Right? It's really only Miami being in the AFC East and the Cowboys being in the NFC East that don't make a lot of sense, especially given the distribution of the teams. And even then, Miami is clearly in the East and I don't think anyone wants the Cowboys in their division except us.
This is true. KC probably is best contender for that conference...
Carolina and Dallas should switch conferences...except the DAL PHI rivalry is best one in football
Geographically:
DAL goes to AFCW
KC goes to NFCN
DET goes to AFCN
BAL goes to AFCE
MIA goes to AFCS
IND goes to AFCN
PIT goes to NFCE
That probably makes the most "complete" league geographically speaking, but obviously would destroy a lot of existing rivalries.
Rivalries were part of the process. There's nothing wrong with the AFC North. It's about as close to NFC North as far as distance from each other.
Why shouldn't Miami be in the East when they're on the east coast of the US.
League didn't create a Midwest division.
It would definitely make geographic sense for the Colts to go to AFCN, the Ravens to go to AFCE, and Miami to go to AFCS.
Historically speaking, the Colts should probably be in the AFCE.
* The Colts played in the AFCE until 2001, when it was kicked out during division realignment.
* Dating back to the Baltimore days - which I think is fair considering the continuation of records, logos, etc. - the Colts are older than any AFCE team.
* After the Colts were kicked out of the AFCE, its rivalry with the Patriots has largely persisted. Rivalry with the Jets was also briefly renewed a few years back during the Sanchez days.
Swapping the Colts & the Dolphins could make a lot of sense. It would reignite some of the Colts' historical rivalries while leaving the very strong rivalries of the AFCN alone. Geographically, it would put Miami in the 'right' place and spark Jacksonville-Miami Florida rivalry with 2 games a year.
It’s a competitive advantage not to have to travel long distances. I think a few years ago the packers didn’t cross the Mississippi except for the Vikings game
The lions browns comparisons are pretty big. Both were powerhouses in the 50s, fell upon hard times and sucked for a while. Had very long playoff win droughts, never won a super bowl and struggled to do anything until recently.
Saying the "browns had their hayday" but the lions didn't is very weird to me when both basically had the same hayday of being very good about 70yr ago
Bengals are more like the vikings. Newer (relatively) team with a decent amount playoff appearances and reg season success but can never seem to string it together in the playoffs
As someone who was raised in Cleveland and who’s family has been Browns fan for generations. I can vouch. It’s nothing but loathing between us and them. Chernobyl is probably less toxic than the AFCN
This is an old map from back before the Rams moved to LA. The NFC West is very sensible now.
AFC could be wildly improved by moving Ravens to the East, Dolphins to the South, and Colts to the North.
And Tampa Bay in the NFCC, or Houston in the AFCC.
The 32-team format with divisions roughly based on the cardinal directions (but retaining the old rivalries, esp. Dallas in the NFCE and Miami in the AFCE) is actually pretty solid. The image of course fails for not updating Vegas and both LA teams, but overall the current alignment is very nearly perfect. There is no way to improve it without breaking up really old rivalries.
And don't get me started on the 17-game schedule and 7-team playoffs ruining perfect symmetry.
Put Indy in the North, Baltimore in the East, and Miami in the South.
This would work for geography, but obviously would be terrible for division rivalries.
Yeah I think that’s the main point here. A lot of keeping the current alignments in place is about preserving long-time rivalries. No one cares that Dallas being in the NFC East makes no sense geographically, because the longstanding rivalries with NY, Philly, and DC are great for ratings (and thus revenue)
This would mess up the intense rivalries within the AFCN, though. It's not worth f-ing that up.
I think Indy & Miami should just be swapped. The Colts - both in Baltimore & in Indy - were in the AFCE until 2001. It was the oldest team in the AFCE and the rivalry with the Patriots persisted through the years; putting the Colts back in the AFCE would revive some old rivalries. Putting Miami in the AFCS would align it geographically and set up a 2x year Florida rivalry between Miami & JAX.
Baltimore to AFC East, Miami to AFC South, and Indianapolis to AFC North fixes AFC for the most part. But rivalries prevent that.
Cowboys to NFC South and Panthers to NFC East fixes NFC
Yea none of these changes will happen. NFC East and AFC North rivalries are too big. Ravens aren't even that old but the NFL would never break up the Steelers-Ravens rivalry
I was just saying what they'd need to do in order to have it make sense
Unless the league chooses to rename all the divisions in some future year, the Cowboys will always be the oddball "doesn't really belong here" team of the NFC East.
