Re-Alignment

[iFroggy]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2001/0327/1163075.html

This is what this article says for realignment:


The NFL's Option A1
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South
Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans
AFC East
Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets
AFC West
Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers
NFC North
Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals, St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks
Possible Swaps
Seattle for San Diego
Houston for Baltimore
Tennessee for New Orleans
Baltimore for Indianapolis

Votes go to Commissioner proxy
Baltimore
Houston
Tennessee
St. Louis


It looks a little weird to me. I mean, Indy in the AFC South and Miami in the AFC East, you can't get any farther south them Miami (?!?).

Thoughts?

[Nate]

I agree, having Indy in the AFC South always has seemed stupid to me. And what is up with Dallas in the NFC East? Texas seems pretty West to me. I know it would mean switching leagues, but whouldnt a Dallas, Indy switch make sense?

[Marc]

Here what I propose, what about the rest of you?

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South
Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans

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

AFC West
Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers

NFC North
Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings

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

NFC East
St. Louis Rams, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins

NFC West
Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks

I basically swapped Dallas and St. Louis and Miami and Indianapolis.

[NickHammy]

Yeah Marc!:)
send it to the NFL

[iFroggy]

Yeah, looks good.

[Dre2g]

I like it. I mean, there was no point in having Atlanta travel all the way to San Fransico to play that one time per year.

[ryanpaige]

They'll never get the required 20 votes if Dallas is removed from the NFC East and Miami is removed from the AFC East.

I will also be surprised if Houston and Tennessee end up together and Cleveland and Baltimore end up together. Even though three of those teams currently don't have votes (though Tags said he's considering giving those teams their votes back), they do have the ability to lobby the other owners (and those owners do have sway with the other owners). Modell, Adams, McNair and Lerner have all voiced their opposition to being in a division with their counterpart (i.e. Cleveland with Baltimore or Houston with Tennessee), and there is no owner who is willing to push hard to keep those teams in the divisions with teams they don't want.

Even though McNair has pushed hard to get Houston into the division with Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati, I would expect it to be Tennessee who makes that switch with Baltimore rather than Houston.

So, you'd have an AFC of:

North - Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Tennessee
South - Baltimore, Indy, Houston, Jacksonville
East - Miami, Buffalo, New York Jets, New England
West - Oakland, Kansas City, San Diego, Denver