Talk:1988 NFL season

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Tiebreaker Correction?

I believe this page needs a correction in the Tiebreakers section:

"L.A. Rams finished second in the NFC West based on better division record (4-2) than New Orleans (3-3), and earned the last NFC Wild Card based on better conference record (8-4) than N.Y. Giants (9-5) and New Orleans (6-6)."

As written, it appears the Giants have a better conference record —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.100.66.63 (talk) 18:25, 22 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Explanation of L.A. Rams clinching the #2 wild card in 1988

NOTE -- this information does NOT need to be posted on the main article page. It is being provided to help posters understand the basics of the better conference record rules as they existed in 1988.

For anyone who may be confused by this -- The L.A. Rams earned the 2nd NFC Wild Card position based on better conference record (8–4, .667) than the N.Y. Giants (9–5, .642) and New Orleans (6–6, .500) -- here's an explanation.

N.Y. Giants played 14 NFC opponents in 1988, while the L.A. Rams and New Orleans Saints each played 12 NFC opponents. This is based on (A) the six division alignment of the 28 NFL teams at that time, and (B) the scheduling rules of the same period, which allowed all 28 teams to each have a 16-game schedule. The Giants finished 5th in the NFC East in 1987, and for 1988 played (as did other 5th place division finishers) a 16-game schedule that included 14 in-conference and 2 other-conference opponents. By contrast, any 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th place team in any division plays 12 in-conference and 4 out-of-conference opponents. The conference record tiebreaker was based on best winning percentage vs same-conference opponents. When this method is employed, we find that the L.A. Rams had a winning percentage of .667 (8-of-12), vs .642 (9-of-14) for the N.Y. Giants and .500 (6-of-12) for the New Orleans Saints.

Thanx-A-Lot, Fgf2007 (talk) 16:37, 10 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: Suggest New Wikipedia Page with detailed explanation of NFL Game Scheduling

The said proposed page would list and detail the various NFL game scheduling formats used from 1970 onwards. It would be a commonly-added link in the "Schedule" and/or "Tiebreaker" sections of any 1970 and up NFL Season Wiki-Page.

In the case of NFL Seasons from 1978 to 1994, when there were six divisions and 28 teams, each team played a 16-game schedule. Covered in particular here would be the differences in scheduling for any 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th place team (12 in-conference, 4 out-of-conference opponents) as well as for any 5th place team (14 in-conference, 2 out-of-conference opponents).

Thanx-A-Lot, Fgf2007 (talk) 20:17, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:1970 NFL season which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:18, 7 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]