We’ve all heard the phrase: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Unfortunately, the NASCAR sanctioning body is once again ignoring this premise.

On Friday night, Jim Utter of the Charlotte Observer reported that NASCAR is considering a major overhaul of its Chase playoff system.

NASCAR’s current playoff system, which just concluded its tenth season, consists like this: After a 26-race “regular season,” 12 drivers qualify for the 10-race Chase. Those drivers have their points reset for the final 10 races, with bonus points for wins (only drivers inside the top 10 in points are awarded bonus points). The two drivers in positions 11-20 in points with the most wins get the last two “wild card” spots. Whoever has the most points at the end of the 10 races, wins the championship.

The newly proposed system, according to Utter, goes as so:

“In addition to expanding the Chase field from 12 to 16 drivers, a win in the season’s first 26 races would virtually ensure a driver entry into the championship Chase. If there were more than 16 winners, the 16 with the most wins and highest in points would gain entry.

“Once the Chase field was set, a round of eliminations — similar to the NCAA tournament — would take place after the third, sixth and ninth race of the Chase, culminating with the championship determined by a winner-takes-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”

In reality, this would not be the first time the Chase has been modified.

Since its inception in 2004, the number of participants has been increased from 10 to 12 beginning in 2007. Bonus points for regular season wins was also implemented in ’07. And the addition of “wild-card” drivers was their latest modification in 2011.

Unfortunately, these modifications are minuscule in comparison to the proposed changes that Utter has reported.

For years, NASCAR Chairman Brian France, along with other members of its sanctioning body, have stressed how the sport’s current playoff system is not meeting expectations. The lack of consistent title fights year in and year out has had the sanctioning body constantly looking to twist its playoff system.

And, in doing so, they have tried to convince the media and its purist fan base that a sport that stands still and does not change, is a sport that gets left behind.

This notion is wrong.

Rarely does a major sport change the fabric of its playoff system.

Take a look at America’s most popular sport: the NFL.

In 2002, the NFL completely reshaped its playoff system by dividing its 32-team league into two conferences: the AFC and NFC, each of which has 16 teams. After the reshaping, each conference was further divided into four divisions of four teams each.

They also reduced its playoff roster from 12 teams to six, per conference. Each conference would then have its four division winners get an automatic bid into the playoffs, in which they would be seeded 1 through 4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record. The final two spots would belong to the wild-card qualifiers from each conference (the two teams with the best overall records of all remaining teams in the conference), which are seeded 5 and 6.

The top 2 teams in each conference receive byes in the first round. In addition, they are guaranteed to play the lowest seeds in the second round with home-field advantage.

Not since 2002 has this system been modified.

And all the NFL has done is create more excitement and increase its TV ratings since this system’s installment some 12 years ago.

For over a decade, NASCAR has been trying to compete with the NFL for TV ratings during the fall season.

One of the reasons that NASCAR changed its original points system was in large part for the lack of championship excitement that previous seasons endured before the Chase, or so they claim.

Their best example came at the end of the 2003 season when Matt Kenseth won the last Winston Cup handily, despite recording one win throughout the season. Kenseth’s title run consisted of an entire 36-race season in which consistency, not necessarily winning, was the key. Although Kenseth won one race all year, he had 25 top 10s and an average finish of 10th, easily besting drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon who all recorded multiple wins that season.

NASCAR felt that Kenseth’s dominance throughout the year (he held over a 300-point lead multiple times in the season) made the last third of the season into a snoozer.

For NASCAR, a lack of late-season excitement meant a drop in TV ratings.

As a result, the Chase was implemented as means to create NASCAR’s own playoff system that would compete with the NFL season.

While the inaugural Chase was everything NASCAR could ask for, time began to show how it became impossible to have tight championship battles on a yearly basis.

Just because the NFL or the NCAA could produce breathe-taking postseasons on a yearly basis, that doesn’t mean the same could happen for NASCAR.

NASCAR is not the NFL, nor the NCAA.

There too many factors in a NASCAR race that can dictate the outcome of one competitor, never mind 43.

There are not two teams facing off on weekly basis, there are 43. There aren’t flagrant fouls or holding penalties in NASCAR. There are flat tires, blown engines, 25-car pile ups, debris cautions and pit strategy. There aren’t single-game eliminations in NASCAR. There is the next race.

