Finishing at the top of the conference after an 82 game season is an incredibly impressive feat that requires a combination of talent and consistency.
Obviously, there's no way to force people to care more. Rings culture is already so engrained in American sports culture, it's hard to imagine that ever being reversed. But it feels like as fans we should care more. When debating legacies, GOATs, etc., it feels like 8x regular season conference champ should be something we care about. People will bring up all-star game MVPs in legacy debates before they bring up being the best player on a #1 seed.
Teams hang up banners for winning the division, but not finishing with the best regular season record. In my opinion it would be more meaningful to disregard division standings and emphasize the regular season conference champ.
Having the best regular season record feels like the best indicator of team success, but it's pretty much irrelevant outside of MVP discussions (an individual award).
Had this thought after getting more into European soccer leagues. Again, I understand that there's no way to really force the media or fans to care about this, but if teams and players started to care it would be the easiest way to solve the load management issue, and arguably a better measure of success than who got the hottest from May-June.
Give a ring for playoff champ. A chain for regular season champ.
I think conference wins would feel more significant if it was a round robin format where you played the other 7 teams in your conference.
as it is right now, sometimes everyone knows the 2 best teams in the conference (sometimes the league) are playing in the semis.