2026 season could highlight the unfairness of the eight-division structure

From time to time, the NFL’s current structure has created unfair results, with the best of four bad teams assigned to a predetermined division earning a playoff berth and the home game that goes along with it.

This year, the NFC has two very strong divisions, one so-so division, and one very weak division.

Here’s the basic reality. With the four NFC division winners getting tickets to the playoff party, the wild-card berths will go to three teams. And, currently, there are three teams in the NFC North and two in the NFC West that are potentially better than whoever will win the NFC East and the NFC South.

Between the Vikings, Bears, Lions, Packers, 49ers, Seahawks, and Rams, two will be crowned division winners. That leaves five for the wild-card berths.

Ultimately, two of them will be frozen out of the playoffs — even if both of those teams end up with better records than the best teams of the NFC East and NFC South.

During last Friday’s episode of PFT Live, I threw out an alternative approach that would be far more fair to all teams.

Instead of two conferences with a quartet of four-team divisions, why not pivot to four eight-team divisions?

NFL East, NFL North, NFL South, NFL West. The easiest configuration would consist of slapping the current East, North, South, and West divisions into one conference each. While some tweaks could be needed to better align things geographically, it would be far more fair to guarantee a playoff spot (and a home game) to the best of eight teams, not the best of four teams.

Decisions would have to be made about scheduling. The home-and-home series (a vestige of the days when there were far fewer teams) would need to be retired. Each team would play the seven other teams in its conference, with 10 (or 11, inevitably) other games.

The playoffs would consist of the four conference champions (with the best two getting byes) and 10 wild-card teams. And there would be an added benefit — it would be possble to have the best two teams meet in the Super Bowl, without regard to the traditional AFL-NFL/AFC-NFC separation.

It would be one league. One playoff tree. Any combination of teams would, in theory, be possible for the Super Bowl. When the dust settles on the semifinal round, the best two teams would remain.

That said, it won’t be easy to get the owners to give up the current format, which entails in any given year a one-in-four shot at hosting a playoff game. But if the goal is to constantly strive for ways to create more compelling matchups, an eight-team, four-conference approach makes a lot more sense than the current structure.

Football is a meritocracy. A configuration of four, eight-team conferences would be far more conducive to that ideal.

Will it happen? Probably not. Should it be taken seriously by the league? Absolutely.

Maybe this year, when the NFC East and NFC South provide none-of-the-above champions and two very viable teams are sent home after Week 18, will spark a real conversation about meaningful change.