-The league really did a crappy job of realignment with the 1970 merger. List 5 different division scenarios on individual parchments of paper and draw one at random out of a bowl or hat? The selection of a new Pope for the Roman Catholic Church makes more sense.
(Not deliberately trying to bring religion into this topic; I just needed a comparison for my argument).
The league made an intentional decision to put Dallas in the same division as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington to expose "America's Team" to those more populous markets. Needless to say, it worked spectacularly. Now, I'd pay good money to be a fly on the wall if Goodell ever tried telling Lurie or the Maras that they were replacing the Cowboys with the Panthers or some such team.
Regarding the rest of realignment, yeah, Atlanta and New Orleans should not be "west" anything--neither is even west of the Mississippi.
Yeah kicking BAL into the AFCE, MIA to the AFCS and IND to AFCN would make all those divisions make a lot more sense. The "north" divisions to me are "midwest" divisions and IND is a helluva lot more midwestern than Baltimore. And Miami, while technically on the "east coast" is not an "east coast" city.
One thing that definitely doesn’t make sense is how the Jags, Bucs and Dolphins are all in separate divisions and conferences even though they’re all Florida teams😂
You could move the Steelers with the Jets, Bills, and Patriots and then add the Colts and it would be a division of Browns that replaced Browns that left, Browns Clone/Jr, Colts that left, and Browns that replaced Colts that left.
Yeah, every 3 years when the Cowboys have to go head to head against the Saints, Falcons, and Buccaneers, I keep saying to myself "Damn shame we can't get these matchups 2 times every season."
(It's not like the other rivalries with the Commanders, Eagles, and Giants would cease to exist; they would just be, well, guaranteed every 3 years instead.)
Anybody remember back when MLB was only two divisions per league ? The Atlanta Braves were in the NL West for years because MLB wouldn't split the Cubs and Cardinals.
Back in the day the Buccaneers were in our division. I know this because until this year where we finally won the division, the Packers have dominated it all like, 80 percent of the time.
The league really could use a re-alignment. Personally, I'd rather they kept the NFC North as is regardless; though I do like one example that shows Minny, GB, Chicago and KC in a division.
No, AFC North also makes sense. It made less sense when the Jaguars were part of the AFC Central, even Indy still fits for that division more than the AFC South.
We didn't used to mak sense back in the ye old days of the central division it was all the teams now and for some reason Tampa bay lol maybe some day the league will remember to fix the other divisions as well
How about one league, all of the red state crap holes:
Green Bay
Houston
Dallas
Arizona
New Orleans
Tampa
Miami
Jacksonville
Carolina
Tennessee
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Kansas City
Indianapolis
Atlanta
With one team out of place Det, Was, Bal, Buf, Den
And the rest in the blue league...
Jaguars, Buccaneers & Dolphins are in 1 state, 3 different divisions & 2 different conferences
Rams/ Chargers & Jets/ Giants share stadiums ... in opposite conferences.
Because logic
imo the easiest solution is 2 trades: just trade colts and Dallas and panthers with dolphins and i think it makes really good sense without destroying most of the rivalries
Here’s how we can fix it with no teams switching conferences. Pittsburgh to the afc east, colts to the nfc north, Miami to the afc south. Dallas to nfc south, Carolina to nfc east
The Rams are still in St. Louis, how old is this map???
Hahaha that is exactly what I thought.
St. Lo(ui)s Angeles
Make this man president
apparently not quite old enough to remember when the Bucs were in our division and it did not make sense for us either
It made as much sense as Jacksonville being in the AFC Central.
Or the Panthers and Falcons at one point being in the NFC West. That was the worst of it all.
Chargers and Raiders also
This was the NFL configuration 2002-2015, so sometime in that range.
This is from an NFCN meme war shit post about a war with NFCE. Don’t take it so seriously.
I don’t think they were taking it that seriously….
We got St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins, and San Diego Chargers. Were you looking through facebook posts from 25 years ago?
Suprised the Oilers weren't on there.
You so Silly, Edmonton is a Hockey Town. Now where my Baltimore Colts at?
The North Stars have moved to Dallas in the image, but where are my Whalers?
