The Argument for an NFL Expansion (Part II)

So last time, we looked at what a new set of expansion teams for the NFL would look like, how they would be chosen and integrated into the league, and some small strokes of what it would mean for the overall running of the NFL. This time, we’re going to get down into the nitty gritty, of how the divisions and conferences are going to look, and go over why something like this would be a good idea for the NFL overall, as a pure hypothetical. 

DIVISION REALIGNMENT

To start with, we’re going to be sorting these divisions by geographical proximity to each other, then adding a team to where they would fit with that geographical proximity idea.

AFC North - Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Montreal Mammoths

AFC East - Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Cleveland Browns

AFC South - Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers

AFC West - Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams

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

NFC East - Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, San Antonio Scorpions, Mexico City Myths, New Orleans Saints

NFC South - Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Gamblers, Los Angeles Magic, San Diego Chargers

NFC West - San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Vancouver Vipers, Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Stars

Photo Credit: NFL on YouTube

SCHEDULING

So, with the divisional breakdown focusing more on geographical area, the opportunity arises to split the conferences into an East Coast Conference and a West Coast Conference. For the sake of this, we’ll still call them the AFC and the NFC, because that also keeps the football heritage alive. However, when we look at scheduling, the thing we need to think the most about is how does this draw in viewers and make money? By splitting the conferences from coast to coast, there will be developments and differences in how the conferences play over time. This difference in style of football is what will make the inter-conference matchups so enticing to watch, and what will make the Super Bowl, even more than usual, a must-see game. It becomes the ultimate game between the champions of either style of football playing for supremacy against the other, and will always make for an enticing game to see those styles clash. 

So, with the scheduling, here’s how it will work: 

• There are nine protected matchups that will be played, at least once per year; regardless of conference or division schedule. These are here to preserve the rivalries from the old NFL, previous to this shakeup, and while many of those rivalries still ended up in divisions with each other, these nine did not.

• Chiefs vs. Broncos

• Chargers vs. Raiders

• Bengals vs. Browns

• Jaguars vs. Texans

• Commanders vs. Giants

• Eagles vs. Cowboys

• Falcons vs. Saints

• Jets vs. Dolphins

• Rams vs. Cardinals

• Each team will play a 16 game, 17 week schedule (reduce it by one game to account for the fact that there are 8 more teams kicking around now). That 15 game schedule consists of:

• 8 games in division, 2 against each other team; one home and one away.

• 5 games against another division in your conference.

• A game against each team that matches your team’s standing from the previous year in the other two divisions in-conference.

• A game out of conference, or your team’s protected matchup, depending on if you have one. 

• If your team has a protected matchup and would play that team in any other of the listed games (another division in conference or by standing in conference), then that protected matchup slot is replaced by an out of conference game. 

• Another three wild card slots are added to the playoffs to accommodate the 20 teams in each conference, meaning half of the league will enter playoff contention. The NFL adopts the NBA’s playoff structure at this point, however changing it so that the two winners of the play-in games will face the number one and two seeds in the first round of the playoffs, rather than the winner of the 7-8 playing the winner of the game between the 7-8 loser and the 9-10 champion. These games will be the seven seed facing the 10 seed, and the eight seed playing the nine seed. This is also the reason to go back down to 16 games, as you can follow the schedule that the NFL has adopted now, but add in the play-in week. 

Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

THE BENEFITS

All of this scheduling difference is to hype up the difference between the football you’re seeing in the two conferences, and having different styles of football makes games from both conferences must see. For how big of a following the NFL has right now, being able to split the fans’ attention and monetize both conferences, making more and more money off of certain ratings, makes it so that more money is made and can be put back into the everyday runnings of the league, or can be put away for other endeavors further down the line. 

This, as previously mentioned, also puts so much more weight on the playoffs and the Super Bowl, as it is one of very few inter-conference matchups we will get to see all year. If it’s a year where all protected matchups happen organically, it will be one of 17 total inter-conference games, out of a total 320 games. 

Overall, the NFL is a business, and one that is looking to expand, as many other large corporations do over time. This set of expansions is one that will reshape the way the NFL works, while also helping to modernize it and give it a coordinated marketing strategy heading into the future, both by appealing to new markets and splitting the conferences away from each other more explicitly and framing both of them differently, making the times they clash a treat. 

There are a lot of risks to any amount of expansion, but doing one like this is a golden opportunity to refurbish and revitalize your entire product, one that draws but has become a tad bit stale with the same kind of scheduling and lack of parody (for the most part) over the last few seasons. This expansion gives the NFL a chance to define what the conferences look like; giving each their own identity, then incentivizing what happens when those two conferences clash, while also bringing in fanbases that were not represented by a geographically close team at any recent point. It’s a large risk, but if done correctly, could be the shock of electricity the NFL needs to sustain itself and remain as entertaining as it is for a long, long time to come.