So for this I kept all the teams as close together as possible. I think it would make an interesting format. And it would fix the silly issues of Dallas being in the east or Indy in the south.
And while I was at it. I did the other 3 major leagues.
Even NHL and NBA. Because yes they are currently a east vs west,
I changed them to 8 divisions of 4.
Especially since i added 2 teams to the NBA and MLB.
NBA, Seattle and Vegas
MLB, Charlotte and Nashville
I am too. I just think its stilly that the NFL never has realigned. Every other league has. Especially recently. Even the NHL has multiple times in the past 40 years. And they are much older than the NFL.
And odds are the NBA and MLB will when they add 2 more teams each.
Dallas in the East and Indy in the south makes no sense.
One very positive thing would be, the divisional games would be very very close. The Lions longest trip for example would be under 240 miles!
And with this new format, they would only have at 3 trips out west each year.
Vs currently they could have 6 games vs the teams west of Mississippi. (7 including Minnesota)
Resulting in over 11,000 miles of travel in a season each way! And on a good year over 6500 miles!
Vs this model the MAX would be under 9000 miles each way. And only a measly 2500 miles each way on a good year!
The NFL has east vs West from 1920-1969! They should go back to that!
The AFC vs NFC divisional breakup made little sense in 1970! Atlanta being in the NFC west???
The NHL went to East vs West in 1967 and realigned the divisions and conferences 4 times since then!
The NBA was east vs west since the beginning in 1950 and basically re aligned all the teams every 10 or so years with expansion and relocation of all the teams.
MLB however was always ALvsNL. But still regionally relevant. Establishing east vs west in 1969
Adding the Central in 1994. They always moved teams around when expansion happened to keep the geographical relevance. And likely they will go back to east vs west in each league when they add 2 more teams.
The NFL needs to modernize that part of the league. Especially when the owners realize it would would help cut down on travel costs thus increasing profits.
Especially since the NFL has had the least amount of teams relocating far distances.
With the biggest moves since 1970 being.
Cardinals from St Louis to Arizona
Rams to St Louis and back.
And The Oilers from Houston to Tennessee.
Every other team that has moved was in a small area. Ie Charger from SD to LA.
Why keep the divisions basically the same since 1970 when they have added 6 teams and had 2 teams move large distances?
My guess is that Dallas wants to keep its rivalry with those other teams.
Because every other rivalry is relatively recent other than
GB vs CHI vs DET
and CLE vs PIT.
And of course the 4 NFC east Teams.
The only reason why i switched Indy and Detroit is because the Teal is in the West and Pink in the East.
Indy is west of Detroit. Thats the only reason.
Lazily,
When they went to 8 divisions vs 6. They just took 1 team from each division and the 2 last teams and made 2 divisions.
They never truly realigned. After all the additions and movement. Not no where near like what the other big3 did. Where when a new team was added or moved, they realigned every time, vs what the NFL did and just put them in whatever division fit the closest.
The NFC, take atlanta and New Orleans…. FROM THE WEST!
Tampa from the central added carolina.
the AFC.
Took indy from the east, JAX, NASH from the central and added Houston, to make the south. And then moved seattle to the NFC to make it work.
When they could have.
Moved indy to the central/north.
And moved JAX, KC, Nash to the south,
Added HOU, AND CAR.
But i doubt the NFL wanted of its 3 newest teams in 1 division.
But again it started out flawed.
Dallas in the east, atlanta in the west? Make ZERO sense. They moved the cardinals to the west from the east, and they are the oldest continuously operated NFL franchise. Why not dallas?
I am not sure why you are so adament on putting Dallas in the West. Its actually flawed. Texas is so big that it makes everything around it look smaller and closer than it really is. And Dallas is on the eastern portion of Texas. I think you are getting your direction from the NBA (and maybe NHL?). But the NBA was clear in how it aligned. For the East every team is truly in the “east.” The West became a catch all for different circumstances. If the NFL followed the NBA map, the Titans would be in the West. And so would the Vikings, Texans and Saints.
I mean I absolutely agree with you and really it’s no reason to even debate it. The Cowboys will always be in the division with their traditional rivals. It’s makes the NFL and the TV networks way too much money to break it up. It would be like ending the Michigan/Ohio State game in college football
Dude….you might as well give this one up. Cutting travel is NOTHING compared to what a Cowboys matchup with any of their division rivals would bring in ratings and revenue. Why do you think NBC gets an NFC East game featuring the Cowboys almost every year that it happens?? Look I’m a truck engineer……and towards the end of each season the talks amongst the networks and production crews are almost ALWAYS who’s gonna get the Dallas game for the last week and for any playoff game. Chris Collingsworth said in an interview if SNF could do the Cowboys every week they would. The NFL could care less about cutting travel or regional rivalries. They only care about money and if travel was really that big of a deal they wouldn’t have so many international games
