Should the NFL Drop Divisions?

[PVancouver]

Should the National Football Leaguel get rid of divisions, and simply have the champion of the National Conference play the champion of the American Conference in the Super Bowl?

With 16 teams in each conference, each team could play a conference oppponent once for a 15 game schedule, about the same as the 16 game schedule played now.

I'm not looking for debate. Many soccer fans claim a single table is the way it should be. I want to know what football fans think. Please eliminate any monetary considerations.

[Foots]

Don't mess with something that is good.

[cosmosRIP]

pro/rel!!

[revsrock]

Should the National Football Leaguel get rid of divisions, and simply have the champion of the National Conference play the champion of the American Conference in the Super Bowl?

With 16 teams in each conference, each team could play a conference oppponent once for a 15 game schedule, about the same as the 16 game schedule played now.

I'm not looking for debate. Many soccer fans claim a single table is the way it should be. I want to know what football fans think. Please eliminate any monetary considerations.


I know you said eliminate monerty considerations, but how can you do that? You can not have a 15 game schedule. That would create major problems, who would have 8 home, 7 road games and vice versa. You would ruin major rivalries. That would elimnate playoffs, which is a big money and tv revenues. In other words no you can not drop division.

[skipshady]

Should the National Football Leaguel get rid of divisions, and simply have the champion of the National Conference play the champion of the American Conference in the Super Bowl?

With 16 teams in each conference, each team could play a conference oppponent once for a 15 game schedule, about the same as the 16 game schedule played now.

I'm not looking for debate. Many soccer fans claim a single table is the way it should be. I want to know what football fans think. Please eliminate any monetary considerations.
With all due respect, this is the dumbest thing I've read in the past 2 minutes.

[SportBoy333]

Certain NFL teams just have to play each other twice a year for rivalry purposes. Playing everyone once wouldnt cut it.

[PVancouver]

Playing the same team twice in the same season seems a little silly to me when there are so many teams in the league. Why not have USC play UCLA twice, Army-Navy, OSU-Michigan, etc. etc.?

I thought fans of both soccer and football would see the point I was making. Why is what seems unnatural for many in the world of soccer seem so natural for those in the world of football? Certainly Lamar Hunt must find it odd.

[soccernutter]

First off, you mentioned pro football in the title, but semi-pro (okay, college) teams in your last post. Two different philosophies.

2nd, there is on pro/rel nor single division in US soccer. In fact, I don't know any sport in the US that has a single division or pro/rel for the top division.

3rd, the idea of eliminating a home game with most teams selling out, or nearly filing thier 60,000+ seat stadium, would make a huge cut into revenue.

And if you really want to compare soccer and football, almost every league has all teams play home and away - 2 games. Football does that in part, but wants to spread the love around as well.

[Stilger]

For what it's worth, here's my take.

I love divisions, but with only 4 teams in each winning them doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. To make them more important I'd like to see them put 8 teams in 4 divisions, and guarantee the top 3 spots in each division play off spots.

Then to make it work I'd like to see them get rid of the preseason and expand the regular season to 24 games with 14 in the division and 10 out. I know this last part isn't really reasonably but it's still what I'd like to see.

[kenntomasch]

Please eliminate any monetary considerations.

Well, then, that pretty much eliminates anything other than fantasy discussions, doesn't it?

In the future, when talking about Dexy's Midnight Runners, please eliminate any discussion of "Come On Eileen."

When talking about John Hinkley, please eliminate any discussion of Jodie Foster or Ronald Reagan.

And when talking about Paul Caliguiri, please eliminate any discussion of any goals he may have scored in Trinidad.

[RoverMax]

The system now is good. The NFL can't have divisions that are too big, and with 32 teams, the only things that work are 4 or 8, and 8 is just too big. There are rivalries that need 2 games a year and with a 16 game schedule, divisions are necessary. A single table or divisions that have more than 4 teams just wouldn't work with the amount of teams in the league. You could have 8 team divisions, but that would mean that each team plays 14 divisional games, and that is too many. In a division, each team should play each other team twice.

[kerpow]

As a European soccer fan that moved to the USA I have to say the format of the NFL is fantastic.

The division creates an instant rivalry and allows some continuity from season to season. The Conference creates more prestige to win. If it was switched to a single league format like European leagues it would be so dull. A team like Baltimore could say that although they were a little dissapointed with last years performance they could at least say they were Division champions.

As there are 32 teams it would be impossible to play eachother but by rotating the matchups from year to year makes each a little different and fresh.

And finally 16 games is the perfect number for regualr season as every game is important because of home field advantage when it comes to the play-offs.

[BenC1357]

No. Duh...

To expand, the NFL has been pretty clear that any proposed change to the season format and/or playoffs would not even be considered if it cuts the number of games played. In other words, "we're making tons of money, so you're f'ing stupid if you think we'd consider reducing the number of games that create so much money."

[CrewDust]

Dumbest idea ever!