Week 10 – Expanded playoffs

 

This is the first year of the expanded playoffs where an extra 224 teams from all 7 divisions will have an opportunity to play in week 11.  For a football fanatic like myself this good news and bad news.

The good news is there are now more games to pick from to watch and/or follow each week.  The bad news (at least for me personally) this new format allows teams with losing records to make the playoffs.  Something I am not a big fan of.  

Let’s break this down by division.

Division I – 21 teams with a losing record made the playoffs.  1 team makes it with a 0-10 record (only 17 teams in region 1 and the other team with a 0-10 record opted out).  Zero teams with a losing record in top 8.

Division II – 9 teams with losing records.  Only 1 team with a losing record in the top 8.

Division III – 6 teams with a losing record made the playoffs.  Only 1 team with a losing record made top 8.

Division IV – 8 teams with a losing record made the playoffs.  Zero teams with a losing record in top 8.

Division V – 7 teams with losing record made the playoffs.  Zero teams with a losing record in top 8.

Division VI – 13 teams with a losing record made the playoffs.  Zero teams with a losing record in top 8.

Division VII – 9 teams with a losing record made the playoffs.  Only 1 team with a losing record in top 8.

 

That’s 73 teams with a losing record that make the playoffs.  We can look at it this way: 16% of the teams making the playoffs have a losing record which means that 84% of the teams have a .500 or better.

One positive note, there are 29 teams that went undefeated in regular season play and made the playoffs.

 

Good luck to our 11 Stark County teams that are playing in round 1 of the playoffs.