NFL owners to vote on big playoff seeding change proposed by Lions: Report

Next week in Minneapolis, NFL owners will make a decision on a significant new rule. The Detroit Lions have proposed altering how playoff teams are seeded. Currently, division winners automatically occupy the best spots. But the Lions would seed all seven teams in each conference based strictly on their records. This would allow a team with a higher record to rank higher, even if they lost their division. The league will vote on this new concept soon.The Lions' concept is posted as Bylaw Proposal No. 4. It states that the four division winners and three wild cards in each conference would still qualify for the playoffs but their seeds would be based on who possesses the best records, not the team that won a division. If a team has an identical record as another, being a division winner would settle the tie.The Lions brought one additional new concept: reseeding following the first round. That would mean the highest ranked team would always face the lowest ranked team remaining. Currently, the matches are predetermined and cannot be altered. The reseeding would ensure that the best teams always had the best opportunities, and better games would be played each round by the fans.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did not vote on this back in March. Then, not many teams were prepared to say yes. But today more are listening. There is one major reason. The NFL does not like it when teams hold back on players in the final games of the season. It hurts TV viewing numbers and gets fans less enthusiastic. If they implement this new system, teams would even more strongly compete to win weeks 17 and 18 because every position would matter.Teams like the Texans, Rams, and Eagles in 2023 benched their players in week 18 because they already had their seed locked. They lost their games but still won in the first round of playoffs. If the new rule were in effect, their seed might have been dramatically different, so they would have played to win rather than sitting their players. The NFL maintains that this new configuration would make late-season games more fun and equitable.Also Read: Why Did Shedeur Sanders Fall To Pick 144? NFL Teams May Regret This One