Anyone Want To See The Divisions Realigned ?

[gregorygrant83]

simple solution:

Two 16 team conferences, playing each conference opponent once per season (alternating home/away every other season). Top 6 teams make the playoffs. Of course that takes it from a 16 game schedule to 15 games. If you just had to have 16 games have every team play one non-conference game. There really is no need for divisional matchups and no teams get an advantage or disadvantage from being in a weak or strong division.

 

[dnespins]

if what you want is truly geographical, move the ravens to the afc east, the colts to the north and the dolphins to the south. dont see how there is any argument against this alignment.

 

[Third Eye]

It’s too late for realignment ideas people. We needed this in 2000 !!

 

[kevphin]

why would you care about the JAX BUCS or Saints ?

 

[Pat-London]

I love to hate the Patriots
I love to hate the Bills, and
I really love to hate the Jets.

So no.

 

[DuderinoN703]

Beyond over NE winning every year so sure bring it on.

 

[njFinsForever]

NE’s time is coming soon, so not too worried about the future outlook of this division. And for some reason we have played the pats pretty competitively in recent history.

I’d be happy with colts, pats, bills, jets in east and fins, jags, Texans, Titans in south
But as others have stated, nahgonnahappen

 

[Miamifinz]

Aside from the fact that I’d love to be out of the Patriots division altogether, it’s extremely unfair that the Dolphins have to travel all the way up the coast 3 times a year to play the Jets Bills and Patriots.

 

[matt11390]

yes i always felt that if they are aligned by true geography, then some pretty cool and intense regional rivalries would form.

just toying around, something like:

NE, NYG, NYJ, PHI
BUF, PIT, BAL, WAS
CAR, ATL, TEN, JAX
MIA, TB, NO, HOU
DET, CLE, IND, CIN
CHI, GB, MIN, KC
SEA, DEN, SF, OAK / LV
LAR, LAC, ARI, DAL

Could take the first place finishers out of each division and do an 8 team playoff leading to two weeks of playoffs then a two week rest for the final two teams in the super bowl.

Or, could take the first two teams of each division and do a 16 team playoff with no rest between playoff games making it a 4 week playoff with the super bowl being that 4th week.

Like how you got rid of conferences and did the divisions by geography. That's much better.

 

[matt11390]

I love to hate the Patriots
I love to hate the Bills, and
I really love to hate the Jets.

So no.

You can still hate them all you want even if divisions changed

 

[The Ghost]

Tom Brady with one foot out the door......no way i'm realigning.

New England is about to get pummeled for a decade by Adam Gase, starting week 4 this season.

I am not giving that up.

 

[matt11390]

I like the old rivalries and cold weather games.
The Pats run is almost over.
We already took a lot of losses over the last 15 years. The worm will turn.
Stay with this schedule IMHO

Even if divisions changed we would still get cold weather games. The current rivalries are very good because they have been in existence forever. The same would happen over time, IMO even more intense, if teams were in divisions with teams close together. Fans could travel easier as well.

 

[matt11390]

Tom Brady with one foot out the door......no way i'm realigning.

New England is about to get pummeled for a decade by Adam Gase, starting week 4 this season.

I am not giving that up.

For me, realignment has nothing to do with wanting to get out of New England's division but simply to make divisions better in a rivalry perspective.

 

[russianbear]

The last realignment decision making made it clear why the teams and divisions were assigned.

Preserving (old) rivalries took precedence over geography. The Dolphins have too much history with Jets, Bills and Patriots to be moved to the South. Indianapolis had less ties to the old AFC East than the rest of the teams. Odd man out.

Much like the Dallas Cowboys will never leave the NFC East even though the NFC South would be a better alignment with Carolina going to the East.

It's a regional rivalry preservation of old school fans and divisions. I doubt it will ever change.

This. And I don't have any issue with it. I love the rivalries as they are.

 

[Birdmond]

I'd go even more "rogue" actually.

Why not have the AFC teams all in one division, playing each team one time with one game a year versus NFC teams. Then you take the top six teams with tie-breaker being head-to-head, record in the conference etc. Every team would essentially have the same schedule with the exception being the match-up versus the NFC . Home games could switch every other year. Miami would still get New England, Buffalo and the Jets every year but could build rivalries with other AFC teams as well.

I've seen some ideas that I like where the super bowl could be two NFC teams or two AFC teams. That would involve quite a bit more, though. But there certainly have been years where the two best teams came from the same conference. Imagine Miami versus Pittsburgh for the super bowl in the 1970's or San Francisco against Dallas in the 1990's.

I love this idea.