NFL 2015 Regular Season Ends Today, My Playoff Preferences

Today the National Football League 2015 regular season ends...at this writing, only the Sunday night game between Green Bay and Minnesota is left to be finished.  Regardless of that game's result, the twelve teams making the playoffs this year are set...it's just in the National Conference that the upcoming games are still in a state of uncertainty...

In the division that concerns me the most, the American Conference East, today's games satisfied me to no end.  First of all, my Miami Dolphins, already doomed to the cellar this year, stunned perennial division champion New England on the last day, 20-10.  That result, combined with Denver's hard-fought win (featuring the return of Peyton Manning) over San Diego, means that New England, although enjoying a first-round bye in the playoffs, may have to play the conference championship game (if they get that far) on the road if it's against the Broncos.  That's a victory of sorts!  The other "victory" was seeing Buffalo knock off the New York Jets 22-17 and out of the playoffs, combined with a Pittsburgh win over Cleveland.  Not that I particularly care for the Steelers, either...but if you're the fan of a team in the AFC East, you just automatically tend to despise the other three teams and wish them no success...

So in the AFC, Denver and New England are seeded #1 and #2 respectively and get first-round byes.  The first round games will have Cincinnati hosting Pittsburgh and Kansas City visiting Houston.  In the NFC, Carolina and Arizona are seeded #1 and #2 respectively and will each also get a pass on the first week of the playoffs.  The other four teams...Seattle, Green Bay, Minnesota, and Washington...will play next week, but the outcome of tonight's Packers/Vikings game will determine who plays whom and where.  As for my preferences...well, why don't I just rank all twelve teams according to my liking, and then when two of them are playing each other you can easily determine which one I'm rooting for:

1 Seattle
2 Kansas City
3 Green Bay
4 Carolina
5 Cincinnati
6 Arizona
7 Minnesota
8 Washington
9 Denver
10 Houston
11 Pittsburgh
12 New England

Note from the above that I am generally heavily biased in favor of NFC teams...I don't exactly know why this is the case, other than that the Dolphins' biggest rivals are in the AFC...