NFL should realign divisions ·

Zero2Cool
100% (Exalted)
Elite Member Topic Starter

11 years ago

Play your division twice, then one opponent from each division from the other conference.

Win your division, you get a BYE.

Adds value to winning your division.

Playing seven teams twice means the games should be better as you're more familiar with your opponent.

Edit, I removed the divisions because that is not the focus of this post. The focus is going from 8 divisions to 4 divisions.

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wpr
100% (Exalted)
Preferred Member

11 years ago

Don't make Carolina and Atlanta fly to the Left Coast twice another trip to AZ every year.

These would spark some heated debates.

NFC
Division
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins
Carolina Panthers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers

Division
Chicago Bears
St. Louis Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks

AFC
Division
New England Patriots
New York Jets
Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins
Jacksonville Jaguars
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns

Division
Cincinnati Bengals
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
Denver Broncos
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers

Here is a little of the NBA look.

Northeast Division
New England Patriots
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Baltimore Ravens
Washington Redskins
Buffalo Bills
Pittsburgh Steelers

Southern Division
Carolina Panthers
Miami Dolphins
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
New Orleans Saints
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans

Central Division
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions
Cincinnati Bengals
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
St. Louis Rams
Kansas City Chiefs

Western Division
Houston Texans
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
Denver Broncos
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
Oakland Raiders
Seattle Seahawks

texaspackerbacker
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

Why get away from four team divisions? Why get away from what has worked pretty well?

Aside from those two questions, this looks like one NFC division pretty much clustered geographically, and the other comprising the leftovers. I could see a LOT of complaints from those leftovers.

If they did anything, they should throw away the whole AFC/NFC concept and really make it geographic - but really, they should do nothing at all.

wpr's "NBA look" comes close, except I would switch Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

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uffda udfa
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

I would guess the NFL won't touch these alignments until the day, if ever, they put a team in London...or a team like the Bills moves to Los Angeles, or somewhere nowhere near their current geography.

The way some of these are suggested always seems to leave some teams that don't make any sense together. The way we have it right now makes perfect sense. Green Bay is so close geographically to all these teams that you can literally drive from one city to another in a reasonable amount of time to see the games if you wished to do such a thing. Throwing teams like New Orleans or any of the NFCE teams in makes that a different thing.

I like the way it is now, and hope they don't mess with it. Getting Tampa out of our division made great geographic sense. It wasn't fair to a warm weather team like Tampa having to come to Green Bay and Chicago every year.

Ted Thompson sits on his hands per former GM: "because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback."

Zero2Cool
100% (Exalted)
Elite Member Topic Starter

11 years ago

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker

Being the best out of four teams is moronic. What value is there? Oooh you were better than the Bears, Vikings and Lions!! Congrats!! Give me a cookie crumb break!!

The NFL loves divisional games. Why? Because they are often the better matched games. Why? Because they are a familiar opponent (NFL has stated that very point numerous times).

So, lets have SEVEN familiar opponents and add VALUE to actually winning your division!

The NFL won't do this because the NFL isn't intelligent enough to think this far through.

How many fans are ho-hum over winning the division? Quite a few. Remember last years discussion? If you have two divisions per conference, suddenly winning that division is something to be proud of, vastly more proud of than being the better of four teams.

One of 8, or one of 4?

wpr
100% (Exalted)
Preferred Member

11 years ago

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

While winning a divisional title with 8 teams is certainly a greater accomplishment than winning a division of 4 teams the rivalries will not be greater than what they currently are.

Look at baseball. The Brewers rivals are Chicago and St Louis. Brewers certainly want to beat Pittsburgh and Cincy but rivalries are there whether or not the team is having a good season.

Boston and New York will go at it no matter what. Baltimore wishes they too could be a part of it. Toronto and Tampa just don't matter to the fans or the players as a true rival.

St Louis had bad blood with New York back in the 80's because both teams were pretty good and they were in the same diversion. They were split apart and now it doesn't matter. Split the Yankees and Boston and they will still fight with the same intensity.

Back to the 8 team division, a team is going to prep as much as they can for their opponent. You can only know so much then you reach overload. I don't think UW feels they know Indiana or Purdue better than they know Minnesota because they are in the same division. The player will play with more passion in the Gopher game because of their rivalry.

Mucky Tundra
100% (Exalted)
Honored Member

11 years ago

How many fans are ho-hum over winning the division? Quite a few. Remember last years discussion? If you have two divisions per conference, suddenly winning that division is something to be proud of, vastly more proud of than being the better of four teams.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

Hey I was proud of this team winning the division! I even bought the division champ t-shirt!

Or maybe I bought it just to piss off Bears fans by wearing it. [grin1]

Under Construction!

texaspackerbacker
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

What can I say? I like it better the way it is ....... and I think a lot of people of influence do too.

Playing 7 division rivals twice a year? Not bad, but just 3 games left over to play one each in the other divisions? (That BTW adds up to 17 games). That means you go about 7 years between playing teams from the other divisions. I don't really like that - no good reason why, I just don't.

Speaking from a purely homer point of view also, I think the Packers have an easier route to the playoffs the way it is now - and that, as they say, is not nuthin'.

Expressing the Good Normal Views of Good Normal Americans.
If Anything I Say Smacks of Extremism, Please Tell Me EXACTLY What.

steveishere
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

If they were going to change it like that I would rather have them play different teams more often than a bunch of the same teams all the time.

Zero2Cool
100% (Exalted)
Elite Member Topic Starter

11 years ago

#10

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker

Three games? What???

Play your division twice, then one opponent from each division from the other conference.

