Sad reality: The *NFC* is STACKED next season

Originally posted by ImaMod:
Guess what, that was last year.

Same thing I was thinking. Um, all of these teams were good last year. And OP's point is....

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
It happens every year.

The Bucs were supposed to rise up after a 10-6 season and then they flopped. The Dream Team collapsed. The Jets were supposed to be awesome. Every year there are surprises and disappointments.

Let's hope it's not the 49ers this year.

This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

Stacked and we're at the top of that damn stack

GIANTS ARE DONE

ONE AND DONE

BOOK IT

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:

reality: 49ers play in the nfc west

Why does this even matter when we're thinking about a championship? It's not like we only play against the NFC West and get to the Super Bowl without having to play anyone else.

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

12-team playoff sorted only by w/l record, 4 first round byes, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc. No divisions, but keep regional rivalries by having certain teams play each other every year. I know it's radical, will never happen, but I don't like how good teams are punished, and mediocre teams rewarded, for being in a certain division or conference. Even as a Tebow fan I did not think Denver deserved a playoff spot last season at 8-8 for winning a crappy division.

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

12-team playoff sorted only by w/l record, 4 first round byes, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc. No divisions, but keep regional rivalries by having certain teams play each other every year. I know it's radical, will never happen, but I don't like how good teams are punished, and mediocre teams rewarded, for being in a certain division or conference. Even as a Tebow fan I did not think Denver deserved a playoff spot last season at 8-8 for winning a crappy division.

i mean, how would you organize the schedule?

Originally posted by 49erRider:

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
reality: 49ers play in the nfc west

Why does this even matter when we're thinking about a championship? It's not like we only play against the NFC West and get to the Super Bowl without having to play anyone else.

no einstein but it helps not having to play the cowboys, eagles & giants twice a year. not to mention getting the #1 or #2 seed for the playoffs

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

12-team playoff sorted only by w/l record, 4 first round byes, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc. No divisions, but keep regional rivalries by having certain teams play each other every year. I know it's radical, will never happen, but I don't like how good teams are punished, and mediocre teams rewarded, for being in a certain division or conference. Even as a Tebow fan I did not think Denver deserved a playoff spot last season at 8-8 for winning a crappy division.

i mean, how would you organize the schedule?

Similar to how it's done now, except by ranking the teams out of 32 instead of divisions of 4, and preserving some rivalries. I've never worked out a precise system (since it's so farfetched) but it could easily be done in a much fairer way. I think the #1 reason Peyton is going to Denver or another AFC team is he knows they are best positioned to exploit the current unfairness of the system, playing in the worst division and a conference that is vastly inferior (at least on paper).

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

12-team playoff sorted only by w/l record, 4 first round byes, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc. No divisions, but keep regional rivalries by having certain teams play each other every year. I know it's radical, will never happen, but I don't like how good teams are punished, and mediocre teams rewarded, for being in a certain division or conference. Even as a Tebow fan I did not think Denver deserved a playoff spot last season at 8-8 for winning a crappy division.

i mean, how would you organize the schedule?

Similar to how it's done now, except by ranking the teams out of 32 instead of divisions of 4, and preserving some rivalries. I've never worked out a precise system (since it's so farfetched) but it could easily be done in a much fairer way. I think the #1 reason Peyton is going to Denver or another AFC team is he knows they are best positioned to exploit the current unfairness of the system, playing in the worst division and a conference that is vastly inferior (at least on paper).

i think the system is fine. it breaks the league up into manageable chunks. there's so few football games that can be played each year that there is no fair way to determine playoff seeding outside of the current system.

if you do away with divisions and conferences, you still have the problem of teams playing schedules of disparate difficulty. there is no perfect fix. the system as is works fine.

f**k em all.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by vaden:
This is why I've long been against conferences. They are too often vastly uneven, with the 2 best teams duking it out in a conference championship and then playing some weakling from the other conference in the SB. Of course I know no change will ever be made, but I just want the best of the best playing in the SB. There should've been at least a couple Brady vs. Peyton SBs, and 49ers vs. Cowboys in the '90s.

Looks like the lack of parity between the conferences will be more insane than ever. It will be like the NBA 10 years ago, when really good teams couldn't even get the 8th seed in the West and garbage teams got 5th seeds in the East.

how would you organize the league then?

12-team playoff sorted only by w/l record, 4 first round byes, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, etc. No divisions, but keep regional rivalries by having certain teams play each other every year. I know it's radical, will never happen, but I don't like how good teams are punished, and mediocre teams rewarded, for being in a certain division or conference. Even as a Tebow fan I did not think Denver deserved a playoff spot last season at 8-8 for winning a crappy division.

i mean, how would you organize the schedule?

Similar to how it's done now, except by ranking the teams out of 32 instead of divisions of 4, and preserving some rivalries. I've never worked out a precise system (since it's so farfetched) but it could easily be done in a much fairer way. I think the #1 reason Peyton is going to Denver or another AFC team is he knows they are best positioned to exploit the current unfairness of the system, playing in the worst division and a conference that is vastly inferior (at least on paper).

i think the system is fine. it breaks the league up into manageable chunks. there's so few football games that can be played each year that there is no fair way to determine playoff seeding outside of the current system.

if you do away with divisions and conferences, you still have the problem of teams playing schedules of disparate difficulty. there is no perfect fix. the system as is works fine.

Schedules would be far more fair than they are now, because we wouldn't have 14 of 16 totally predestined matchups like we do now. We already know 14 of the 16 teams the 49ers will be playing in 2017.

I get liking the system the way it is now, wanting to keep divisions and conferences, but a system that allows 8-8 teams in the playoffs over 11-5 teams can't possibly be fairer than one that seeds by W/L records. It's a tradeoff sacrificing fair competition for tradition, and that's fine if people want that, but I don't.

Originally posted by vaden:
Schedules would be far more fair than they are now, because we wouldn't have 14 of 16 totally predestined matchups like we do now. We already know 14 of the 16 teams the 49ers will be playing in 2017.

I get liking the system the way it is now, wanting to keep divisions and conferences, but a system that allows 8-8 teams in the playoffs over 11-5 teams can't possibly be fairer than one that seeds by W/L records. It's a tradeoff sacrificing fair competition for tradition, and that's fine if people want that, but I don't.

because of the size of the league, you would never get fair schedules without conferences or divisions. the reason why divisions work is that you are competing against a small set of teams who have nearly identical schedules; if you are the best of that set, you move on to another, smaller set, and if you are the best in that, then you move to an even smaller set, and if you are the best in that, you are a champion.

without that organization you would have teams playing very different schedules and advancing to the playoffs based on very disparate circumstances. that's not fair, and its not interesting, as a fan.

also, if that 11-5 team doesn't make the playoffs but an 8-8 team does, then that 11-5 team should have done better against its division. you control your own destiny.