chargers and Ravens certainly replace them.
Or, if the NFL really wanted to make the playoff picture interesting, it gets rid of the AFC and NFC altogether and a committee simply picks ITS best 12 teams.
College football has something to learn from its lack of playoff teams, but the NFL could steal the committee idea and make the playoffs really worth watching.
It certainly beats watching the Bills in a playoff game. And the last two weeks of the NFL regular season are more compelling — at least for Packers fans, not having to watch Brett Hundley run around.
-Rick Solem, RICK@580WKTY.com
