Well, we’ve finished milking the whole “half of the teams that made the playoffs typically don’t make it back the next year” cow.

The third and final installment regarding this concept is now available on SportingNews.com.

In past items, I looked at the six playoffs teams from 2007 that might not get back in 2008, and then at six non-playoff teams in 2007 that won’t take the place of the six playoff teams who fall out of the picture.

In writing these, I realize that it’s very early, and that much can change once they play the games.  The overriding point is that, as the media prepares to pick a couple of teams that might sneak into the field this year (”the Browns!”), the reality is that, more often than not, there’s a small army of “surprise” teams that knock out six of the teams that we are quick to assume will be good this year simply because they played in the postseason last year.

If we accept that fact, it puts a very different twist on trying to figure out who’ll succeed in a given season, and who won’t.