What's Up With All These Rematches?

On Sunday, the Chicago Bears will host the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field to battle for the National Football Conference Championship. This will be the third time this season that the two division rivals--both of the NFC North--will clash.

On the other side, the New York Jets travel to Pittsburgh to decide who will play the winner of the Bears-Packers contest in the Super Bowl. No problems there, right? Except that both the Jets and the Steelers played a divisional opponent (the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens, respectively) in order to reach their current position.

So why are there all these rematches? Why are teams from the same divisions ousting other divisional champions in order to play each other for a third time? Are these divisions just that much better? Maybe.

In the AFC North, both the Ravens and Steelers posted 12-4 records in the 2010-2011 regular season; as one may guess, this did not bode too well for the other two teams that share their division. The Cleveland Browns went 5-11 while the Cincinnati Bengals were a lowly 2-14. Despite the weaknesses of the declined Carson Palmer and washed-up duo of Terrell Owens and Chad “Ochocinco” in Cincinnati, the fact that Browns were actually able to post five wins in a division boasting the Steelers and the Ravens is a testament to their actual ability. Cleveland was one of only two teams (along with the Jets) to beat Tom Brady and the number-one seeded Patriots, underlying the core of potential they possess in quarterback Colt McCoy and running back Peyton Hillis.

The NFC North possesses a similar situation as its AFC counterpart: two dominant teams in the Packers and the Bears who have almost continually asserted their authority over the other two teams this season. That said, it is difficult to deny the potential ability of the Minnesota Vikings, who were approximately seven Brett Favre injuries away from perhaps having a decent run at the playoffs themselves. It’s not just the Vikings, though; on talent alone, the NFC North is perhaps one of the most loaded divisions in the NFL. Even the Detroit Lions, historically the laughingstock of the league even before their winless 2008-2009 season, possess the likes of quarterback Matthew Stafford, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, and one of the league’s most dynamic players in Calvin Johnson. When your division rivals count Devin Hester, Adrian Peterson, and Greg Jennings on their rosters, that title counts for a great deal.

Potential obviously does not make the playoffs, but the ability for division leaders to play week in and week out against challenging division opponents hones their skills for the playoffs. This helps them against teams from weaker divisions, such as Seattle (the fact that they won their division with a 7-9 record tells you everything you need to know about the strength of their opposition) and Indianapolis, who were a multitude of injuries away from likely coasting to another AFC South title but instead had to fight through a tough stretch to clinch their playoff berth.

But a big question remains as to whether it is beneficial or detrimental from an entertainment perspective for two teams from the same division to play each other a third time. Sure, intra-division rivalries stew up a high level of anticipation from the fans of the participating teams, but from a neutral perspective such a contest excludes a great deal of potential markets by limiting the league’s representation to only a select few divisions.