The Vikings and a Tale of Two Divisions

Pro team sports have a built-in inequity. It's called the "division" or "conference" depending on what sport you're talking about. The winners of these arbitrary divisions are rewarded with play-off births no matter what their record or how well they stack up with the rest of the league.

These conferences set up historical rivalries that, if done correctly, will produce more revenue for the teams. It will also give a local teams and their fans something to root for all season without having to pay attention to the rest of the league. In theory, it should help nearly every team in the league and most fans.

And then you have THIS year in the NFL. Vikings fans know they are having a bad season. They lost their starting quarterback and the league's premiere running back for the better part of a decade. As a result, they look less than adequate against much of the league and their conference.

EXCEPT that they'd fit in just fine this season in the NFC South. They'd be tied for first place with two teams if they played in that conference. And that's when these arbitrary divisions start getting noticed, especially when you compare them to the AFC North where every team is having a very good year.

One of the ways that these sports build rivalries is that you play teams in you division more often than everyone else. Again, in theory, that helps the fans build a long-term rivalry more effectively, but for practical purposes, it means if your conference is weak, you can be weak yourself and still make the playoffs, while much better teams will be forced to sit home and watch the playoffs.

The Eastern and Western Conferences in the NBA exhibit this every season. As an average team in a strong Western conference, the T-Wolves will rarely have a chance of making the playoffs. The Cleveland Cavaliers are off to a rough start in the East, yet, as of Monday morning were still the seventh best team in their conference. The top eight make the playoffs.

It's a side-effect of arbitrary divisions. Some good teams don't make the playoffs while some bad teams do. It leads to weird sense of unfairness among fans who root for their teams, who are having a good season, and yet are stuck on the outside looking in when they don't make it to the dance at the end of the season.

At least one team in the AFC North won't be going to the dance this year, while at least one from the NFC South will. That's just sad. It's no wonder that some fans become cynics as they grow older.

And write blogs.