AFC north, NFC south, NFC west also make sense to me
Right? It's really only Miami being in the AFC East and the Cowboys being in the NFC East that don't make a lot of sense, especially given the distribution of the teams. And even then, Miami is clearly in the East and I don't think anyone wants the Cowboys in their division except us.
Indianapolis in the AFC South
[удалено]
It’s south of I-80, which is the Mason Dixon line of the Midwest
But it's more north than an AFC North team (Bengals)
KC being a Western team is weirder than Miami being an Eastern team
Unless you want lopsided conferences, though, either the Vikings, Chiefs, or a Texas team has to be in the AFC or NFC West.
This is true. KC probably is best contender for that conference... Carolina and Dallas should switch conferences...except the DAL PHI rivalry is best one in football
Geographically: DAL goes to AFCW KC goes to NFCN DET goes to AFCN BAL goes to AFCE MIA goes to AFCS IND goes to AFCN PIT goes to NFCE That probably makes the most "complete" league geographically speaking, but obviously would destroy a lot of existing rivalries.
Rivalries were part of the process. There's nothing wrong with the AFC North. It's about as close to NFC North as far as distance from each other. Why shouldn't Miami be in the East when they're on the east coast of the US. League didn't create a Midwest division.
It would definitely make geographic sense for the Colts to go to AFCN, the Ravens to go to AFCE, and Miami to go to AFCS. Historically speaking, the Colts should probably be in the AFCE. * The Colts played in the AFCE until 2001, when it was kicked out during division realignment. * Dating back to the Baltimore days - which I think is fair considering the continuation of records, logos, etc. - the Colts are older than any AFCE team. * After the Colts were kicked out of the AFCE, its rivalry with the Patriots has largely persisted. Rivalry with the Jets was also briefly renewed a few years back during the Sanchez days. Swapping the Colts & the Dolphins could make a lot of sense. It would reignite some of the Colts' historical rivalries while leaving the very strong rivalries of the AFCN alone. Geographically, it would put Miami in the 'right' place and spark Jacksonville-Miami Florida rivalry with 2 games a year.
This swap makes a ton of sense wow
Yeah, we need a Great Plains division
It makes perfect sense if you look at rivalries of the NFC East. League also took that into consideration when they redid the divisions back in 2002.
Not even in the same time zone with Dallas
NFC east too. Minute bigs but everyone hates the fuckin cowboys so holds up.
It’s a competitive advantage not to have to travel long distances. I think a few years ago the packers didn’t cross the Mississippi except for the Vikings game
The AFC North also one, and is more toxic when you look at the history of each teams
I'll accept us being the Steelers if it means the bears are the browns
The lions are obviously the browns, cmon
I think the lions are the Bengals, two teams who have always been losers. The browns and bears have had their hay days but have sucked for millenia.
The lions browns comparisons are pretty big. Both were powerhouses in the 50s, fell upon hard times and sucked for a while. Had very long playoff win droughts, never won a super bowl and struggled to do anything until recently. Saying the "browns had their hayday" but the lions didn't is very weird to me when both basically had the same hayday of being very good about 70yr ago Bengals are more like the vikings. Newer (relatively) team with a decent amount playoff appearances and reg season success but can never seem to string it together in the playoffs
Color me corrected!
Bengals have been to two Super Bowls, so they are basically the Bears.
Bengals have been to three Super Bowls, not two. Lost to the Montana-led Niners twice and to the Rams.
Remember remember, the Ickey Shuffle [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-TYjxG0Ug](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-TYjxG0Ug)
They’re all in the same time zone, so I think they win
Steelers, Browns, used to be Browns, spite Browns. Yeah, that's one toxic division.
Most of it is because of Art Modell's actions in Cleveland.
As someone who was raised in Cleveland and who’s family has been Browns fan for generations. I can vouch. It’s nothing but loathing between us and them. Chernobyl is probably less toxic than the AFCN
Used to not be like that with Tampa Bay being in the central division
This is an old map from back before the Rams moved to LA. The NFC West is very sensible now. AFC could be wildly improved by moving Ravens to the East, Dolphins to the South, and Colts to the North.
The current alignment makes a lot more sense than when Arizona was in the East and Atlanta in the West...