It’s a motorsport, not a sport.

NASCAR is walking a dangerous path that it has not crossed since 2001 when Dale Earnhardt died.

They are risking its connection with millions of loyal fans for late-season, TV ratings.

Since news of this proposed change broke out, many fans have gone to social media to express their frustration and resentment with this new points system, with many of them threatening to abandon the sport if this system goes into place.

The reality of the situation is that fans have been fed up with NASCAR making drastic changes in its points system when they never requested them in the first place. And their biggest disdain has been with the Chase itself.

Prior to the Chase, NASCAR based its champion on a 36-race season. There was no Chase and no reseeding. The season itself was the playoffs. Every week, teams had to bring their best because a bad finish could take three or four races to make up.

This system was in place for 29 years (from 1975 to 2003) and contrary to NASCAR’s disapproval of the 2003 season, this traditional system had demonstrated plenty of exciting championship runs.

One of the most exciting championship seasons in Nascar history came two years before the Chase was implemented when Tony Stewart overcame a blown engine on lap 3 of the season-opening Daytona 500 and five more DNFs (did not finish) along the way to edge out Mark Martin, a 5-time championship runner up, by 38 points.

NASCAR’s regular season has had so many memorable moments that writers and fans alike still talk about them today.

No one in the NASCAR community can forget about the 1992 season when Alan Kulwicki overcame more than a 200-point deficit to Bill Elliot in the final races of the year to edge him by 10 points in the finale.

No one can forget Jeff Gordon’s first championship in 1995 when he went toe-to-toe with Dale Earnhardt, a 7-time champion, and clipped him by 34 points.

How about the 1997 season? Heading into the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon held a slim point lead over Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin. He finished 17th in the event while Jarrett and Martin finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The result wound up making it one of the closest championships in history as Gordon beat Jarrett by a mere 14 points, with Martin trailing 29 behind.

The point is that purists, fans and media members alike, never requested for NASCAR to change its points system to begin with.

The season itself was compelling enough as it was.

To this day, many people still feel that a championship is earned through a season’s worth of work, not just a 10-race sprint.

That is why many fans struggle to give Jimmie Johnson, a 6-time champion, full credit for his accomplishments, given he never won one Winston Cup.

While fans have become accustomed to watching the Chase on a yearly basis, it doesn’t mean they like it.

In fact, it could be said that many fans hold animosity for the Chase because drivers like Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick have acquired the most points throughout a season and yet lost the title because of the points resetting.

If fans are already fed up with the current system, just imagine what the new system represents for them.

The bottom line is this: Fans want to see the driver and team whose hard work and effort made them the best for that particular season. They want to see a full body of work represent the champion, regardless of who it is.

With NASCAR’s proposed system, its conceivable that a driver could win five “regular season” races, enter the Chase as the points leader, win another three races before the season-finale at Homestead and lose the title because he or she finished 2nd.

With all the time and effort that takes a team to become the best for 35 races, it will seem unfair in the eyes of many fans to see the most dominant team of that season lose out on the title because NASCAR wanted a “Game 7” scenario on the final race.

If last year’s Richmond debacle was a black eye for NASCAR, imagine the damage this system could do for the sport if the beloved Dale Earnhardt Jr. won three “regular season” races, entered the Chase as the championship leader, won two more Chase races, had an average finish of 5.6 and lost the title at Homestead because he finished 2nd or 3rd.

The outcry would carry on into the three-month off-season.

This new playoff system will not increase the competitiveness of the series. It will not create legitimate title fights.

Instead, it will help rid NASCAR of its loyal fan base, the very people who helped establish the sport. It will also cause more controversy than it craves. And it will include mediocrity to the word “champion.”

NASCAR has to realize what the sport truly is.

NASCAR has to understand that true champions like Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip and others earned their titles through a whole season’s worth of work.

The whole sport was founded on that notion.

And drastically changing the entire season so there could be a four-team, “Winner-take-all” playoff scenario on the last race of the season will only cheapen the champion.

It’s fine if NASCAR does not want to revert to its previous, 36-race season.

One thing they can’t do is revamp the current system for something worse, which will have most fans questioning the champion.

A sport that constantly changes its fabric is not one that is trying to improve. It is a sport that’s desperate for any form of attention.