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17 Game Season - World League
Changing the NFL
schedule to 17 games would mean changing this modern day gladiator sport from
national to an international icon by playing all 32 teams in an international
venue. As the worlds greatest venue for entertainment, this change alone
would change the entertainment-field for all time. It would impart a level
playing field for all 32 teams, thereby reducing the present system from
offering easy scheduling. It would also guarantee that every franchise
would play every other franchise at least once every other year so that your
team would see, and then play against the leagues super stars. For the
international market, to generate the greatest interest, the NFL would offer
this leagues most coveted divisional games in an international setting on a
neutral field.
Imagine the Cowboys playing the Redskins in Wembley Stadium, or the Chiefs
playing the Bronco's in Berlin, or the Vikings & Packers playing in Mexico
City where neither team would have home field advantage. What message
would that impart to the world of sports? Is it traveling to some sort of
iconic venue in September that's important or is it the intricate nature exposed
by those gladiators on that day that becomes iconic in time? Does the
statement, "I knew we could beat those guy on a neutral field", say
anything to you & might that involve another level of interest to the common
bloke?
As for the preseason, the league could keep its scab bowl where players get
their last chance to vie for that coveted 53 man roster in the final preseason
tilt, allowing a home & away for preseason games 1 & 2 to tune up the
starters. It would also eliminate players fears versus owners need to
eliminate useless games in favor of increased revenue by just adding one more
game to the regular season schedule rather than two.
HOW A 17 GAME REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE WOULD WORK:
All 32 franchises would still have 8 home & away games to schedule with one
divisional game to be played at a neutral international sight like London,
Mexico City, Tokyo, Toronto or Berlin for example. As the NFL's most
coveted games this would introduce the greatest interest to not only the
existing fan base but throughout the world. This can be done by walking
away from the present home & away yearly divisional contests in favor a
superior product, similar to how it is done in college football. For the
Vikings Franchise, the divisional contests would rotate on a 3 year cycle,
except one divisional opponent each year would be played on a neutral field in
an international environment
The benefit from
moving away from the present inbreeding of the divisional format would be to
introduce 4 additional conference contests ensuring that the studs of each
conference would get to clash at least every other year. For an NFC
franchise, each year they would play eight (8 - 47.1%) AFC teams (4 home & 4
away), and nine (9-52.9%) NFC games (4 home, 4 away, with 1 international
divisional tilt at an international neutral sight). As an additional
benefit in regard to conference play, we'd get to keep the first, second, third
& fourth place finishers (three games per conference) to ensure that the
best of each conference would get to clash each year based upon the previous
years results.
For example, for an NFC franchise inter-conference games would rotate every
other year. The NFC north would play the AFC South & AFC East
divisions (4 home & 4 away games)
in the first year followed by playing the AFC North, & AFC West the
following year. If this form of scheduling appears to have inappropriate
advantages inherent in it, then you can change the format to the following:
|
Home - Divisional |
Away - Divisional |
International |
NFC Home & Away |
AFC Home |
AFC Away |
AFC Home |
AFC Away |
Year 1 |
Green Bay |
Detroit |
Chicago |
3rd Place Teams |
East 1st & 4th |
East 2nd & 3rd |
West 2nd & 3rd |
West 1st & 4th |
Year 2 |
Detroit |
Chicago |
Green Bay |
4th Place Teams |
West 2nd & 3rd |
West 1st & 4th |
North 1st & 4th |
North 2nd & 3rd |
Year 3 |
Chicago |
Green Bay |
Detroit |
1st Place Teams |
North 1st & 3rd |
North 2nd & 4th |
South 2nd & 4th |
South 1st & 3rd |
Year 4 |
Green Bay |
Detroit |
Chicago |
2nd Place Teams |
South 2nd & 4th |
South 1st & 3rd |
East 1st & 3rd |
East 2nd & 4th |
The non-divisional
NFC home & away scheduling can be rotated to first & 4th place finishers
on a 4 year basis, or to keep the integrity of the best teams playing the best
competition in the conference, 1st place teams, based upon the prior years
division standings would face off against other 1st place finishers, and so on,
as it is now.
It is also quite clear that scheduling Thursday night games appears to be not as
competitive for traveling teams. There is also an issue of safety with the
players as the recuperative time is at issue, so as leverage for adding 1 game
to the regular season schedule, the Thursday format would need to be dropped
except for Thanksgiving however the home games for those contest will rotate
equally for all 32 franchises. The competitive advantage extended to both
Detroit & Dallas will be no more.
Maybe
the most important aspect of this new scheduling concept would be in the
inherent variance which would ensure that no teams regular season schedule would
end up being a soft schedule, which has happened numerous times in the
past. Division dominance would be a thing of the past in favor of
league-wide match-ups.
To be direct, proposing an 18 game regular season format will not sit well with
the players as it will not be seen as a step-wise change to the resource
expenditure of the existing regular season schedule. By the players it
will be seen in a similar light to the hated Thursday night format. The
idea here is to make sweeping changes that change the entertainment to an
international format, rather than to try to expand, and force feed the world,
the needs of just one franchise.
Maybe the most important aspect of this new format will be that both
conferences will be better prepared to clash in the NFL's greatest yearly
contest ... THE SUPER BOWL!
17 Game Season -
Additional Content
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: June 6, 2019
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