*NSFL Alternate Timeline

[Beaver]

I know you're not seriously making the suggestion but honestly, the only reason I'd argue against this is the loss of Conference Championship games. Otherwise this is pretty interesting stuff. I've thought about it before, too (though not too hard because Hawks innit? I'm not dumb, lol) but I couldn't get past the idea that the playoffs felt incomplete without conference championship games.

The shuffling of matchups and potentially home field is really fascinating though. It complicates plans a little too, because you can't necessarily rest on the knowledge that you're one of the top two in your conference (for example) or that you're confident you can win a matchup against whoever the other playoff team is in your conference, regardless of home field advantage...

I'mma stop now before I convince myself this is the superior option lol

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting this as an option to replace our current system. I like the way we do things. Sometimes it fucks up and a 5-9 Arizona team (for example) makes the playoffs but overall it's pretty good about getting the best teams into the playoffs while fostering rivalries within conference. However, I was curious about how differently we'd view teams if there was a minor change to our playoff system - turns out there wouldn't be much of a difference but some teams definitely would be viewed slightly differently under a tweaked system.