Katie Blackburn: Playoff Proposals 'May Introduce Bias'

The NFL's competition committee voted to change the way the 2023 NFL playoffs will work on Thursday.

CINCINNATI — Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn was not happy with playoff proposals approved by the NFL's competition committee on Thursday night.

She urged other members of the committee to vote against the approved scenarios in a memo obtained by ESPN's Seth Wickersham.

"The proper process for making rule change (sic) is in the off-season," Blackburn wrote. "It is not appropriate to put teams in a position to vote for something that may introduce bias, favor one team over another or impact their own situation when the vote takes place immediately before the playoffs."

The scenarios are all based on the results of Week 18:

• If Buffalo and Kansas City both win or tie, a Bills-Chiefs championship game will be at a neutral site.

• If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Baltimore wins or ties, a Bills-Chiefs championship game will be at a neutral site.

• If Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Cincinnati wins, a Bills or Bengals vs. Chiefs championship game will be at a neutral site.

• If Cincinnati loses to Baltimore this Sunday, they could face Baltimore in a 3-6 seed matchup. The host of that game gets determined by a coin flip because Cincinnati played just 16 games and got swept by Baltimore. Should the two teams not get matched against each other after a potential Ravens win, regular scheduling procedures will go into effect.

Blackburn's main issue is that the traditional standard of seeding in this scenario is getting thrown out in the middle of a season.

According to the 2022 NFL game operations manual, "If a game is cancelled, a team's standing in its division or in its conference shall be determined on the basis of its final record. When necessary, playoff tiebreakers shall be calculated according to per-game averages for all teams."

This means final seeding and home-field advantage are based on wins per game (win %). Under the current rules, Cincinnati is guaranteed to host an AFC Wild Card game as AFC North Champions.

Owners vote today on the proposals—24 yes votes means the new playoff criteria is approved.

The Bengals and Ravens clash at 1 p.m. ET this Sunday on CBS. Watch via fuboTV—start your free trial here.

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