2015 - 16 Nfl Fan Talk Page

[slinches]

A division with several good teams will have lower win percentages than a division with crappy competition. Divisional matchups make a huge difference.

This is why the divisions need to be occasionally reshuffled. The NFL should be trying to ensure there's always a relatively even mix of teams in each division to make the schedules somewhat fair. The fact that they haven't kept up with the change in quality of competition is why there was a 7-9 team in the playoffs last year and there will probably be another this year.

Ideally, the best 12 teams make the playoffs. With the divisions grouped as they are right now, it's more likely than not that won't happen this year.

 

[Hotscoots]

Good question is, who do the Jets have for a QB now since Fitzpatrick and his backup are both hurt and they don't have a 3rd QB signed?

Fitzpatrick is starting and Geno is backup . Sigh

 

[Jeff Porter]

This is why the divisions need to be occasionally reshuffled. The NFL should be trying to ensure there's always a relatively even mix of teams in each division to make the schedules somewhat fair. The fact that they haven't kept up with the change in quality of competition is why there was a 7-9 team in the playoffs last year and there will probably be another this year.

Ideally, the best 12 teams make the playoffs. With the divisions grouped as they are right now, it's more likely than not that won't happen this year.

A very interesting & provocative suggestion, shuffling the divisions! Sorry for the novella, but I just keep coming up with aspects that are exciting to consider.

Some people would say "divisions have always been stable and the same year to year", going with the we've-always-done-it-that-way reason. Not a good enough reason.

Travel costs increase? Maybe a little, but with some teams playing in England each year, costs are going up anyway. Geography might come into play in the decision: you would want to do your best to avoid having one team travel a lot more than the others. For example, you wouldn't want New England in a division with Oakland, San Diego, and Denver.

Can teams cross the conference boundary, AFC and NFC? I don't see this as a problem. There's no designated hitter rule in the NFL, no rule differences between NFC and AFC. As far as I know, it's simply a grouping of teams, and the winner of each conference is in the Super Bowl.

Some would say that since there's usually 5 or 6 teams that didn't make the playoffs last year and will make the playoffs this year, the problem is still there, of knowing what division might be filled with bad teams. With the draft and free agency and salary cap, the NFL does their best to give teams hope from one year to the next. So when you shuffle the teams in the divisions, how exactly do you do it? Randomly? No, doesn't make sense.

By record? Makes more sense, again using the idea that some teams will make the playoffs with a worse record as a division winner, instead of another team with a better record that didn't get a wildcard berth. When two teams have the exact same record, how do you decide which team goes in which division? Do you bring in a sort of playoff tie-breaker system, now you call it the division placement tie-breaker system?

The timing suggestion you make is interesting too... how often is occasionally for the division shuffle... every 3 years? For year 2 and 3, despite the shuffling before year 1, you still could have a division with 3 bad teams and the good team goes from good to bad, but maybe the chance of that happening is less than the current never-change-a-division.

Scheduling issues? I don't see a problem there. Every team has 8 home and 8 away games. Doesn't matter who comes in, you still have to plan the dates and make it happen. Oh wait... there's the issue of how each AFC division plays each NFC division every 4 years. So that implies you'd shuffle the divisions either every 2 or 4 years. But, you'd have the possibility of playing a same opposite-conference team in consecutive years. A big deal? A slight chance: if you're a bad team, and you played 2 good opposite-conference teams last year, and now by luck of the shuffle you play the same 2 good teams this year, but that's probably a low probability.

Very interesting! Think of the possibilities... maybe New England is the first team to win the AFC and NFC in back-to-back years. Maybe Atlanta and Arizona, two former NFC teams, play for the AFC championship. Maybe a division is composed of Minnesota, Kansas City, Carolina, and NY Jets. Intriguing!

 

[Coss]

People were upset for a long time with the last "realignment" they did; they have to have that stability to hang on to.
I really doubt that the fan base would be happy with changing everything every 2 to 4 years.
They love having the certain team rivalries; when the Seahawks were western division AFC if was against the Raiders and Denver became the nemesis towards the end on the year.
Now that they're NFC it's against SF. Part of that is SF was the "home team" for Seattle until we got our own team; so there are still people here that prefer SF.

 

[Jeff Porter]

People were upset for a long time with the last "realignment" they did; they have to have that stability to hang on to.
I really doubt that the fan base would be happy with changing everything every 2 to 4 years.
They love having the certain team rivalries; when the Seahawks were western division AFC if was against the Raiders and Denver became the nemesis towards the end on the year.
Now that they're NFC it's against SF. Part of that is SF was the "home team" for Seattle until we got our own team; so there are still people here that prefer SF.

Just asking, wanting your opinion Coss... why do you think / what do you hear, that says people are upset with the last realignment, and that people would be upset if their team is not playing a certain rivalry team twice a year every year?

Just some thoughts: my Chiefs seemed to play Buffalo just about every year in the 90's, and there was a good rivalry that developed with them.

For baseball, 20 yrs ago it was blasphemy to consider inter-league play between American and National Leagues. Oh the horror! Lots of people upset. Now that it's been in place for several years, fans like the idea very much... I know I enjoy the inter-league play.

 

[JEBar]

Sports Illustrated NFL Midseason Predictions

its interesting to see the changes in the "Experts" preseason predictions

 

[slinches]

I don't know of a way to fairly reshuffle, but it would probably be best to maintain competitive rivalries and would likely need to have a couple of AFC/NFC swaps to not totally give up on geographic grouping. I may take a stab at a reshuffle later, if I can find the time.

 

[Coss]

Just asking, wanting your opinion Coss... why do you think / what do you hear, that says people are upset with the last realignment, and that people would be upset if their team is not playing a certain rivalry team twice a year every year?

Just some thoughts: my Chiefs seemed to play Buffalo just about every year in the 90's, and there was a good rivalry that developed with them.

For baseball, 20 yrs ago it was blasphemy to consider inter-league play between American and National Leagues. Oh the horror! Lots of people upset. Now that it's been in place for several years, fans like the idea very much... I know I enjoy the inter-league play.

That was the biggest thing people complained about; no more Seahawks/Raiders match ups twice a year. Seahawks were never considered a SB team for many years (during that time they never had a winning season) so this was "the big game" everyone looked forward too.
I went to the Seahawks/Raiders game on the first Monday night game they had; it was in the Kingdome and OMG was it loud.
The next big match up was against Mr. Ed (Elway), seems we always played them right around Christmas so it became the biggest game for the holidays.
SD & KC were so so teams in the division (there were 5 teams in the AFC West).
When they did the realignment it was just a typical "fear of change" and to some degree a loss of something that was so familiar and established since the beginning of the team so they experienced the same symptoms as a death in the family.
But all of that was forgotten once they started winning the division title soon after moving to the NFC.

 

[JEBar]

11-5-15 .... Bengals vs Browns on Thursday night .... I'm not a fan of either team ... I strongly dislike Johnny Football, if he plays, I hope the Bengals score the most points every scored against a Browns' team

 

[slinches]

Don't worry, no one's watching anyway. It's only airing on NFL Network.