I personally don't view winning the divisions as meaningless. There are certainly more important factors, but there's more to it than that. I thought it was incredibly entertaining to beat the Bears in week 17 last season to take the division crown. That wasn't meaningless to me, and brought me a good bit of enjoyment, which is all the NFL is for anyway. It's just entertainment. If I can't enjoy the top level of entertainment every year, I'd at least like to enjoy as much as possible. Plus it's fun to rub it in the Vikings, Bears, and Lions fans faces, if you will.

Originally Posted by: DoddPower 

With that said, to me the emotion had little to do with the division title...it was about the do or die nature of getting into the playoffs. As you alluded to, of course there is a progression of goals from daily improvement, to wins, leading to the playoffs, and then beyond. The improvement and wins are needed to achieve the post season goals. The division title isn't.

Originally Posted by: musccy 

In principle, if you win your division, you should be one of the top 8 teams in the league, but as we saw last year, the Packers were hardly one of the top 8 regular season teams in the conference...same with Seattle when they won the West at 7-9. Winning the division title is a nice toy in the cereal box, but it really isn't a primary goal, or even necessary to achieve other yearly objectives.

Originally Posted by: musccy 

I will have to disagree with this, too. I think the Packers WERE one of the better teams in the league last year, at least once Aaron Rodgers was behind center. It's hard to expect much more than squeaking by when a team's superstar quarterback misses multiple games due to injury. The Packers did just enough to get by until Rodgers came back, and then they won when it mattered most the last game of the season. The Packers win-loss record last season didn't actually reflect the talent of the team with a healthy Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, they lost in the wildcard round, but it was to arguably an even better team (certainly a healthier team), and they came very close to winning that game. The Packers may not have been a top three team last year like the 49'ers likely were, but there were certainly one of the top eight teams, imo. They might not have necessarily been one of the top eight teams during the regular season based on win-loss record alone, but going into the playoffs, I certainly think they were. They would have been ever better if they could have been a little more healthy.

Originally Posted by: DoddPower 

That game is one of my favorite all time reg season Packer games along with Majik vs. the Bears and "he did WHAT?!?" If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend watching it. I still get goosebumps at about 4 minutes in packers bears fan reactions .

With that said, to me the emotion had little to do with the division title...it was about the do or die nature of getting into the playoffs. As you alluded to, of course there is a progression of goals from daily improvement, to wins, leading to the playoffs, and then beyond. The improvement and wins are needed to achieve the post season goals. The division title isn't.

In principle, if you win your division, you should be one of the top 8 teams in the league, but as we saw last year, the Packers were hardly one of the top 8 regular season teams in the conference...same with Seattle when they won the West at 7-9. Winning the division title is a nice toy in the cereal box, but it really isn't a primary goal, or even necessary to achieve other yearly objectives.

Originally Posted by: musccy 

Ok so how was the divison title last year not a necessary step for GB to achieve their postseason goals? It's not always necessary but it sure as hell is a lot of the time. Even without the playoff stuff it's a heck of a lot better to end the season ahead of Chi, Min, and Det than it is to end below them. That's certainly not the only thing I care about but it's not useless or meaningless either.

Originally Posted by: steveishere 

In the literal sense of course it's not useless, it can provide inferior teams like the Tebow Broncos or 2010 Seahawks opportunities to get in the playoffs.

We're (or I guess I am) nit picking minor details. The point I'm making is that although there are benefits to winning the division (playoff seeding, guaranteed spot) I see no prestige, at least no more than going in as the wild card. Looking back on a season, I'd rather be an 11-5 wild card than a 9-7 division winner because in all likelihood I'd know that as an 11-5 team, I was the better team with a better season.

The Bears won the 2010 NFC North, but...

Originally Posted by: musccy 

You don't set out to build a wall. You don't say 'I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built.' You don't start there. You say, 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.

Will Smith wrote:

I think Big Willy sums my view up nicely.



The division championship is a brick

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

It's possible to have a sturdy, well constructed wall without using or needing a "division brick."

Originally Posted by: musccy