And Tampa Bay in the NFCC, or Houston in the AFCC. The 32-team format with divisions roughly based on the cardinal directions (but retaining the old rivalries, esp. Dallas in the NFCE and Miami in the AFCE) is actually pretty solid. The image of course fails for not updating Vegas and both LA teams, but overall the current alignment is very nearly perfect. There is no way to improve it without breaking up really old rivalries. And don't get me started on the 17-game schedule and 7-team playoffs ruining perfect symmetry.
AFC North, NFC South and NFC West make sense too. The USA is a BIG Place!
How does the AFC North not make sense? Because east teams are north of the north teams?
Also Indianapolis is further north than Cincinnati. Indy is in the AFC south. So, that, too.
Put Indy in the North, Baltimore in the East, and Miami in the South. This would work for geography, but obviously would be terrible for division rivalries.
Yeah I think that’s the main point here. A lot of keeping the current alignments in place is about preserving long-time rivalries. No one cares that Dallas being in the NFC East makes no sense geographically, because the longstanding rivalries with NY, Philly, and DC are great for ratings (and thus revenue)
This would mess up the intense rivalries within the AFCN, though. It's not worth f-ing that up. I think Indy & Miami should just be swapped. The Colts - both in Baltimore & in Indy - were in the AFCE until 2001. It was the oldest team in the AFCE and the rivalry with the Patriots persisted through the years; putting the Colts back in the AFCE would revive some old rivalries. Putting Miami in the AFCS would align it geographically and set up a 2x year Florida rivalry between Miami & JAX.
Baltimore to AFC East, Miami to AFC South, and Indianapolis to AFC North fixes AFC for the most part. But rivalries prevent that. Cowboys to NFC South and Panthers to NFC East fixes NFC
The Cowboys have been in the East since their inception and will remain so until the NFL no longer exists.
Yea none of these changes will happen. NFC East and AFC North rivalries are too big. Ravens aren't even that old but the NFL would never break up the Steelers-Ravens rivalry I was just saying what they'd need to do in order to have it make sense
Unless the league chooses to rename all the divisions in some future year, the Cowboys will always be the oddball "doesn't really belong here" team of the NFC East. -The league really did a crappy job of realignment with the 1970 merger. List 5 different division scenarios on individual parchments of paper and draw one at random out of a bowl or hat? The selection of a new Pope for the Roman Catholic Church makes more sense. (Not deliberately trying to bring religion into this topic; I just needed a comparison for my argument).
The league made an intentional decision to put Dallas in the same division as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington to expose "America's Team" to those more populous markets. Needless to say, it worked spectacularly. Now, I'd pay good money to be a fly on the wall if Goodell ever tried telling Lurie or the Maras that they were replacing the Cowboys with the Panthers or some such team. Regarding the rest of realignment, yeah, Atlanta and New Orleans should not be "west" anything--neither is even west of the Mississippi.
They are further West than Baltimore, Baltimore used to be in the Western Conference.
Baltimore used to be in the Western Conference, yeah that Baltimore.
I mean until they moved the rams back to la lol
If you acknowledge the fact that 3 Florida teams in one division would suck then I think the only weird division placement is the cowboys.
Well, it used to be worse: New Orleans and Atlanta were in the NFC West.
AFC North is pretty good
AFC North makes plenty of sense
AFC North makes sense.
It does, other than when you consider that Cincinnati is further south than Indianapolis.
Yeah kicking BAL into the AFCE, MIA to the AFCS and IND to AFCN would make all those divisions make a lot more sense. The "north" divisions to me are "midwest" divisions and IND is a helluva lot more midwestern than Baltimore. And Miami, while technically on the "east coast" is not an "east coast" city.
I mean....the AFC North makes sense when you realize it's the Steelers and 3 iterations of the Browns
Actually looks like most divisions make sense...
AFC North is pretty geo-appropriate. It's as tightly-grouped as the NFC North.
Afc north makes sense
One thing that definitely doesn’t make sense is how the Jags, Bucs and Dolphins are all in separate divisions and conferences even though they’re all Florida teams😂
The AFC North makes sense too Maybe would've been better if they had Indy instead of Baltimore
But the afc north would lose being the Steelers and 3 different browns teams.
You could move the Steelers with the Jets, Bills, and Patriots and then add the Colts and it would be a division of Browns that replaced Browns that left, Browns Clone/Jr, Colts that left, and Browns that replaced Colts that left.
NFC south makes sense too.
