According to a league statement, the competition committee considered the factors that the Bills-Bengals game would not have impacted which teams qualify for the playoffs and resuming the game would mean impacting all 14 clubs that qualify for the postseason by postponing the start of the playoffs one week.
The cancellation of the game does impact playoff seeding, though, and the league will conduct a special meeting today to consider a resolution recommended by Commissioner Roger Goddell to address those issues.
On the table are two recommendations, the first being a neutral site for the AFC Championship if participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the No. 1 seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game schedule. The other recommendation is what makes it possible Cincinnati won’t be guaranteed a home playoff game.
The league is proposing if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati on Sunday and the two clubs end up scheduled to play a Wild Card game against one another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss.
“If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18, it will have defeated Cincinnati, a divisional opponent, twice but will not be able to host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than Baltimore will for a 17-game schedule,” the league said in its statement. “If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs are schedule to play a Wild Card game against one another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss. If Cincinnati wins the Week 18 game or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play one another in the Wild Card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.”
According to ESPN, Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn sent a memo to all clubs pleading for them to vote against the proposed recommendations. Nine clubs would have to vote no for the resolution not to pass.
Cincinnati had a shot at the No. 1 seed with a win over the Bills and a win Sunday over the Ravens, but that no longer is a possibility. The Chiefs clinch the No. 1 seed with a win on the road against the Raiders or a Bills loss against the Patriots. The Bills clinch the No. 1 seed with a win against the Patriots and a Chiefs loss at Las Vegas.
Cincinnati can still finish as the second seed if the Bengals beat Baltimore and Buffalo loses to New England. The Bengals have a slight strength of schedule advantage over Buffalo, which would be the determining tiebreaker.
In all other scenarios, the Bengals finish as the No. 3 seed.
The AFC Championship would be held at a neutral site in the following scenarios:
1. Buffalo (12-3) and Kansas City (13-3) both win or tie in Week 18 + both teams advance to the AFC title game.
2. Buffalo (12-3) and Kansas City (13-3) both lose + Cincinnati (11-4) also loses or ties in Week 18 + Buffalo and Kansas City advance to the AFC title game.
3. Buffalo (12-3) and Kansas City (13-3) both lose + Cincinnati (11-4) wins + the AFC title game is either Bills-Chiefs or Bengals-Chiefs.
“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities,” Goodell said in the NFL statement. “I recognize that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”
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