The Detroit Lions are out to make a change to the NFL’s playoff format that could leave the NFC South reeling. What the Lions are looking to do is get the league to change the format of seeding and who gets home games in the postseason. Minnesota finished the 2024 campaign in second place to Detroit in the NFC North and tied for the second-best record in the conference with Philly at 14-3. Since the Vikings did not win their division they went on the road in the wildcard round as the No. 5 seed.
A big one: The #Lions have proposed a postseason format to allow Wild Card teams to be seeded higher than Division
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) March 19, 2025
Champions if the Wild Card team has a better regular season record. https://t.co/HIf7zKVi81
In the NFC West and South respectively last season, the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers both finished 10-7 winning their division titles. The Rams hosted the Vikings in the Wild Card round and wound up convincingly beating the visitors, 27-9.
The biggest losers in this scenario would probably be the NFC South — with four middling teams and a very strong chance of having their division winner finish with a worse record than the second- or even third-best team in the other NFC Divisions.
The Lions proposed playoff plans might not pay off for anyone
What the Lions are proposing makes sense on the surface and this is not the first time this idea has been discussed. However, at 14-3, if the Vikings were that much better than a team with four fewer wins that season, it could be argued that Minnesota should’ve been able to win that Wild Card game no matter where it was played.
It should also be pointed out that Detroit went out in the divisional round after getting that coveted first-round bye and lost to Washington, a team that’d won three fewer games than them in the regular season. The Lions had home-field advantage in that game and it still made no difference. The league can change and tweak the playoff format all they want, but the better, more prepared team is usually going to come out on top in the NFL’s win-or-go-home scenario.
In the end, you need to beat the opponent in front of you and seeding and homefields can only go so far in setting the outcome.