NFL Playoff Seeding Format Remains Unchanged as Dan Campbell’s Lions Withdraw Proposal

NFL owners have reconvened to vote on multiple proposals that were tabled or left off the agenda during the annual league meeting. These include NFL players participating in flag football for the Olympics, the “Tush Push” ban, and one proposal recently withdrawn by the Detroit Lions.

Lions Withdraw New Playoff Seeding Proposal

For the 1990 season, the NFL expanded the playoffs to six teams from each conference. With only three divisions at the time, the two division winners with the best record received a bye to the Divisional Round, with the third division winner hosting a Wild Card team.

When the Houston Texans joined the league in 2002, the league created four divisions in each conference. The four division winners received the top four playoff seeds, and each team was guaranteed one home playoff game.

The league utilized this format until the 2020 season, when it added one more playoff team in each conference. Over the 30 seasons of the previous format, there were multiple occasions when a division winner hosted a Wild Card team with a better record. Most famously in 2010, when the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West and used a “Beast Quake” to defeat the 11-5 New Orleans Saints at home.

Earlier this offseason, the Lions proposed a new playoff format where division winners automatically qualify, but seeding is determined by overall record.

Last season, in Week 18, Detroit and the Minnesota Vikings played with the winner securing the NFC’s No. 1 seed and the loser dropping to the No. 5 seed and traveling for the opening round of the playoffs. The Lions won the game and sent the 14-3 Vikings to the 10-7 Los Angeles Rams, where Minnesota lost. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio broke down how the NFL essentially “nudged” the Lions to propose the new format.

Florio suggested that the new format would increase interest and television ratings in late-season games where division winners typically rest their starters. Teams would still be competing for seeding despite already locking up their division.

The proposal was tabled until this round of meetings, but the Lions recently withdrew the new format after hearing the proposal likely wouldn’t gain the 24 votes needed to pass.

NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo responded to a tweet from fellow NFL Network insider Judy Battista. She tweeted, “Detroit withdrew its playoff reseeding proposal.”

Playoff seeding remains as is. Top four seeds in each conference are still the division winners. https://t.co/yDFdPKyMYv

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo)

Garafolo responded, “Playoff seeding remains as is. Top four seeds in each conference are still the division winners.”

The withdrawn proposal would align the NFL playoffs with the NBA playoff format. The NBA has changed its seeding format multiple times since the 2005-06 season.

They used to reserve the top three seeds for the division winners, but tweaked the format to guarantee that the top two teams in each conference couldn’t meet until the conference finals. The league tweaked the seeding format again in 2016 so the top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, which completely devalued winning the division.

NFL owners still value winning the division because it means they get the revenue from hosting a playoff game. The proposal would not have gained enough votes to pass, and it’s unclear if/when it ever would.

For at least one more season, the current NFL playoff format will stay in place.