How the Seattle Sea Dragons Can Easily Get into the XFL Playoffs

XFL Playoff Scenarios for the Seattle Sea Dragons

There are a lot of scenarios that can happen for the last week of the XFL season, but most favor the Seattle Sea Dragons after a huge win last weekend.

2023 XFL Playoff Ranking Options

After beating the St Luis Battlehawks 30-12 last weekend, the Seattle Sea Dragons have the advantage to take second place in the division and get into the XFL Playoffs. The top 2 teams from each division will face off in division championships with the winners competing in the XFL Championship game.

Out of the 4 teams in the XFL North Division, the DC Defenders already clinched a playoff birth with Seattle and St Luis seemingly tied for 2nd place. Both Seattle and St Luis have the same overall record, the same conference record, and have beaten each other once. If both teams win or lose this next weekend, how do they decide who goes to the playoffs? Believe it or not, the Seattle Sea Dragons have the advantage in most scenarios.

Before I get too far into this complicated explanation, I want to give a special thank you to Hilary Butler Photography for allowing the use of his amazing photos. Check his work out on his official website. Now for the complicated look at the playoffs.

XFL Playoff Rules

To rank the teams in each division, the XFL first looks at 1- Head to Head, then 2- win-loss percentage for division games, then 3- the overall combined record against all opponents, then 4- the combined divisional ranking of points scored and points allowed, then 5- the strength of victory record.

If they happen to still be tied, the final steps would be 6- a point differential (net points in all games), then 7- best net touchdowns. If all those are still tied they go to 8- the coin toss to decide. How does this information apply to Seattle and St Luis?

Seattle Sea Dragons VS St Luis in Playoff Tiebreaker

For the final week of the XFL, Seattle plays against Vegas which is a divisional opponent while St Luis is playing Orlando which is an opponent from the South Division. The simple scenarios are if one team wins while the other losses, the winning team takes the 2nd position and faces DC in the playoffs. If both teams lose, St Luis would go to the playoffs because Seattle would have 4 divisional losses.

It gets much more tricky if both teams win this weekend. Looking at tiebreaker #4, Seattle has the advantage with a higher amount of offensive points scored in the division (2nd with 215) versus St Luis (3rd with 196) according to Football DB. Seattle also has the advantage with points scored against in division, Seattle (1st with 168) versus St Luis (2nd with 174).

Amount of Points Scored This Weekend Could Decide

Because St Luis and Seattle are tied all the way down to tiebreaker #4 if both teams win this weekend, the winner of the 2nd position will probably be decided by which team scores the most points or has the least points scored against. St Luis has a lot of ground to make up if they want to try and catch the Sea Dragons, exactly 25 points between the two categories. St Luis needs to score 19 more points than Seattle and have their opponent score 6 points less than Seattle's opponent in order to have a chance.

Now you see why the Sea Dragons kicked that extra field goal against St Luis to get 30 points even though they were insured the win. That extra field goal might make the difference between going to the playoffs or going home next week.