Too Many Playoff Games?

Is the regular season no longer important?

Too Many Playoff Games?

We’ve seen a sudden push in recent years towards extended playoffs in American football.

The NFL playoffs now include 14 of the 32 teams, with some people calling for two additional teams to be added to the mix.

And, as you surely know by now, the college game now includes an end-of-season 12 team tournament, which very well might expand to 16 to appease the likes of Alabama.

But is it good to expand the playoffs like this? Does it cheapen the regular season?

I should admit that I’m coming at this from a grey haired conservative point of view. I’m an old school baseball fan, a replayer at heart, and honestly prefer the days of 8 teams per league with no expanded postseason.

The reason, of course, is because of the importance such a system places on the regular season.

Look — I know that limiting the “playoffs” to the two best teams makes the season worthless for the vast majority of teams. This is more apparent in college football than anywhere else. I remember feeling frustrated a decade ago as a BYU fan, knowing that there was no point in watching the rest of the regular season after a single loss.

But expanding the playoffs makes the regular season a mere formality.

Look at where the NBA and NHL are these days. The playoffs add on several months of additional play, and the fact that half the teams in each league get in means that the average regular season game is mostly pointless. Win or lose, the chances that a single game will have any impact on your playoff picture are quite small.

Now, this is a great thing if you’re the fan of a team that is on the cusp. Instead of cursing the heavens over yet another .500 season, you watch with eager anticipation in hopes that you’ll sneak into the postseason. It gives fans something to cheer for, gives them a reason to watch to the end of the season, and, most importantly, makes the television stations and corporate sponsors happy.

But — if you like replaying these seasons, the playoffs feel exhausting. Why play teams against each other again and again if you’ve already played them?

What do you think?