NFL owners are gathered this week to vote on another round of rule changes after meeting to do the same back in March. Hours before the votes were set to occur, however, one proposed change got taken off the table.
Earlier this offseason the Detroit Lions proposed the NFL change its seeding rules around the playoffs. Detroit's change would make it so the postseason teams are reseeded based on record and record alone after the conclusion of the regular season. As it stands the first four seeds belong to the division winners and the last three to the wild card teams with no exceptions. The Lions wanted to change that so the teams with the best records get the highest playoff seeds, no matter whether they won the division or not.
However, the bold proposal reportedly didn't have the votes to pass. So on Wednesday morning the Lions withdrew it. The issue can be revisited in future years as a result, but in the immediate the playoff seeding structure will stay the same.
Detroit's propsal was inspired by the rare situation that occurred in the NFC North last season. The Lions and Minnesota Vikings both finished with more wins than every other NFC playoff team except the Philadelphia Eagles. But since NFL rules currently state that a team must win their division to earn a top-four seed, the Vikings were pushed down to the No. 5 seed in the postseason standings despite having more wins than the No. 4 seed Los Angeles Rams and the No. 3 seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Lions would have been in that position had they lost their Week 18 matchup with the Vikings and clearly would prefer to avoid such an unfortunate turn of events in the future.
For now, however, the status quo remains.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lions Withdraw Proposal for Big Rule Change Around NFL Playoff Seeding.
