By the NFL's own tie-breaking rules, New England can't possibly be the number 2 seed over the Ravens and according to an article (don't want to break any rules, but you can easily pull it up in any search engine) explaining how they (not sure who "they" is or how many "theys" there are) attempt to figure it, you can track multiple mistakes along their reasoning. Granted it is complicated (would have been prevented had it not been for mistake #1), that's still no excuse for being lazy. Also, relative to comparing divisional/common records (technically none of the following should even be relevant at this point), you shouldn't be able to fault a team for losses; only wins should be relevant. For example, one could make the argument that a divisional 4-1 record is weaker than 4 and 0 because of the loss. Regardless of the minor percentage disparity it's an unequal comparison because of the extra game insofar penalizing a team in this way errors on the side of assumption. Similarly, would you give a divisional record of 3-0--or even 2 and 0--the go ahead over a 4 and 2? This is why it's already a mistake to say "if the season ended today," because if the season did actually end today the numbers would be figured differently. Now none of this will matter at the end of the season but I mention it because the site doesn't exactly specify how common opponents are compared when they happen to be inter-divisional - here, I would make the same argument. On a side note, the rules do mention tie-games count as a half win and a half loss. Interesting phrasing on that considering
EDIT: http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal...s4J/story.html
EDIT: http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal...s4J/story.html
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