NFL Realignment

Houston, I think we have a problem. Actually, Houston, I think you’re fine. I’m a little worried about your neighbor Dallas though.

Honestly, what are the Dallas Cowboys doing in the NFC East? In whose world is Dallas on the East Coast? Now, I realize Cowboys vs. Redskins is one of the best rivalries around. To look at it an unbiased way, though, you have to admit that that rivalry is somewhat artificial. Perhaps if the Cowboys played a little closer to home, some stronger, more natural rivalries might develop.

Along those lines, is Indianapolis really a Southern city? Seeing as its closest rivals are Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Chicago, I’m thinking not. Same thing with Kansas City (should they really be playing all those West Coast teams?), Miami (the most southern team there is but whose archrivals include the Bills, Pats, and Jets), and Baltimore (40 miles from DC and 100 from Philly, but in neither’s division).


A Modest Proposal

Take a look at this …

Now, let me explain what I did:

1. Divided the map into 3 basic regions – south, west, and north - based on how the teams naturally seem to break out
2. Counted up the teams in each
3. Noted that the South and West were almost perfect (i.e., have 8 teams, 4 of which can go into respective NFC and AFC divisions)
4. Noted that the North had 16 teams
5. Divided the North right down the middle, giving us an eastern and western group (northeast and Midwest, really)

I then compared these groups with what the divisions look like presently.  That really made those oddballs I cited above stand out.

Finally, I started moving teams around. Here’s how to read what I did:

• Red dots – NFC teams that didn’t move
• Blue dots – AFC teams that didn’t move
• Dots with black circles around them – teams that did move (division, but not conference)

That leaves us with one real outlier, Dallas. Because the southern group had 1 too many teams, and the western group had 1 too few, it seemed only natural to move 1 southerner to the west. Because Texas is the furthest western state, Houston and Dallas seemed the most obvious choices. To make this so only 1 of them would get messed up, I elected to send Dallas to the west. That Dallas is popular all across the country made that decision a little easier as well.

Make sense? Any objections? Ready for me to take over from Roger Goodell?