FanPost

Ch-ch-Changes

Time for Change

As the Commissioner and the Owners consider things like 18 game regular seasons, adding or moving a team in Los Angeles, adding more games in London, and expanding the playoffs, one thing is constant and that is change. One thing I love about the NFL is the equality of hard salary caps which make it the best professional sport in America. The NBA and MLB pretend to be fair to all markets, but it really isn't. While I love my Reds, I know that if they don't raise their own talent constantly, they have no chance. When four or five teams have a salary structures that is four times most other teams, how can that be good for the league. By constantly allowing a few teams to buy their way (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers), it makes the appearance of equality a joke. The NBA is so lopsided with the soft-cap that allows pretty much the same teams to win over and over, it gets pretty boring. While I love watching and attending a Stars hockey game, I don't follow the NHL the way I do other sports. The NFL has it right and is one of the many reasons it is so popular in America. If an owner is really interested in winning, he/she can hire the right personnel and going from worst to first is highly possible very quickly. It doesn't always happen, but it is possible. Free agency and the hard cap make owners like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder compete fairly. Image if the NFL was like MLB, just how awful it would be to see four hundred million dollar payrolls, while other teams only spent one hundred million. To summarize, change is possible in the NFL.

One of the changes happening is the way fans watch the NFL due to the home television systems and the NFL Ticket. The NFL changed the ability for people to really enjoy games in their homes. Monster high definition televisions, NFL Ticket, internet, unreasonable parking costs, excessive violence in stadiums, excessive concession prices keep many middle class fans home. While the Dolphins' don't have really expensive seats or parking, the same can't be said for many other teams, like Dallas. The parking alone for tailgating can be over $100 per game. Since I have attended Dolphins, Chiefs, Falcons, Texans, Buccaneers, and Cowboys games I have a pretty fair opinion. Owners complain that their stadiums are not selling out, but they seem to forget that they helped to create the changes. Now I love to tailgate at Miami home games, I can see why many fans sit in their very comfortable media rooms and enjoy the games.

What can lure the fans back to the stadiums? In my opinion I look to the college game and what makes it so attractive to millions of fans? For the most part the conferences up until now have been geographically close. I know they are adding more teams to make bigger conferences, but joe-college fan travels between Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa, Columbus and Ann Arbor. Those stadiums mostly dwarf the NFL stadiums and you don't see too many empty seats. The NFL has most things right, but the existing non-geographical distance of many teams is the major difference from the college experience. First off forget about the word tradition. Why on earth is Dallas in the NFC East? Why is Miami playing three teams that are way above the mason Dixon line? Now I know why St Louis is in the NFC West, but they should have been moved a long time ago.

So here is my plan. Now I know owners like Jerry Jones would lose his mind if his team was moved, but if they can put a team in London, then what difference does it make at this point. Heck the first two games of the preseason are going to have 33 yard extra points. Change!

Using my teeny mates I have totally revamped the NFL to be geographical. Forget the AFC and NFC allegiances. That is old hat at this point. In fact, I would like to see the playoffs done like hockey where the teams are re-seeded after each round and the lowest and highest seeds play every round.

So here goes. First you have to look at a rendition of the NFL map. I laid out the teeny mates teams similar to where they reside in the USA. Since our great country is pretty large that distance is pretty great. Getting people back to the games requires shorter distance trips for intra-division games. Imagine for a moment that, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Atlanta, are in the same division. I am not saying teams across the nation would not play each other as they do now, but if it was like college, closer distance means fans may go to home games and travel to their close rivals.

So we can still have to conferences, but changed from what they are now. If you say FOX and CBS won't go for that, then you haven't been paying attention. The networks already have new deals that move games around and conference affiliation no longer is in stone. ESPN, CBS are playing games on Thursday evening. Change!

So here are the eight new divisions:

Deep South Division

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Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Atlanta

(unfortunately makes it easy for Jacksonville to move to London, I hate this personally)

Mid-Atlantic Division

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Carolina, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia

North Central Division

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Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Green Bay

(I know this is the same, but they are close and it works)

South West Division

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Arizona, San Diego, Dallas, Houston

(Some distance, but how about that Texas clash)

North East Division

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New York Jets, New York Giants, New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills

(In stadium rivalry - weather equals)

Mid West Division

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Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis

Southern Central Division

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New Orleans, Tennessee, Kansas City, St Louis

(puts the Rams where they should be)

West Division

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Denver, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle

(another great close proximity rival in Raiders/49ers)

I would split up the South divisions into separate conferences. I would split the Southwest and West divisions between the conferences. I would separate the Midwest and North Central divisions. And of course that leaves the Mid Atlantic and Northeast being separated.

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All of the current rotations of divisions could continue, but as I mentioned the playoffs need to change. Since football is such an unforgiving sport, adding playoff teams I am in favor. At the same time the preseason needs to be clipped.

I know many of you will think this is just plain wrong for multiple reasons. As the old traditional owners die off, maybe we could see something like this happen. Heck we might even see the Washington team with a new name and logo. If you think that is wrong, go have a look at the team names from the 1920's and 30's....Change!

Have fun with this. With nothing really going on right now, I took the time to put this together.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Phinsider's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of The Phinsider writers or editors.