Final 2008 NFL Standings with Victory Weighting

In Victory Weighting, teams are ranked by their Strength. If two teams have the same Strength, then the one with the higher overall winning percentage gets the higher rank.

With that in mind, let's see how the final 2008-9 NFL standings would have appeared under Victory Weighting. Playoff teams in these listings are preceded by their seed in parentheses.

NFC North	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(3) Minnesota	10-6-0	0-0	40	0.625
Chicago	9-7-0	2-1	35	0.538
Green Bay	6-10-0	0-1	26	0.375
Detroit	0-16-0	0-0	0	0.000

NFC South	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(1) Carolina	12-4-0	0-1	49	0.750
(5) Atlanta	11-5-0	1-0	43	0.688
Tampa Bay	9-7-0	2-1	35	0.538
New Orleans	8-8-0	0-1	33	0.500

NFC East	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(2) NY Giants	12-4-0	2-0	46	0.750
(6) Philadelphia	9-6-1	0-0	38	0.594
Dallas	9-7-0	0-1	37	0.538
Washington	8-8-0	0-0	32	0.500

NFC West	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(4) Arizona	9-7-0	1-0	35	0.538
San Francisco	7-9-0	1-0	23	0.432
Seattle	4-12-0	0-1	17	0.250
St. Louis	2-14-0	0-0	8	0.125

AFC North	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(2) Pittsburgh	12-4-0	1-0	47	0.750
(6) Baltimore	11-5-0	0-1	45	0.688
Cleveland	4-12-0	0-0	16	0.250
Cincinnati	4-11-1	0-1	19	0.281

AFC South	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(1) Tennessee	13-3-0	1-0	51	0.812
(5) Indianapolis	12-4-0	0-0	48	0.750
Houston	8-8-0	0-1	33	0.500
Jacksonville	5-11-0	1-0	19	0.312

AFC East	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(3) New England	11-5-0	0-1	45	0.688
Miami	11-5-0	0-0	44	0.688
NY Jets	9-7-0	1-1	36	0.538
Buffalo	7-9-0	0-0	28	0.432

AFC West	Record	OTR	Strength	Pct.
(4) San Diego	8-8-0	0-0	32	0.500
Denver	8-8-0	0-0	32	0.500
Oakland	5-11-0	1-0	19	0.312
Kansas City	2-14-0	0-1	9	0.125

Usually, Victory Weighting produces the same set of playoff teams as do traditional standings, but seed them differently. Here, Carolina would have earned the #1 NFC seed, and the Panthers would have hosted Philadelphia at the divisional playoff stage.  The New York Giants, the actual top seeds, would have fallen to #2, where they would have met surging Arizona.

Last season also provided a less common result:  it actually produced a different playoff field.  Miami completed its Cinderella run by winning the AFC East and hosting Baltimore in the wild-card round.  Under Victory Weighting, however, the Dolphins would have missed the playoffs altogether, and New England would have hosted the Ravens instead. The difference is that only the Patriots had a game go to overtime. The OT loss gave the Patriots an extra Strength point.