Poor wording on my part. I should have said from BOTH divisions from the OTHER conference to be smudge clearly than mud. :)

Under this format, you wouldn't play the other division opponents in your conference outside of the playoffs. Kind of a bummer.

Hmm, okay, so the remaining two games are against two times from the other division in your conference. There we go, bummer problem solved!!

beast
100% (Exalted)
Select Member

11 years ago

#11

So division games are special because they're good and rare... but if you add more teams to a division then they lose rareness of them...

6 division games a year to 14? That seems like seriously over kill... and the games aren't as important because of 6 important games, you now have the whole season, instead of certain games that are more important that others.

And the NFL likes NFC/AFC matches as people get to see teams they normally don't and fans that don't live near their team, and maybe live near a team in the other conference can go see them.

If they're going to stick with 32 teams then I say stick with the 4 team in 4 divisions for each conference.

Though IF they ever went to 36 teams then maybe a 6 teams in 3 divisions each conference.

texaspackerbacker
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

#12

Three games? What???

Poor wording on my part. I should have said from BOTH divisions from the OTHER conference to be smudge clearly than mud. :)

Under this format, you wouldn't play the other division opponents in your conference outside of the playoffs. Kind of a bummer.

Hmm, okay, so the remaining two games are against two times from the other division in your conference. There we go, bummer problem solved!!

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

OK, that adds up to 16 games. But it's even worse - the 8 other teams from our own conference, like you said, we would NEVER play them other than playoffs.

I say leave well enough alone.

Expressing the Good Normal Views of Good Normal Americans.
If Anything I Say Smacks of Extremism, Please Tell Me EXACTLY What.

Zero2Cool
100% (Exalted)
Elite Member Topic Starter

11 years ago

#13

OK, that adds up to 16 games. But it's even worse - the 8 other teams from our own conference, like you said, we would NEVER play them other than playoffs.

I say leave well enough alone.

Originally Posted by: texaspackerbacker

You wouldn't play the opposite conference I said. You would play two teams every year against the other division within your conference.

Another improvement then.

Dismantle the Jaguars and the Redskins. Bringing the teams down to 30 and 15 in each.

Three divisions, five teams per division. This also gives teams 106 more NFL players to spread around, making each roster a little better and making the games a little better too.

Also fixes the whole Redskins name thing too.

sschind
100% (Exalted)
Senior Member

11 years ago

#14

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

Why the Redskins? I can understand the Jaguars but the Redskins have one of the most loyal fan bases and longest histories in the NFL. I'm sure you are just tossing out ideas but I seriously doubt the NFL would ever consider contraction with wanting a team in LA and London. I just hope that if the ever do move into these markets it is with a team moving and not expansion. We do not need more teams.

Personally I have no issues whatsoever with the current alignment and I see no need to change. That said I wouldn't have an issue with 30 teams and three 5 team divisions either but it will never happen.

OlHoss1884
100% (Exalted)
Member

11 years ago

#15

Hard to believe I am saying this but I agree with Tex on this. The current format works really well.

As far as the whole AFC/NFC thing I think at this point it has as much to do with the ease of determining TV rights as anything. Thus each basic network package features games across all time zones. I believe someday that may change if the NFL takes over all the broadcasts on its own network(s) and does away with the contracts, but that's a whole other discussion.

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits" --Albert Einstein

texaspackerbacker
100% (Exalted)
Veteran Member

11 years ago

#16

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool

You're just FULL of good ideas hahahaha - or at least FULL of something.

I guess I misunderstood you - again. I thought you meant the 15th and 16th games would be one each against the divisions of the other conference. Assuming I got it right what you're saying this time, we would play 2 teams from the rest of the NFC, and NEVER against the whole AFC? That, to me, is NOT a good idea on several levels.

You want something radical? How about expanding to 36 teams - 6 X 6 team divisions - either retaining or not retaining the NFC and AFC designations. Ten games would be taken up within the division; Then play 2 games against 3 of the 5 other divisions on a rotating basis - or if you keep the current conferences, 2 each against the other divisions with your conference and 2 against 1 or the 3 divisions from the other conference.

I really don't like the idea of a team in London. L.A. would certainly be one expansion team; San Antonio would be probably the top other candidate; I'm having a hard time thinking of two others, though.

Expressing the Good Normal Views of Good Normal Americans.
If Anything I Say Smacks of Extremism, Please Tell Me EXACTLY What.

Zero2Cool
100% (Exalted)
Elite Member Topic Starter

2 months ago

#17

Realignment > Reseeding

beast
100% (Exalted)
Select Member

2 months ago

#18

First off, this will never happen, as the NFL wants to make sure all teams rotate everywhere some.

But what makes more sense to me, with the idea of going to 18 games, is that you play your 3 division rivals twice (6 games), and you play all the other teams in your conference once (12 games). For a total of 18 games.

Again, not going to happen, as they want to keep the NFC/AFC to be a thing.

As for the 8 team divisions, that seems a bit big to me, and if you play them twice would be 14 of the 17 or 18 games. I think playing every team in your own conference once (15 games) would make more sense.

As for idea that they actually might do...

I think Division Champion should actually mean something, and some years teams get a cupcake schedule and they shouldn't nessarily be rewarded for that.

Like one division has to play the tough AFC North vs the usually weak AFC South.

But it also shouldn't nessarily be automatically...

So maybe something like ONE of the following,

* Division winners are only guaranteed a top 4 seed and home playoff game IF they win 10 games... if they don't win 10 games, then they're only guaranteed a playoff game that might be on the road.

* A scoring system, where Wins equal one point, Ties are 0.5 points and Division winners get 2.5 points or whatever amount of points. Therefore non-division-winners with 3 more wins than division winners, can be seeded before division winners.

So winning the division means something, but a better record can also overcome a division winner with a poor record.

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