NFL Realignment Needed

[BuffaloBill]

I think it would be better for us to have Pitt, Cleveland and Cinci in division. It would be easy to fill the stadiums as people could drive from both Pitt and Cleveland pretty easily. It would be a better rivalry. I think the days of us being in with Miami should end. We did have a great rivalry with them and Ralph want to continue but he's gone now and that rivalry is largely done. I'd hate to leave the division with New England at the point where Brady and Belichick retire and we start beating them again. It would make more sense for us to be in with the other teams though

wow it is amazing and sad in some ways to think that the Miami rivalry is that dead.

[Punching Bag]

I'm daydreaming but I wish the NFL realigned the divisions. For example, I'd like to see the AFC East as follows:

 

Buffalo

New England

NY Jets

NY Giants

 

Honestly, I would divide them up by geography. Thoughts/Suggestions?

 

The Buffalo has nothing in common with East coast. They should be division with fellow midwest teams like Steelers, Browns and Bengals.

[DasNootz]

I think it would be better for us to have Pitt, Cleveland and Cinci in division. It would be easy to fill the stadiums as people could drive from both Pitt and Cleveland pretty easily. It would be a better rivalry. I think the days of us being in with Miami should end. We did have a great rivalry with them and Ralph want to continue but he's gone now and that rivalry is largely done. I'd hate to leave the division with New England at the point where Brady and Belichick retire and we start beating them again. It would make more sense for us to be in with the other teams though

exactly:

AFC:

Patriots, Jets, Ravens, Dolphins

Bills, Steelers, Browns, Bengals

Indy, KC, Titans, Jags

Chargers, Raiders, Broncos, Texans

 

 

[SF Bills Fan]

exactly:

AFC:

Patriots, Jets, Ravens, Dolphins

Bills, Steelers, Browns, Bengals

Indy, KC, Titans, Jags

Chargers, Raiders, Broncos, Texans

 

 

That looks like the best alignment. The trick is to try to get Jabs and Dolphins in same division, but it would be hard unless you moved some teams AFC to NFC and vice versa.

[Augie]

That looks like the best alignment. The trick is to try to get Jabs and Dolphins in same division, but it would be hard unless you moved some teams AFC to NFC and vice versa.

That does seem to make a lot more sense. Hard to change some of the rivalries, especially right before Brady's imminent rapid decline, but it DOES make a lot of sense.

[PromoTheRobot]

Being a Pennsylvania guy I wonder if Terry Pegula would prefer being in the AFC North?

[Mike in Horseheads]

exactly:

AFC:

Patriots, Jets, Ravens, Dolphins

Bills, Steelers, Browns, Bengals

Indy, KC, Titans, Jags

Chargers, Raiders, Broncos, Texans

 

 

Having Miami playing in the North makes no sense when the Jags are north of them. Don't worry I get it Dallas is also in the east and Jer-a won't give that up.

[Augie]

Having Miami playing in the North makes no sense when the Jags are north of them. Don't worry I get it Dallas is also in the east and Jer-a won't give that up.

Think of it as east coast?

[metzelaars_lives]

The divisions are perfect as is. Good combination of geographical alignments while keeping rivalries intact. What the NFL needs to do more of is just leaving well enough alone.

[Malazan]

I think a lot of the issues with the AFC East rivalries has been the dominance of the pats*. It's a lot harder to get worked up when playing for 2nd place. As they declines and you start seeing the division open up more, you'll see increased animosity between other teams.

 

I though moving Miami would have been good, but let's just leave it alone until there is a good reason for realignment.

Edited July 18, 2016 by jeremy2020

[papazoid]

31 week season, play everybody once.

[justnzane]

I did this back in 2012:

East Conference:

Phi, Pitt, cincy, Cle

NJJ, NJG, Buf, NE

Mia, Jax, TB, ATL

Ten, Wash, Bal, Car

 

West Conference:

GB, Det, Min, Chi

No, STL, KC, IND

Sea, Oak, SF, SD

Dal, Ari, Hou, Den

With Lambs moving back to LA, here is my revision to this:

East:

Phi, Pitt, cincy, Cle- Rust Belt Division

NJJ, NJG, Buf, NE- North East Division

Mia, Jax, TB, ATL- The Soon to be Underwater Division

Ten, Wash, Bal, Car - The Mason Dixon Divison

West:

GB, Det, Min, Chi - The Norris Divison

No, Hou, KC, IND- The Cajun and BBQ Division

Sea, Oak, SF, Den - The North West Divison

Dal, Ari, LA, SD - The Why the Hell Do People Live Here Division

Edited July 18, 2016 by justnzane

[Augie]

If I were still there, I'd like to get some easy road games in. Cleveland, Pitt and Cincy would make that easy. Having said that, I like the current rivalries. (Except the Cheaters, of course, and I want that to be around until Brady falls off the inevitable cliff.)

