Rich’s Plan to Avoid the Embarrassment of a Sub-500 Team Hosting an NFL Playoff Game

The Chicago Bears are 7-2, the NFC North is "so freaking good," and Rich can already see the injustice coming.

Detroit went into Miami and struggled its way to a win, and now head to Munich to face a Patriots team that just got waxed by the Packers, who sit in last place in the division at 6-3. With the Bears beating the Bucs, Rich laid out where this is headed. The winner of the NFC North will battle the Niners for the No. 1 seed. And whoever finishes second in the North "is going to wind up being a road playoff team in the home of the NFC South champs."

Rich doesn't think that is an overreaction. "With all due respect to your Cowboys or the defending Super Bowl champs or the Rams, I don't think the second place team in any other division is going to be better than the second place team in the NFC North," he said.

Meanwhile, the NFC South is a mess. The Saints just came off their bye and are tied for the lead. Carolina and New Orleans play for first place in Week 10 while the Bucs sit on their bye and the Falcons host the Chiefs. Whoever wins that division, Rich said, will need to put enough wins together just to finish above .500.

So the outcry is coming, and Rich thinks it will be rightful. The NFC South champ would get the revenue and home field advantage in a win-or-go-home game against a team that only had to go on the road because it didn't win what might be, top to bottom, the toughest division since realignment. "Not fair. It's coming," Rich said.

It would be especially absurd if it is the Bears. Chicago beat Carolina to open the season and "almost put a 60 burger on them." Caleb Williams came back and launched a four-game winning streak in which the Bears have not trailed once, starting with a dynamic performance in Atlanta. They just took care of the Bucs despite being completely off their game on offense. And after their bye, they host the Saints, who fired Dennis Allen. Rich imagined Allen giving Jeffery Simmons a quick history lesson: "The reason why I'm here in Chicago is that other team fired me."

Add it up, and the Bears could go 4-0 against the NFC South and still have to travel to its champion. "They could wind up sweeping the division that gets to host them," someone in the studio noted. "It's ridiculous."

But Rich made clear the show doesn't just complain. "We don't just say you fix it, we fix it," he said. "And whether you listen to us is on you."

Here is Rich's new rule. Win your division, and you host a playoff game, unless you are under .500 and the team coming to your house is at least as many games above .500 as you are below it. Then you go on the road, and the wild card team hosts.

"So if there's an eight and nine team that wins a division and any other team is nine and eight, you're on the road," Rich explained. "If you're seven and 10 and another team is 10 and seven or nine and eight, you're on the road."

He was open to softening it. If someone wants to let an 8-9 division winner still host a 9-8 team, fine. "But an eight and nine team should not be able to host a 10 and seven team or better," Rich said. "You forfeit your God-given right to host a playoff game."

And he pointed out that this division could easily be won by a 7-10 team, which would then host the second-place team from the NFC North. "Certainly, if they've swept your division in the regular season, come on now," Rich said.

He doesn't expect anyone in the NFC South to get hot enough to finish above .500, and he doesn't expect anyone in the NFC East or NFC West to have a better record than the North's runner-up. "But stranger things have happened," Rich said.