The true meaning of the playoffs

8-8. That was the record of the San Diego Chargers, who made the playoffs this past NFL season. They won their weak division with that record to get in, while the New England Patriots missed the playoffs with an 11-5 mark. It turns out that the Chargers were able to beat the Colts in the first round, but I like when teams that deserve to go to the playoffs more get in. I understand that people love when the Cinderella team shocks the world by beating supposedly better teams, which I admit adds flavor to the playoffs. But I also like to think that the teams that did better than most other teams should get in over these heart-warming little guys.
I don’t mind if good teams like the Patriots miss the playoffs because all of the teams in the playoffs had a better record than them. In the NBA for example, the Phoenix Suns posted a 46-36 record, which is a nice achievement, but wasn’t quite enough to make the postseason. I believe that the playoffs are more interesting when teams with a respectable record are left out. There are fewer chances for extreme blowouts and more teams can seemingly have a shot to win the championship. I understand the surprise element that teams with worse records might bring with runs deep into the playoffs, but I would rather have a team who worked harder and was more successful during the regular season than a team that wasn’t taken seriously and wasn’t serious until the playoffs.
There is another argument that the playoffs are a “whole new season”, but why should worse teams get a chance to play in this new season if they weren’t as successful?
Every series in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs has a chance to go the seven game maximum, other than the Lakers-Jazz matchup, because all of the teams had respectable regular season records and finished close together in the standings. In fact, on the last day of the NBA regular season, the 2 through 7 seeds in the Western Conference were up for grabs and could have gone to anyone.
So even though surprise runs by weak teams are exciting, I would rather have some good teams that aren’t in the playoffs in order to have close to equal teams and close to equal matchups in the postseason. Let’s just leave the Cinderella teams to March Madness in college basketball.