The bottom line on scheduling is how it affects a teams ability to win its division. That is lost on many people.
Theoretically, the 1st place Hawks should have had a tougher schedule than the 4th place Rams this year because of those two crossover games in the NFC. But that's the only difference, just 2 crossover games against NFC teams. The Hawks got Packers and Falcons, and the Rams got Minny and Saints. So how'd that turn out? About the same as it does every year. When you only have a two game difference its easy for randomness to make the disparity in difficulty negligible.
This coming year the Rams two crossover games are against the Eagles and Saints. The Hawks get Dallas and Panthers instead. Cards get Skins and Falcons. Niners get Giants and Bucs. At this point it appears that the Niners clearly have the easiest two games, while the Rams, Hawks, and Cards all look to have two tough opponents. But who knows what will happen with the Giants and Bucs? We see teams turn it around every year.
The point here is that with the difference being only 2 games amongst your division rivals schedules, there is little disadvantage to having a first place schedule. Just ask the Pats who play a first place schedule every year and still run away with their division every year.
The biggest issue here is in garnering a playoff BYE in the conference. That is usually more dependent on playing in a weak division and a big reason why the Pats and Steelers have their BYES. And there is nothing the schedule makers are going to do about that.
~ max ~
“The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity.” - Alexander Hamilton
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2018 02:48AM by max.
