The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I'm bored. I was thinking that maybe the conferences could re-align divisions in order to save on travel time and create some new rivalries. What do you guys think of this?

SOUTHERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division- Baltimore, Carolina, Washington, Tennessee

Southeast Division- Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Atlanta

South Division- Kansas City, Dallas, New Orleans, Houston

Pacific Division- Las Vegas, Arizona, LA Rams, LA Chargers


NORTHERN CONFERENCE

Northeast Division- New England, Buffalo, NY Giants, NY Jets

Central Division- Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia

Great Lakes Division- Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay

Northwest Division- Denver, Minnesota, Seattle, San Francisco

I like the overall concept, but I think that you probably don't want to have two teams from the same city (or otherwise very close) in the same division.  I think practically, it's better to try to take advantage of people that can be fans in both markets.  Also, I don't think you want in-city rivalries...might cause unnecessary violence or hooliganism or fights or whatever.  The home games would be overrun with opposing fans...I just don't think it helps.

I also think you'd want to preserve some rivalries when you can.  So many teams are bunched up in a short distance in the Northeast that you can kinda pick whoever is leftover.

NE, NYJ, BUF, BAL seems like it would be ok.
(Miami clearly has to go and Baltimore is relatively new.)

Why not have more games from two teams in the same city or close by?   Every other league does it multiple times on an annual basis.   This makes driving time easy for visiting fans and increases the odds that division rival games will sell out.   Plus, if it's a home game from two teams in the same city, obviously the home team's crowd is going to be the majority.  

As for preserving rivalries, you can do it like this:   Increase the number of regular season games to 18 and reduce the number of preseason games to 2.   Then everyone plays a home and home series with their divisional rivals, one division in their conference, and two in the opposite conference.  This guarantees that every team will play each other at least once every three seasons.

And another wrinkle to add to the playoffs:   Keep the seeding as is, but whoever has the better record gets home field advantage.

I think if you have two teams in the same city, you want people to be fans of both of those teams, so you can double dip.  At the very least, you don't want half of your city to be actively against one of the teams.

I think you also want a kind of city pride associated with teams and it's hard if you're asking half the city to dislike a team where they live.


I think this really only applies to NYG/NYJ in the NFL but would also theoretically be the case in VERY close cities like Oakland/SF or something like that.  I don't think you need to worry about it just when teams are in the same state.

It would only apply to NY Giants/NY Jets and LA Chargers/LA Rams.   Not sure how the two LA teams are divided in their fan bases, but from what I can see, the Giants tend to have a fanbase that's more corporate and upper middle class, and the Jets fanbase is more working class.

Also, the Jets are scumbags and Fuck the Jets.

I've never lived in a two team city but in other sports I think the fan bases, at least the fanatics, don't care for the other team.

Living in NYC, this is 100% true. No one likes both teams and the only people who "root for NY" are degenerates who have problems opening up a pickle jar.

This is just anecdotal stuff, but like...my uncle lived in San Fran....he liked the Niners.  But kinda when they weren't on or in seasons they weren't good, he'd kinda pay attention to the Raiders.

I just look at pretty much all sports that have two teams in the same or directly adjacent cities, they are never in the same division -- and are usually in the opposite conference altogether.  I'm sure that's not by accident.  I'm guessing they have some market research or whatever that helps them decide that.

No matter how you slice it, you can't really fix the location of Seattle. 
I think you'd have to take these eight teams and make 2 divisions out of them, in opposite conferences:

SEA, SF, DEN, LAR, LAC, LV, ARI, KC

Maybe a West division: SF, SEA, LAR, LV   and a SW division: DEN, ARI, LAC, KC

Leave. It. As. Is.

Then you definitely aren't looking at the NBA or NHL, where Lakers/Clippers, Knicks/Nets, Rangers/Islanders/Devils, and Kings/Ducks are all in the same divisions.

The reason why nearby teams are in different leagues/conferences in MLB and the NFL is because the AL/NL and AFL/NFL were competing leagues that each had teams in the major cities before their mergers, and post-merger they mostly kept their original teams separate.  In contrast, when the NBA and ABA merged, the NBA just integrated the four ABA teams within their existing divisions.

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To address the main topic, I made this map of my preferred realignment:

(http://viperbeam.com/forum/nflmap2022.png)

On the surface I like this. Nothing like local competition. I think it could cause fan bases to get smaller. For instance ... some people only like the Giants because they hate the Cowboys. Take that away and you lose any fan who isn't just a New Yorker.

I think this would work better as yearly scheduling partners but not necessarily divisions. It's akin to FSU playing Florida and Miami if Miami wasn't in their division. The rivalry is going to be there regardless and in fact would probably increase.

YES

You're absolutely right and I've never realized this.