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On Friday, all 32 NFL groups will maintain a Special League Meeting to contemplate a decision advisable by Commissioner Roger Goodell and accepted on Thursday by the league’s Competition Committee to switch the AFC playoffs. The decision comes within the wake of the league’s choice to cancel Monday night time’s recreation between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, after Buffalo security Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest within the first quarter.
In a assertion launched on Thursday night time, the NFL famous that the proposal to be thought of thought of the next key components. First, canceling the Bills-Bengals recreation wouldn’t influence what groups certified for the postseason. The solely ramifications from canceling the sport influence seeding, and the AFC North title. Second, rescheduling that recreation would require pushing again the playoffs one week, impacting all groups that qualify for the postseason. Third, reaching a decision previous to the beginning of Week 18 is “consistent” with the league’s aggressive rules, and permits all groups to know the probabilities earlier than their remaining recreation of the common season.
The proposal to be thought of addresses two parts: The AFC Championship Game, and the AFC North division title.
AFC Championship Game
Heading into Monday night time’s recreation, three groups have been nonetheless alive for homefield benefit all through the AFC playoffs: The Bills, the Bengals, and the Kansas City Chiefs. In the proposal to be voted on Friday, solely two groups can probably end with the highest total seed: Kansas City and Buffalo. Going into Monday night time’s recreation the Bengals wanted two wins of their remaining two video games to have a shot at residence subject. With Monday night time’s recreation now canceled, Cincinnati can now not be the highest seed within the AFC.
Under the proposed decision, the AFC Championship Game might be performed at a impartial web site “if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season. Those circumstances involve Buffalo or Cincinnati qualifying for the game as a road team.”
The league then outlined three potential eventualities for the AFC Championship Game.
In the primary state of affairs, the Bills and the Chiefs each win or tie this weekend. That would depart Buffalo with a 13-3 report, and Kansas City with a 14-3 report. A possible AFC Championship Game between these two groups could be performed at a impartial web site.
In the second state of affairs outlined by the league, the Bills and Chiefs lose, and the Bengals lose or tie of their season finale with the Baltimore Ravens. That would depart Buffalo with a 12-4 report, the Chiefs with a 13-4 report, and the Bengals at both 11-5 or 11-4-1. In this second state of affairs, a Buffalo vs. Kansas City championship recreation could be at a impartial web site.
In the third state of affairs, the Chiefs and Bills each lose this weekend, however the Bengals win. In this world, a Buffalo or Cincinnati vs. Kansas City championship recreation could be at a impartial web site.
Under all of those eventualities, ought to one in all these three groups sq. off with a group that might not have earned homefield benefit, then recreation websites could be decided by common scheduling procedures. So, if the AFC Championship Game comes right down to Buffalo and the Los Angeles Chargers for instance, that recreation could be in Buffalo.
NFL Research supplied this chart of the probabilities:
AFC North
The different side of the NFL’s proposal contemplates the AFC North. The Bengals might have clinched the division with a win Monday night time over the Bills. However, if the Bengals misplaced to the Bills, after which the Ravens beat Cincinnati in Week 18, the Ravens would win the AFC North.
With the cancellation of the sport, nevertheless, the NFL has decided that the Bengals are the AFC North champions, even when Baltimore wins on Sunday.
Here is the place issues get just a little wonky. As said by the NFL, “[i]f Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18 it will have defeated Cincinnati, a divisional opponent, twice but will not be able to host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than Baltimore will have for a 17-game schedule.”
So, even when the Ravens beat Cincinnati on Sunday, the Bengals stay division champions and can host a playoff recreation on Wild Card Weekend, regardless of Baltimore sweeping Cincinnati within the common season.
Even extra attention-grabbing? There is a state of affairs the place Baltimore wins Sunday, and primarily based on different outcomes from across the AFC, the Bengals and the Ravens would sq. off on Wild Card Weekend. In that case, the league proposes a coin toss to find out homefield. “If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs are schedule[d] to play a Wild Card game against one another, the side for that game would be determined by a coin toss. If Cincinnati wins the Week 18 game, or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play one another in the Wild Card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.”
Shades of Friday Night Lights.
In closing the assertion, Commissioner Goodell famous that the league acknowledges that there’s “no perfect solution.” The Commissioner states “[t]he proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”
Now, these are simply proposals, which have been advisable by the Commissioner and adopted by the league’s Competition Committee. To change into efficient, a 3/4ths vote of the league’s 32 house owners — 24 groups — should approve the proposal. If 9 groups vote towards the proposal, the league could be left searching for a special decision.
There is already reporting out Thursday night time that there may be a vote towards the proposal. According to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, Katie Blackburn, the Executive Vice President of the Cincinnati Bengals and a member of the league’s Competition Committee, despatched a memo to the Competition Committee arguing towards the decision:
We will know extra on Friday.
Hopefully.
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