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Divisional & Conference Realignment Needed


Divisional Realignment   

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Would you approve of these changes as shown?

    • Yes
      6
    • No
      3


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So, another year is over, and it got me thinking about something I’ve always felt and even mentioned in the past.

With the NFL lagging somewhat this past year in viewership, I think the league could do something that would improve stadium attendance, and increase the rivalries in the league to something closer like the heated college rivalries based on geography … namely reorganize the 8 DIVISIONS & the 2 Conferences. 

The divisions were formed at a time before teams moved around based on the AFL and NFL leagues. However, I think they are due for an update.

The first rule in my mind should be that teams within the same state should be in the same division. So I ensure that in my realignment. The next is that you then aim for geographical proximity. I'd also make the AFC a Northeast & Midwest Conference, and the NFC the South & West Conference. +I've moved Oakland to Las Vegas

How they should be grouped in my opinion ...

Divisions.jpg

 

I would also rename the divisions like so … and make the Conferences based on geography 

AFC_NFC2.jpg

Division_List.jpg

 

your thoughts? 

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It would probably increase stadium attendance in some cases, given the shorter drives to the cities within the division, so that is a point well-taken.  But in this age of the Internet, Sunday Ticket, and people moving all around the country (and taking their team loyalty with them) and flying from place to place like never before, I think that geography matters less than ever before.

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Beyond attendance and ensuring sellouts for every game, I think it’s also about creating heated inter-state rivalries, and even inter-city rivalries.

There is no reason why the Rams and Chargers, and Jets and Giants shouldn’t play twice a year, being in the same city.

As for states, you could have a Battle of Florida - Bucs, Dolphins, Jags rivalry for 6 games a year … likewise in New York one between the Bills, Jets, and Giants. Or in California with the Rams, Chargers and 49ers. There is a twice a year Battle of Ohio with the Browns, but there should be a twice a year Battle of Pennsylvania with the Eagles and Steelers, a Battle of Maryland / DC with the Redskins and Ravens, and a Battle of Texas with the Cowboys and Texans.

To me the current alignment makes no sense at all. Why are the Cowboys big rivals with the Redskins and Giants? I know it’s built into the history, but these new rivalries would create their own. In the case of the Bengals, the closest team to them is the Colts, and they don't even play every year in the regular season. 

It’s also good for parity, travel time, and time zones to align the conferences by geographical location. To me it makes too much sense not to change, which is probably why they won’t, as old traditions die hard. But I think the majority of NFL fans would approve of this as well. All of the sudden for most people 11 out of the 16 games every year are guaranteed to be within close driving distance, and perhaps more with the AFC/NFC alignment.

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10 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

So, another year is over, and it got me thinking about something I’ve always felt and even mentioned in the past.

With the NFL lagging somewhat this past year in viewership, I think the league could do something that would improve stadium attendance, and increase the rivalries in the league to something closer like the heated college rivalries based on geography … namely reorganize the 8 DIVISIONS & the 2 Conferences. 

The divisions were formed at a time before teams moved around based on the AFL and NFL leagues. However, I think they are due for an update.

The first rule in my mind should be that teams within the same state should be in the same division. So I ensure that in my realignment. The next is that you then aim for geographical proximity. I'd also make the AFC a Northeast & Midwest Conference, and the NFC the South & West Conference. +I've moved Oakland to Las Vegas

How they should be grouped in my opinion ...

Divisions.jpg

 

I would also rename the divisions like so … and make the Conferences based on geography 

AFC_NFC2.jpg

Division_List.jpg

 

your thoughts? 

Can you post without the .jpg images, it's not loading correctly for me. 

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31 minutes ago, fredtoast said:

Makes a lot of sense, but the problem is that teams move all they time.  As soon as a local rivalry gets established it could be destroyed by one team moving.

right and some traditional rivalries just need to be maintained, geography be damned.   We will never see interconference wholesale changes, just a couple at most.   flipping divisions I can see.

Sooooo,    a reasonable change would be reorganizing within the conferences.

As for our AFC North,  Cincy is closer to Pit than Phil by car.  Our our weird round robin rivalries--Pit is our rival but we are not theirs because they beat us all the time--Bal is their rival because they lose to them at least once a year if not both games--and Bal hates us because they lose to us with regularity.  When Cleveland is a good team they are rivals to all 3 teams by geography, tradition, or underhandedness or combinations of all.  For that reason, I could never see breaking up the AFC N.  If any of them go then I would vote Bal by virtue of Geography and put them in AFC E--NE needs a damn rival in that division that can actually beat them every year.

Transfer Indy to AFCN and have AFC S take Miami and keep every body else the way they are.   No damn way Giants and Redskins would not want to face Dallas every year...that's blood feud.

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3 hours ago, fredtoast said:

Makes a lot of sense, but the problem is that teams move all they time.  As soon as a local rivalry gets established it could be destroyed by one team moving.

To protect against that, I'd have a renewal process every 10 years (like the US census) to reevaluate and make sure the divisions are still aligned in the most efficient way. 

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3 hours ago, PatternMaster said:

Can you post without the .jpg images, it's not loading correctly for me. 

I'm not sure what you mean? You'd like just the words? (that doesn't do any good as the images show the map of how I break them down, plus the new divisions)

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2 hours ago, CincyInDC said:

AFC Northeast and Atlantic should switch members/names.

I thought about that, but the current Atlantic has 3 teams on the coast or near it (New England & Both NYC's) whereas the Northeast division is more inland. But the other way works too. 

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10 hours ago, WRAPradio said:

Only thing I would mix up are the NFC and AFC teams.  The way you have it all of the AFC is in the northern part of the country and the NFC is south and west.

if you do that, you'd have to drastically switch up the divisions as well - as I have -, since a good amount of NFC teams are in the Northeast and vice versa. I had to move 16 teams, half the league. 

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5 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

if you do that, you'd have to drastically switch up the divisions as well - as I have -, since a good amount of NFC teams are in the Northeast and vice versa. I had to move 16 teams, half the league. 

 

Right, and I like the divisions.  I would just think instead of all of your South and West teams being in the NFL and all of your North and East teams being in the AFC you could switch it up (keeping the divisions the same).  Example: NFC: Western, Sunshine, Great Lakes and Northeast    AFC:  Midwest, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern...or something like that.

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3 hours ago, saphead said:

I would love to not see the inbred fuckhead stealers twice a year from a human safety standpoint. 

 

As much as I'd love to agree, Ben doesn't have too much longer and once he's gone it'll be terribly difficult for them to find a QB (I hope).  They could have a Browns-like decade of searching for a QB.  Besides, as much as I hate the Stealers, I don't want to run from them, we just have to beat them.

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