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Why didn't Miami have home field in 1972?

tombotombo Posts: 332
in Sports Talk
I saw a spot during the Patriot/Charger game on Sunday, showing a Dolphin's punter running for a 1st down during the playoffs in 1972. However, the game appeared to be at 3 Rivers Stadium. Why did the Dolphins not have home field advantage in that game? Were there different rules back then determining home field? I mean, they obviously had the better record on the season.

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    MichiganMichigan Posts: 4,942 ✭


    << <i>I saw a spot during the Patriot/Charger game on Sunday, showing a Dolphin's punter running for a 1st down during the playoffs in 1972. However, the game appeared to be at 3 Rivers Stadium. Why did the Dolphins not have home field advantage in that game? Were there different rules back then determining home field? I mean, they obviously had the better record on the season. >>




    I would guess that they have different rules back then due to a shorter regular season, fewer teams and no wild card system.

    The answer is probably somewhere on the web but I'm too lazy to do the research.

    image
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    tombotombo Posts: 332
    They did have a wild card back then, but I did see a footnote on the web indicating that prior to 1975 homefield advantage was rotated on a yearly basis. It could be as simple as the 3 division winners each getting home field in 3 consecutive years.
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    joestalinjoestalin Posts: 12,473 ✭✭
    Also remember that their starting QB was out most of the season. Can you imagine how many games NE would of won with
    their second string QB in?

    JS
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    alpemomoalpemomo Posts: 355 ✭
    After the 1969 season and Super Bowl IV, the AFL and NFL fully merged and underwent a re-alignment for the 1970 season. Three of the pre-merger NFL teams were transferred to the AFC (Browns, Colts, and Steelers) to level the conferences (AFC and NFC) at 13 teams each; each conference split into three divisions. Since there was now only one league, the Super Bowl became a league championship and the winner is the NFL champion.

    With only six division winners in the newly merged league, the NFL designed an eight-team playoff tournament, with four clubs from each conference qualifying. Along with the three division winners in each conference, two wild card teams (one from each conference), the second-place finishers with the best records in each conference, were added to the tournament. The first round was named the "Divisional Playoffs", with the winners advancing to the "Conference Championships" (AFC & NFC). Two weeks later, the AFC and NFC champions met in the Super Bowl, now the league's championship game. Thus, Super Bowl V in January 1971 was the first Super Bowl played for the NFL title.

    With the introduction of the wild card, a rule was instituted to prohibit two teams from the same division (champion and wild card) from meeting in the first-round (Divisional Playoffs). This rule would remain in effect through the 1989 season. More significantly, the home teams in the playoffs were still decided by a yearly divisional rotation, not on regular-season records (excluding the wild-card teams, who would always play on the road). This lack of "home-field advantage" was most evident in the 1972 playoffs, when the undefeated Miami Dolphins played the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had recorded three losses during the regular season, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

    Beginning in 1972, tie games were included in the computing of each team's winning percentage. Each tie was now counted as half of a win and half of a loss, rather than omitted from the computation.

    The institution of "home-field advantage"
    In 1975, the league modified its 1970 playoff format by instituting a seeding system. The surviving clubs with the higher seeds were made the home teams for each playoff round. The three division champions in each conference were seeded first through third based on their regular-season records, with the wild-card team in each conference as the fourth seed.

    Teams that earned the top seed became known as clinching "home-field advantage" throughout the playoffs, since they would play all of their playoff games at their home stadium (except for the Super Bowl, played at a neutral site).

    However, the league continued to prohibit meetings between teams from the same division in the Divisional Playoffs. Thus, there would be times when the pairing in that round would pit the first seed versus the third, and the second versus the fourth. This system is identical to that now in use by Major League Baseball
    "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". - Gandhi
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    Mercury10cMercury10c Posts: 2,958


    << <i>Can you imagine how many games NE would of won with their second string QB in? >>



    Back in 2001-2002, some team (gee, can't remember who it was) played most of the season
    with some crappy backup QB out of Michigan. He ended up taking them to, and winning
    Super Bowl XXXVI
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    joestalinjoestalin Posts: 12,473 ✭✭
    yeah, teams were shaking in their boots having to play Bledsoe!!

    JS
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    softparadesoftparade Posts: 9,271 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Can you imagine how many games NE would of won with their second string QB in? >>



    Back in 2001-2002, some team (gee, can't remember who it was) played most of the season
    with some crappy backup QB out of Michigan. He ended up taking them to, and winning
    Super Bowl XXXVI >>



    Sorry, but since NY Yankee fans have NEVER been allowed (around here) to talk about PAST achievments NO MATTER HOW RECENT then please spare us this huh? It has NOTHING to do with 2007/2008 image

    ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240

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    JrMacdaddyJrMacdaddy Posts: 506 ✭✭
    Not only did they play the 1972 AFC Championship on the road, they were dogs.
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    Mercury10cMercury10c Posts: 2,958


    << <i>Sorry, but since NY Yankee fans have NEVER been allowed (around here) to talk about PAST achievments NO MATTER HOW RECENT then please spare us this huh? >>



    I live is S. Fla, aka New York II. Every single Yankme fan I know gloats about have won 27 or whatever it is world series vs. 7 for the Sox. Wake up.
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