Realign the NFL!

In My Humble Opinion
1

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?

2

I like the geographical divisions you have. Pretty much the same as the ones I have. (Why, I wonder, do they insist on putting Houston in the AFC and making an NFC team switch, BTW?)

One problem with the “choose a team” for the home series: What if there are, say, three teams outside the division (Washington, Philly, Giants) that want to choose Dallas. Dallas is now locked into 12 (6 divisional, and 6 in the home-home choice) games plus 2 more for their choice.

Also, what if Dallas and Philly choose each other. Do they play 4 times?

Your choose scenario only works if every team chooses a different team. How many teams are going to choose Houston? Cleveland? (unless they want an easy win, that is) Teams are going to grapple over playing the teams that will be the biggest gate draw and give them the best chance to be on national TV, IMHO.

3

Simple, Gazoo. Once a team has been picked, noone else can pick it. Set up a lottto machine with 32 balls in it to determine the order teams pick in. The point is not to give every team the opportunity to play, say Dallas, but to preserve traditional rivalries. Maybe 8-10 teams will wind up with new rivalries by the luck of the draw, and these will gain intensity as the teams get used to playing each other every year. There will be a few hurt feelings this way, but I think this system would keep them minimised, Say the Giants want to play Dallas, but Washington has already taken the 'boys. They could pick, say, the Jets. I guarantee that within 5 years, a Giants/Jets rivalry would be much more intense than the Giants/Cowboys one is now.

4

Hmm, no offense, but…what color is the sky in your world? You don’t really think the NFL would pass such a plan do you?

I do agree, that no matter what the divisions end up looking like, new rivalries wil appear. I think they should just leave it at that. You’ll still have ocasional games of Jets-Giants, etc. But your division determines the main foes. Baseball has actually adjusted to this fairly well. If they can do it, football can do it hands down, without the “choose” program that would cause more problems than you think. By the the time you get around #20, you’d end up with the Dolphin/Seahawk rivalry! Yeah, that preserves tradition!

5

I don’t think the Eagles would pick Dallas.

They’d pick Pittsburgh for the two easy wins each year. :smiley:

6

Weirddave - Let me the first to say that I agree with all your picks. They look very practical. I also think the “rival selection” you proposed is a great idea.

And to anyone who claims that one team is going to end up dominating a division for decades, or that there’s no “competitive balance” in some of the divisions, or that certain divisions are too weak etc. etc., four words: Last two Super Bowls. Face it, dynasties are a thing of the past. Every division will get competitive in time.

Gazoo - Okay, I understand your point of view…so what’s your plan?

7

DKW - I like the geographic based divisions, and as I mentioned, I think Weirddave’s alignment is as good as any as far as geography.

As for scheduling, I have no problem with the NFL’s current plan. Play 6 games in your division, 4 against a division in your conference, 4 against against a division in another conference, and 2 games based on the prior years’ standings.

8

Nice thing about NFC central division is that they lose Tampa Bay which nobody liked anyway while all the old rivalries remain intact.

I don’t like a lottery system for determining rivalries. Every two years, teams should choose two teams not in their division as their rivals. They then have a home and away series with them. (Home one year, away the next) Teams that choose each other get first priority. That way a team like Dallas actually gets to play its rivals (because Washington and Philly also chose them) instead of Cinnci or San Diego because they won the lottery.

This works out to six divisional games and two rivalry games a year. That means eight fixed games and eight free games which is what it is now. (Weirddave, you might want to check your math again.)

9

Wolverine - the math in the OP is fine –

6 Divisional games
2 games against your “choice team” (one home, one away)
2 games against the team that “chooses” you (same deal)

10 games.

10

Boy, do I feel sheepish.

11

I’m happy to see that the rumors of the Vikings being pulled from the NFC Central and sent to the AFC West have no grounding. As it stands now, my only care is that the Bucs and not the Vikes are evicted from the NFC Central - the Packers, Lions, and Bears all are second-rate teams that would lose to any given XFL team.

12

I’m not sure that local rivalries would supplant traditional rivalries. It’s always a big deal that these distant teams play each other 2 times a year:

WASHINGTON V DALLAS
PHILADELPHIA V DALLAS
MIAMI V BUFFALO, NEW ENGLAND, JETS
OAKLAND V KANSAS CITY
Here’s my plan (I think this is the alignment that the NFL is going with):
NFC
EAST: WASH, NYG, PHL, DAL
BLACK AND BLUE: GB, TB, MINN, CHI
SOUTH: ATL, NO, CAR, TB
WEST: STL, SF, AR, SEA

AFC
EAST: NE, NYJ, BUFF, MIAMI
CENTRAL: PITT, CLE, CINCY, BLT
SOUTH: JAX, TN, IND, HOU
WAST: DEN, OAK, KC, SD

Then, each team picks up to 3 local non-div rivals to play every year:
NE- Giants
NYJ- Giants, Eagles
NYG- Jets, Pats
PHL- Jets, Ravens, Steelers
BAL- Eagles, Skins
CAR- Redskins (lots of Carolinians are Skins fans), Titans
WAS- Panthers,Ravens
ATL- Jags, Titans
JAX, TB, AND MIAMI play each other once a year
JAX- Bucs, Fins, Falcons
TN- Falcons, Panthers, Bengals? Colts?
BUFF- none
CLE- Lions
PITT- Eagles
CINCY- Colts, Titans?
INDY- Lions, Bengals, Titans? Bears?
DET- Browns, Bengals, Colts
GB- none
MINNY- none
CHIC- Rams, Colts?
DAL- Texans, Saints
NO- Texans, Cowboys
HOU- Saints, Boys
KC- Rams
STL- Bears, Rams
DENVER- Cardinals? Seahawks?
ARI- Chargers, Broncos
SD- Cards, Niners
SF- Raiders, Chargers
OAK- Niners, Hawks?
SEA- Raiders? Broncos?

I know I’m missing some stuff, but you get the idea. Old rivalries are kept intact, and new local ones are born!

13

I assume the TB in your Black and Blue is supposed to be Detroit.

Personally the Central should turn out exactly as we want it. Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Viqueens, Chicago Cubs and that other team in that State across the lake.

However a lot of the powers that be want to move Minne-ho-ha out of the division. Is there some knowledge of Red’s plans by the NFL that we are not aware of??

Regionally, the NFC Norris just makes sense with the 1 team and 3 pretenders mentioned above. :smiley:

Packers/Cubs is an untouchable matchup so you can bet the farm that Green Bay and Chicago end up in the same division.

14

Montfort said:

Seeing as how the Eagles had to rely on the Steelers giving the game away at the end last year, you might wanna rethink that.

I don’t know why everybody seems to be assuming the Steelers and Eagles would make some sort of natural rivalry. Maybe Eagle fans suffer from Super Bowl envy x4 or something–I mean, it’s been a long time since the Eisenhower Administration–but Steeler fans don’t really give a damn about the Eagles. The main Steeler rivalries anymore would be with the Bills and the Browns.

15

JFTR, I sit corrected. TB would be in the NFC South, and Detroit in the NFC BnBlue!