[machine gun kelly]

This reminds me of the Austin Powers scene where he goes cross eyed when talking out all of the scenarios of time travel.

 

We're fine. I flipping hate my rivals. I don't need new ones,

Guys- these are 56 year rivals, and not ready for new ones.

[What a Tuel]

I think Buffalo and Bills are the same team?

 

Not if they are in the same city.

[Rubes]

I think it would be better if we totally realigned The League into just four Divisions.

Here's my breakdown based on team names.

The Wild West Division

Bills

Cowboys

Broncos

Colts

Chiefs

Texans

Washington

49ers

 

The Fortune Five Hundred Division

Jints

Titans

Pats*

Stealers

Browns

Buccaneers

Raiders

Vikings

 

The Surf & Turf Division

Bears

Jaguars

Bengals

Lions

Panthers

Rams

Dolphins

Packers

 

The Flying Thingies Division

Falcons

Iggles

Seahawks

Ravens

Cardinals

Saints

Chargers

Jets

 

I can't believe nobody else thinks this is brilliant!

[NoSaint]

I've noticed it is VERY rare anyone puts us in the NFC

 

Product of loyalty to the traditional conference, or just geography?

 

Why not us, Giants, Eagles and redskins, for example?

[The Age of Aquarius]

I wrote this before St. Louis moved to Los Angeles, and before the results of the 2015 season played out, but the same principles apply--for your consideration:

 

With Relocation to Los Angeles, NFL has Chance to Right Divisional Imbalances

 

At the midpoint of the 2015 NFL season, a familiar scenario is unfolding in the AFC’s Southern division: the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans are tied for the division lead, each with a 3-5 record. The Jacksonville Jaguars, with a 2-5 record, sit half of a game behind both clubs. The winner of the AFC South will ultimately be granted not only a spot in the NFL postseason tournament, but the advantage of hosting a playoff game over a team who will likely sport a much better record. This problem is nothing new for the NFL.

In the 13 seasons that have taken place since the NFL realigned to 8 divisions (each with 4 teams) to accommodate expansion into the Houston market, there have been 52 wildcard games. 18 of those (35%) have been hosted by a team with a worse record than their opponent. This phenomenon has occurred at least once in 11 of the 13 postseasons since 2002--most notably in 2010, when 3 of the 4 games took place in host cities with teams who had a record inferior to their opponent.

 

The closer one looks, the more faults one can find with the NFL’s post-realignment structure. Since the 2002 restructuring, a total of 24 teams with a better record than at least one of the 12 playoff qualifiers have been excluded from postseason play. The most egregious of these infractions occurred in the 2008 season when an 11 win, defending-conference-champion Patriots team was left watching the tournament on TV, while also-rans such as the 8 win San Diego Chargers and 9 win Philadelphia Eagles qualified for the postseason tournament.

 

The problems created by the league’s 2002 realignment happen because of a simple flaw in the structure of the divisions: they are too small. A four team division is not a large enough sample size in a 32 team league to justify a playoff representative on an annual basis. Selected randomly from a field of 32, four teams could (at any one point, but specifically at seasons end) be sub .500 clubs. This problem compounds itself when one considers the equitability in the NFL’s scheduling procedures: teams within a division play essentially the same slate of games, with the exception of 2 games, across a 16 game season. This lack of variation creates scenarios where 4 teams can have a “down year”, while simultaneously fighting through a more-difficult-than-average slate of games.

 

The implications of these structural flaws show themselves in seasons like the aforementioned 2008, when an 8 win campaign was good enough for the San Diego Chargers to qualify for the playoffs, or 2 years later, when the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks repeated the feat. Both teams hosted playoff games, and with the advantage of playing 2 or 3 time zones away from their playoff opponents, both teams advanced past the first round.

