Using Mark's solution from the comments, the winner of the 3rd place game could receive the 5th pick in the Draft. This plan would still give the help to the absolute worst teams, but would provide even a better reward for making it to the Final Four.
Under the current system, the Chiefs who lost in the first round of the playoffs will have a better draft pick than the Patriots who almost reached the Super Bowl. It's easy to say that that's the way it should be, since New England is clearly a better team. But since the 06 season is over, Chiefs could now be happy that they didn't go farther than the Pats, since they have the better pick. Having a 3rd place winner be rewarded with a high draft pick provides an extra reward for reaching the Final Four but not the Super Bowl.
So here's the plan:
The week before the Super Bowl, the Conference finalists play on a neutral field, perhaps the site of the Pro Bowl, or heck how about the Superdome.
The winner gets the 5th pick in the next year's draft.
It prevents a Sunday without football and gives fans of the finalists something to cheer for, even though they didn't make the Super Bowl.
With the draft pick on the line, it should at least get as good of ratings as the Pro Bowl.
I like this idea more and more.
I'm really starting to like this idea. Of course, it will never happen. But I have a few tweaks/suggestions.
ReplyDelete1. They pick the sites of the Super Bowls years in advance, right? So have the 3rd place game at the sight of the next Super Bowl. It's like a practice week. The Pro Bowl is in Hawaii, which is a nice location, but far. I don't know how many people would go for it. Or have the 3rd place game in the same city as the Super Bowl, but that's a lot of $$$$ going to one city for football.
2. It would get much better ratings than the Pro Bowl. Do you know anyone who watches more than 2 minutes of the Pro Bowl? What did you do yesterday? Would you have watched football if you could? When is the Pro Bowl? Do you care about football then?
3. Why does everybody over here think that football is played with your feet?
My first thought was to have at the same site of the Super Bowl, but that would be problematic. Also, I don't think the players would like to play on the same field as the super bowl, unless they were in it.
ReplyDeleteI'll do a little more research on what if...