Armour: NFC South champ doesn't belong in playoffs

Awww, isn't that sweet. The NFL is taking a page from Pop Warner football, pee-wee soccer and all those other youth sports that hand out trophies like candy.

At least, that's what it feels like knowing someone from the NFC South will make the playoffs.

The NFC South, for those who ignore abysmal teams outside your own city, doesn't have a single team above .500 with two weeks left in the season. Yes, you read that right. Not one. And that's not likely to change considering the New Orleans Saints are the only ones still with a chance at mediocrity – and they'd have to win out just to get there.

(Who are New Orleans' final opponents? Fellow NFC South Sad-Sackers Atlanta and Tampa Bay. Because of course.)

Despite that, the Saints, the Falcons or the Carolina Panthers will make the postseason, giving one a shot at winning the Super Bowl. Not a good one, of course, because that would require them to win almost as many games in a month as they've managed the entire season. But a shot nonetheless.

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"The only reason we're sitting here still with that small sliver of hope is just because the way the division has unfolded this year," New Orleans coach Sean Payton said before his Saints "improved" to 6-8 with Monday night's victory against the Chicago Bears .

Meanwhile, there's a chance some other team with 10 wins will miss the playoffs simply because it has the bad luck not to play in the Losers Division. Sorry. The NFC South.

Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Buffalo, Kansas City and San Diego each have eight wins or more. Three of those AFC teams will be parked on the couch for the playoffs. Ditto, perhaps for Green Bay or Detroit, each of which has 10 wins, or nine-win Philadelphia.

Adding to the travesty? Because the NFL gives the highest seeds to the four division champs, whoever limps out of the South gets to host a wild-card game!

That's just not right. Not any of it.

I get it. The NFL has structured the playoffs so each division champ gets a spot in the postseason. Otherwise, what's the point of having divisions and conferences?

But it's grossly unfair that an undeserving team should be rewarded simply because of geography. It's like giving kids prizes just because they showed up. No! Rewards, be they beer league trophies or playoff shares, ought to be earned.

This isn't the first time a pro league has run into this problem. The NBA had to hold its nose and allow the Atlanta Hawks (what's with the teams in that town?) into the playoffs in April despite finishing six games below .500.

It's not even the first time the NFL has encountered this.

Remember 2008? New England fans sure do. Despite going 11-5 and finishing second in the AFC East, the Patriots failed to make the playoffs while the 8-8 Chargers did. It was the first time since the playoffs expanded to 12 teams in 1990 that an 11-win team was shut out.

New England missed out because Miami and Baltimore finished with identical records but had the edge on tiebreakers – Miami for the division, Baltimore for the wild card. San Diego got in as the AFC West champ.

The Patriots haven't suffered any long-term damage by being sidelined in 2008 – they just clinched their sixth consecutive AFC East crown. But that might not be the case for some of this year's bubble teams. It's hard to make the playoffs, and there's no guarantee they'll get a chance next year.

"I know we have so much talent on this team, and it would be a real shame if we didn't maximize it," Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez said after Sunday night's loss to Dallas put Philadelphia's playoff hopes in jeopardy.

The real shame is that an undeserving team will be playing in January while some good teams will get left out in the cold.