Bengals Get Screwed

[RiverDog]

Boy, the Bengals sure got screwed after this vote by the league owners. If the Ravens beat the Bengals tomorrow, the Ravens will finish 11-6 while the Bengals will be ll-5-1, which according to the previous rules, the Bengals, with the higher winning percentage, would have been awarded the division title and the right to host a playoff game. But the owners decided to toss the old rule out the window and create a new one that would determine the home team by the flip of a coin.

So not only did the league vote not to complete a game in which the Bengals were leading, and odds would have favored them winning at the point it was stopped, they ignored an existing rule that addressed this situation and substituted their own idea of fairness.

Katie Blackburn, an executive vice president for the Bengals who is on the NFL’s competition committee, argued against the shift.“The proper process for making rule change (sic) is in the off-season,” Blackburn wrote in a memo that was obtained by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham. “It is not appropriate to put teams in a position to vote for something that may introduce bias, favor one team over another or impact their own situation when the vote takes place immediately before the playoffs.”

Bengals coach Zac Taylor also voiced his frustrations to reporters.

“It’s black and white, it’s in the rule book,” Taylor said about the shift away from handling seeding by best winning percentage.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/nfl-pushe ... objection/

[NorthHawk]

I wonder if they are considering legal action because of the loss of home field revenue and opportunity.

[RiverDog]

I wonder if they are considering legal action because of the loss of home field revenue and opportunity.

Most of the revenue generated from playoff games goes to the league, so they'd be suing for peanuts:

The NFL’s economic model spreads the wealth. Its massive media contracts, along with a large chunk of gate receipts, are divided equally among the 32 teams. The playoffs are no different. The league collects almost all ticket revenue from playoff games and simply provides a stipend for home and away teams that cover costs for travel and stadium operations. Home teams keep their share of concession and parking revenue, which typically ranges from $1 million to $2 million combined, per game, but it is a rounding error for teams who can expect a check next season from the NFL for shared revenue of roughly $400 million. A Super Bowl run boosts merchandise sales for teams, but much of that revenue is shared equally, as well.

https://news.yahoo.com/nfl-playoffs-gen ... 01398.html

I'm not sure why they couldn't have done what I suggested in the other thread, to delay Week 18 until next weekend and shift the playoffs back a week and allow for the completion of the Bills-Bengals game this weekend. That would have been the fairest way to resolve the problem.

[Hawktawk]

I rest my case once again . This league is playing god again . Never let a good crisis go to waste. Like politicians only less honorable and trustworthy . Zero trust . Make it up as you go . Who blew who ?

[RiverDog]

I rest my case once again . This league is playing god again . Never let a good crisis go to waste. Like politicians only less honorable and trustworthy . Zero trust . Make it up as you go . Who blew who ?

I don't see how this 'rests your case.' It's incompetence, not corruption. You tell me: Who blew who?

[NorthHawk]

I'm not sure why they couldn't have done what I suggested in the other thread, to delay Week 18 until next weekend and shift the playoffs back a week and allow for the completion of the Bills-Bengals game this weekend. That would have been the fairest way to resolve the problem.

Delaying a week might bring into play stadium availability issues as well as supply and staff scheduling.
They may have a blanket policy to make all stadiums available for 3 Sundays after the end of the season in the event the team gets HFA in a playoff run, but I don't know for sure.
As well, there are media contracts that might have some implications.
It's a bigger issue than just playing on a separate week.
They should have just kept well enough alone and used the rule already on the books for missed games.

[RiverDog]

I'm not sure why they couldn't have done what I suggested in the other thread, to delay Week 18 until next weekend and shift the playoffs back a week and allow for the completion of the Bills-Bengals game this weekend. That would have been the fairest way to resolve the problem.

Delaying a week might bring into play stadium availability issues as well as supply and staff scheduling.
They may have a blanket policy to make all stadiums available for 3 Sundays after the end of the season in the event the team gets HFA in a playoff run, but I don't know for sure.
As well, there are media contracts that might have some implications.
It's a bigger issue than just playing on a separate week.
They should have just kept well enough alone and used the rule already on the books for missed games.

For the weekend of 1/14-15 and on 1/21-22, all of the teams in the league would have had to set aside those dates for the possibility of hosting a playoff game as there are already playoff games scheduled for those dates. Same for Sunday 1/29, as that's when the conference championships are currently scheduled.

There is a chance that some teams may have had difficulties scheduling a possible playoff game on Saturday 1/28, but so long as no more than 2 of the host teams didn't have conflicts on the 28th, they could have scheduled around them by shuffling the 4 games between the 28th and 29th.

There's the possibility that there could have been a conflict for Sunday, 2/5 as there are no games scheduled, but you're only talking about 2 host teams, and it's too early for soccer and baseball to cause scheduling problems. Earlier this year when the Mariners were in the playoffs, they resolved a conflict with the Seahawks by staggering their start times. NHL and NBA teams don't deal with as many fans as MLB and the NFL, 60% at best, so if there was a conflict caused by another event being scheduled, it seems like they would have been able to work around it.

So while it is possible that venue siting could have been a reason, it seems more likely that it wouldn't have been. If there's a will, there's usually a way.

[NorthHawk]

I was thinking more in terms of Boat and or Auto shows than competing sporting events.
There's a lot of big business done with these shows and the stadiums wouldn't want to lose that revenue or hurt those relationships going forward.
It would also mean other teams get extra time off which wouldn't be fair to the Bengals and Bills.
The moral of the story is don't change the rule book in the middle of the year. Those rules have been put in for a reason and were well thought out at the time.

[RiverDog]

I was thinking more in terms of Boat and or Auto shows than competing sporting events.
There's a lot of big business done with these shows and the stadiums wouldn't want to lose that revenue or hurt those relationships going forward.
It would also mean other teams get extra time off which wouldn't be fair to the Bengals and Bills.
The moral of the story is don't change the rule book in the middle of the year. Those rules have been put in for a reason and were well thought out at the time.

Yes, there is that possibility, but there's also the possibility that they could have scheduled it at another venue that didn't have conflicts.

I agree completely with your last sentence. It's like assembling a DIY. When in doubt, read the instructions.