Expansion Thought Experiment | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Expansion Thought Experiment

D

DearbornDolfan

Seasoned Veteran
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Messages
1,676
Reaction score
16
The more I think about it, the more I believe the best thing for the Dolphins would be to ditch the East. The most viable way to do that would be to do a straight switch with the Colts, but I'm not sure Indy or the league would agree to that, even if you brought up the parity argument. But I figured, why not see how far the rabbit hole goes and do realignment after a large expansion period, say eight teams over 20 years? My general guideline was that I wanted at least two established and healthy teams in each divisions, so that there wasn't an overwhelmingly "weak" division. I also wanted two international cities that didn't have unreasonable travel times. Expansion cities are marked with an asterisk.


AFC Central
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Oklahoma City Storm *
St. Louis Stallions *

AFC East
Buffalo Bills
Indianapolis Colts
New England Patriots
New York Jets

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South
Memphis Hounds *
Miami Dolphins
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tennessee Titans

AFC West
Los Angeles Crusaders (San Diego Chargers)
Sacramento Condors (Oakland Raiders)
Portland Lumberjacks *
Seattle Seahawks


NFC Central
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
Mexico City Diablos *
San Antonio Marshals *

NFC East
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Toronto Thunderbirds *
Washington Redskins

NFC North
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings

NFC South
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
New Orleans Saints
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West
Arizona Cardinals
Los Angeles Earthquake (St. Louis Rams)
Salt Lake City Pioneers *
San Francisco 49ers
 
Only 8 new expansion teams (and none of them are in London - where the NFL clearly wants to establish a team)? Why didn't you add another 20 or 60 new teams? BTW - some of us don't want the Dolphins to ditch the AFC East.
 
Lol this is when I usually start over in madden dynasty mode. When real teams start relocating becoming these fake teams. Got tired of playing the "Boston Express"
 
image.png


Seriously, why would the Colts give up a division they dominate to move here?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thought experiment, guys. If you don't know what that is, then please don't comment.
 
Crazy thought process but then again it's the Nfl so anything could happen. My biggest thing is, would the colts really want to move back to East? I mean when they got out of East they became the powerhouse of their division, so playoff hopes would show better off staying where you are. If the Nfl starts moving stuff around at some point, I see them making sure there is at least one power house per division, otherwise you get a repeat of Nfc South last season. Not knocking the thinking experiment by any means though.

Question is, how hard headed do owners become about history of team and such? I ask because in your listings, it would make sense to move say maybe the Titans to the AFC North and then flop a team from there into Afc South, would have to be Bengals though because no way does Pitt or Balt. move. If it played out and had the division of Bengals, Dolphins, Jags, and whichever team you expanded to there, would probably play out much like the AFC North of last few years with two teams battling it out till final game while other two teams are on uprise and give good inner division matchups.

In the end though I want Miami to say in East, not just because grown use to it but we have had great games against Bills, Jets, Pats and if we just left, well took those ass beatings for last decade for nothing.
 
spiketex said:
and none of them are in London - where the NFL clearly wants to establish a team
Click to expand...

Never going to happen. If the NFL were serious about that, they'd be proposing to build a stadium, rather than using a pre-existing soccer stadium.
 
Phinz1972 said:
Crazy thought process but then again it's the Nfl so anything could happen. My biggest thing is, would the colts really want to move back to East? I mean when they got out of East they became the powerhouse of their division, so playoff hopes would show better off staying where you are. If the Nfl starts moving stuff around at some point, I see them making sure there is at least one power house per division, otherwise you get a repeat of Nfc South last season. Not knocking the thinking experiment by any means though.
Click to expand...

As to the Colts, I'm not sure. My guess is no, but if they're outvoted then they don't have a choice. I also think I managed to have at least one relatively strong team per division.

Question is, how hard headed do owners become about history of team and such? I ask because in your listings, it would make sense to move say maybe the Titans to the AFC North and then flop a team from there into Afc South, would have to be Bengals though because no way does Pitt or Balt. move. If it played out and had the division of Bengals, Dolphins, Jags, and whichever team you expanded to there, would probably play out much like the AFC North of last few years with two teams battling it out till final game while other two teams are on uprise and give good inner division matchups.
Click to expand...

You'll notice those divisions that make sense geographically I kept intact and that the AFC North was one of those. Where possible I kept rivalries going. Another thing I paid attention to, especially with the expansion teams, was dynamic tension across borders. You wouldn't think there was this tension between Texans and Cowboys fans in Texas, but there is, so why not put them together in a division with a third Texas team? Same with the Denver/KC/OKC dynamic in Kansas.

In the end though I want Miami to say in East, not just because grown use to it but we have had great games against Bills, Jets, Pats and if we just left, well took those ass beatings for last decade for nothing.
Click to expand...

They largely have been for nothing. We're in the situation we're in because Huizenga couldn't find a GM and Coach to save his life. Ross is learning and we'll see how he's done this season.
 
Totally missed the part of what you did with Texans, apologize for that, lack of sleep in two days will cause missing such info lol. Perhaps a Jags/Phins in same division could cause some nice games/fan hype maybe. I don't recall much being into Jags vs. Phins games, although not in Florida area so maybe there is some little bit going on.
 
Its highly inlikey that there will ever be an NFL franchise here in Utah.

The league IMO should contract down to 28 or relocate a few (St L, Buffalo, & Jville) come to mind.

That said, the simplest division reshuffling fro the AFC would be; Miami to the South, Indy to the North, & Baltimore to the East.

In the NFC, you could go 1 of 2 ways.... a) tradding Dallas & Carolina or b) Dallas to the West, St to the South, & Carolina to the East
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom