Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is among the proponents of an expanded playoff field, an idea that seems to have traction with the commissioner as well.
Of course, not even watering down the field by twice the number of teams as is being discussed would have helped the Cowboys in recent years.
Roger Goodell’s talking about a one-team addition to seven teams per conference, but as pointed out by Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com the Cowboys have finished eighth or worse in the NFC in five of the last six seasons.
Their 8-8 record this year would have been ninth in order, same as in 2012. Going .500 would have made them the 10th seed in the NFC in 2011, based on tiebreakers. They were out of the conversation in 2010 at 6-10, after making the playoffs on their own merits at 11-5 in 2009.
Even their collapse to 9-7 in 2008 wouldn’t be helped by the current plan, as they’d have lost a tiebreaker to the Bears for the seventh spot that year.
“It just creates that much more excitement and that much more interest for people in those communities,” Jones said last week. “So I fall on the side of the ledger that would increase the playoffs.”
Maybe what Jones really needs is a college-style bowl system where seemingly everyone gets to play, so his general manager can say he built a postseason team.