# Realign the NFL!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realign-the-nfl/59066>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 22, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realign-the-nfl/59066 "2001-03-22T22:30:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realign-the-nfl/59066/1 "2001-03-22T22:30:58Z")

</div>

At the owners meetings this week, the hot topic is realignment of the NFL. I aproached this problem from a logical standpoint. “What makes good rivalries?”, I asked myself. “Why, Dave, It’s gotta be geography.” I answered myself.“Think how much fan interest would be generated with a San Francisco-Oakland home and home matchup. Or Baltimore/DC/Philly. Or Dallas/Houston.etc…” With that in mind, I came up with the following divisions:  
Regional Divisions:

Washington Green Bay  
Baltimore Detroit  
Philadelphia Chicago  
New York Giants Minnesota

Tampa Bay Atlanta  
Miami New Orleans  
Jacksonville Dallas  
Carolina Houston

New England Kansas City  
New York Jets St. Louis  
Buffalo Denver  
Pittsburgh Arizona

Cleveland Seattle  
Indianapolis San Francisco  
Tennessee Oakland  
Cincinnati San Diego

“Great!”, I said, “That solves that.” Unfortunately, I then heard a massive whine from many fans, “What about our traditional rivalries? Dallas/DC, Miami/Buffalo, Denver/Oakland, etc…?!” Personally, I think the new regional rivalries would quickly surplant the old ones, but what the heck, I figured. I’ll solve that problem too. Each team would get to pick one team not in it’s division for a home and home matchup each year.For example: DC could chose Dallas, Dallas chose Philly, Philly chose Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh chose Cleveland, Cleveland chose Baltimore, Baltimore chose Indianapolis, Indy/Buffalo, Buffalo/Miami, etc… This would give 10 set games a year, and 6 games to rotate between the rest of the league, like they do now. What do y’all think?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realign-the-nfl/59066/2 "2001-03-22T22:48:31Z")

</div>

Moderators: Please close this thread

Posters: please respond in the other thread, where the divisions aren’t all run together.