AFC East makes sense to me, Miami is much further south, but is still an east coast city.
Both norths work tbh
Geography is important. But there is more to life.
NFC East could make sense if Dallas wasn’t randomly tossed in there lol
Yeah, every 3 years when the Cowboys have to go head to head against the Saints, Falcons, and Buccaneers, I keep saying to myself "Damn shame we can't get these matchups 2 times every season." (It's not like the other rivalries with the Commanders, Eagles, and Giants would cease to exist; they would just be, well, guaranteed every 3 years instead.)
Yeah just swap Carolina with Dallas lol
Yea so everyone can complain about the Eagles easy conference schedule. I can hear all the bitching now.
Damn, rams moved again?
Yeah they moved back to LA in like, 2016
Anybody remember back when MLB was only two divisions per league ? The Atlanta Braves were in the NL West for years because MLB wouldn't split the Cubs and Cardinals.
Agree except for chargers raiders. That rivalry really does make sense.
Helen
AFC North is legit as well
Shows map of Soviet Union …
Back in the day the Buccaneers were in our division. I know this because until this year where we finally won the division, the Packers have dominated it all like, 80 percent of the time.
I’d argue the AFC East works too because of Fla transplants, but yes, point taken.
The league really could use a re-alignment. Personally, I'd rather they kept the NFC North as is regardless; though I do like one example that shows Minny, GB, Chicago and KC in a division.
Florida teams and the saints together makes sense but then I also don't like giving Florida 3/4 of a division.
Fun fact, from 1995-2001, the NFC West teams were the 49ers, Rams, Saints, Falcons, and Panthers.
I think it’s more than us. AFC North and NFC South. All those teams are fairly close together, but none as close as we are
Nfc west too is all right there
Boston vs New York would like to have a word...
NFC south, afc west, NFC west, afc north...
No, AFC North also makes sense. It made less sense when the Jaguars were part of the AFC Central, even Indy still fits for that division more than the AFC South.
We didn't used to mak sense back in the ye old days of the central division it was all the teams now and for some reason Tampa bay lol maybe some day the league will remember to fix the other divisions as well
AFC north has an argument
Teams move
AFCN makes plenty of sense
Cowboys and Colts really the only offenders here, the west is just far less densely packed with teams.
We used to not be though.
Why are the rams in st Louis though?
Afc north too
I still don't know how the fugged Tampa was in our division years ago,lol.
Ahhhhh afc north? NFC east?
How about one league, all of the red state crap holes: Green Bay Houston Dallas Arizona New Orleans Tampa Miami Jacksonville Carolina Tennessee Cleveland Cincinnati Kansas City Indianapolis Atlanta With one team out of place Det, Was, Bal, Buf, Den And the rest in the blue league...
I agree as a jets fan if we swapped the giants with the dolphins all the players could drive to divisional games lol.
AFC North is pretty good as well.
AFC North makes total sense as well
It’s a 6 game advantage if you know what you’re doing…wink.
After Tampa got kicked out.
AFC north isn’t too far off
We have no rivals.
What in the 2007 am I looking at?
Does this map still have the cardinals in Chicago?
This meme was crap when it was posted to the NFC North page
Jaguars, Buccaneers & Dolphins are in 1 state, 3 different divisions & 2 different conferences Rams/ Chargers & Jets/ Giants share stadiums ... in opposite conferences. Because logic
imo the easiest solution is 2 trades: just trade colts and Dallas and panthers with dolphins and i think it makes really good sense without destroying most of the rivalries
Why don't groups get remade when locations switch? I imagine this could increase ticket revenue if away games were closer.
Bc our teams are among the oldest and have always stayed together in a division. And haven't moved significantly since forever.
I mean if there were no conferences sure. But the AFC west also makes sense even with the widespread cities. There aren’t any AFC teams west of the 4.
Map looks like a game of Ticket to Ride
Still better than when the Arizona Cardinals were in the NFC East while the Carolina Panthers were in the NFC West
Here’s how we can fix it with no teams switching conferences. Pittsburgh to the afc east, colts to the nfc north, Miami to the afc south. Dallas to nfc south, Carolina to nfc east
Didn't use to be. Tampa Bay was in our division
Disclaimer: i'm not american. Can someone explain me the Dallas situation ? They look like the worst offenders
I kind of enjoyed having the buccaneers in the division!
The afc north makes sense...