Coin Flip, Neutral Site & Buffalo Bills Playoff Plan: How Will NFL Owners Vote?
A cancelled game. A neutral site. An owners' vote.
And a coin flip.
All of these things are in play as the NFL confirmed the official cancellation of the Week 17 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals and then sent into motion a complex plan that will go to a vote of approval from the owners on Friday.
The cancelled game, which was originally postponed after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest in the first quarter on Monday, is now considered a "no contest."
The league simultaneously announced a potential plan to alter this year's AFC playoffs due to the creation of potential competitive inequities in certain playoff scenarios caused by the Bills and Bengals having played one less game than the other five AFC playoff teams. On Friday, the league will host NFL clubs for a Special League Meeting to discuss an approved resolution made my commissioner Roger Goodell.
Per the NFL, the resolution consists of two parts, though only one involves the Bills.
First, the AFC Championship game could be played at a neutral site "if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season."
This only applies to Buffalo, Cincinnati and the Kansas City Chiefs and means that, if the Bills and Bengals were to play each other in the AFC title game, whoever holds the tiebreaker - which will be finalized by the Week 18 results - would host the conference championship since both teams would have played an equal amount of regular-season games.
However, per the release, a Bills vs. Chiefs neutral AFC title game can only happen if:
- Buffalo (vs. New England) and Kansas City (at Las Vegas) both win or both tie against their opponents on Sunday
- Both Buffalo and Kansas City lose and the Baltimore Ravens defeat the Bengals
A Bills OR Bengals matchup with the Chiefs in the AFC Championship can only happen at a neutral site if:
- Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and the Bengals beat the Ravens.
And ... there is a scenario in which the Ravens win and are matched against Cincinnati in an AFC Wild Card game. ... that will see the site determined by a coin flip.
This long and complicated plan could potentially not have to be used at all pending certain Week 18 results. But the league's vote during Friday's meeting will determine if it becomes an official plan of action considering the extreme circumstances of Hamlin's mid-game cardiac arrest.
The Bills (12-3) and New England Patriots (8-8) will kick off at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday from Highmark Stadium.
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