 

The solution is simple enough, and with relocation to the Los Angeles market looming large on the horizon, the league has been gifted the perfect opportunity to rectify the situation: divisions must grow in size, and with the NFL playoffs allowing the 4 teams with deserving records to earn a bye to the second round of the playoffs, a four division structure seems the most logical. Below is a mockup of a 4 division structure in a post-Los Angeles-relocation league:

 

Eastern Division: Ravens, Bills, Patriots, Jets, Steelers, Browns, Bengals, Colts

Southern Division: Falcons, Panthers, Texans, Jaguars, Dolphins, Saints, Bucs, Titans

Western Division: Rams, 49ers, Seahawks, Chargers, Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos, Cardinals

Central Division: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Redskins, Packers, Vikings, Lions, Bears

 

Whichever form the divisions would take would be at the discretion of the 32 team owners. In this specific example, some sense of tradition is honored, as the current NFC East and Central were grouped together, as well as the majority of the AFC East and Central. A point of merit to this structure, however, is the fact that the 3 teams in the running for relocation to Los Angeles (San Diego; Oakland; St. Louis) would all be placed in what could be termed the “Western Division”, making any additional relocations to Los Angeles a simple affair.

 

The logistics of the NFL playoffs would be greatly enhanced under such a realignment proposal. The 4 teams earning a bye in the playoffs would lend themselves to the natural distinction of “division winner”: a designation of greater importance when 7 clubs are beaten out for that honor, as opposed to 3. With a league composed of only 4 divisions, conferences themselves could be abolished in favor of the 12 most deserving clubs qualifying for postseason play: the 4 division winners, and the remaining 8 teams with the best records. Assuming the NFL maintains its re-seeding procedure following Wildcard weekend (whereby the lowest remaining seed plays the team with the best record in the Divisional round), the possibility of the 2 “best” teams in the league meeting in the Super Bowl becomes much more likely.

 

The final piece of the puzzle comes in scheduling logistics. The NFL ardently adheres to a rotation formula established during the 2002 realignment, whereby teams cycle through both conference and inter-conference matchups on a set cycle, and inter-divisional-variations to an teams annual slate of games is limited to 2 contests determined by order of finish from the previous year. With 8 team divisions in place, the NFL could move to a scheduling formula based entirely on order of finish, while still maintaining an emphasis on divisional matchups: Within a division, the top 4 finishers from the previous season would play one another 2 times each for a total of 6 games; each of those clubs would then play the remaining 4 divisional opponents 1 time for a total of 4 games; finally, the top 2 finishers in each division would play the other top 2 finishers, (teams 3 and 4 would play each team that finished in 3^rd and 4^th place, etc.), for a total of 6 games.

 

Thus, the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots 2015 schedule would have consisted of:

(2) divisional matchups against: Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals;

(1) divisional matchup against: Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets;

(1) 1st place finisher game against the 1st and 2nd place teams from each of the other 3 divisions: Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, and Green Bay Packers.

 

For comparisons sake, the New York Jets (who finished with 8 fewer wins in 2014) would have played a slate of games against: the Cleveland Browns (2x); Buffalo Bills (2x); Baltimore Ravens (2x); New England Patriots; Indianapolis Colts; Pittsburgh Steelers; Cincinnati Bengals; Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Tennessee Titans; St. Louis Rams; Oakland Raiders; Chicago Bears; and Washington Redskins.

2 things become clear when looking at such a scheduling formula: divisional matchups are honored to a greater extent than currently (10 games per year as opposed to 6); and good teams must play harder games the following year, creating more compelling matchups across the season.

 

The NFL has an opportunity this spring to amend many of the errors inadvertently created during 2002’s realignment. In doing so, they can create a more balanced-product, which will be enhanced in several ways: bad teams will be left out of the playoff tournament, while truly deserving teams will host playoff games; the Super Bowl can be a matchup between the 2 best teams in the league on an annual basis; and scheduling formulas can create compelling matchups across the regular season, as well as leveling the playing field between the good and bad teams from the previous season.

Edited July 19, 2016 by The Age of Aquarius

[ExWNYer]

Anybody who thinks that they'd put the Jest & the Gints in the same division is absolutely crazy. No way would they allow the two teams in the biggest market to be in the same conference. It makes no sense from a TV revenue perspective. Either CBS or FOX would demand a huge reduction in what they pay if they lost the NYC market.

 

Also, although it makes no sense geographically, Jerruh & L'il Dummy Snyder would never give up the Dallas/Washington rivalry.

[dollars 2 donuts]

I think it would be better for us to have Pitt, Cleveland and Cinci in division. It would be easy to fill the stadiums as people could drive from both Pitt and Cleveland pretty easily. It would be a better rivalry. I think the days of us being in with Miami should end. We did have a great rivalry with them and Ralph want to continue but he's gone now and that rivalry is largely done. I'd hate to leave the division with New England at the point where Brady and Belichick retire and we start beating them again. It would make more sense for us to be in with the other teams though

The team that is the furthest driving distance away in the above scenario (which I've always loved), Cincy, is still closer the closest rival in our current division.

 

I'm for this because it just seems like the division we should be in. I actually can envision possibly going to all division road games in the same year.