(08-30-2018, 10:37 AM)JUNGLE CAT 2017 Wrote:

(08-28-2018, 03:24 PM)flsprtsgod Wrote: So you have the NHL where the regular season doesn't mean anything.

To say the 16-game run doesn't mean anything is a bit short-sighted. Let me add each team's roster will expand to 65 players - no more practice squad. As a result, some of the salary cap parameters may need to be adjusted accordingly.

The 16 regular season games are played to determine which teams gain home-field advantage for the division championship. Additionally, in this new template for the NFL season, the NFL draft order is set AFTER the 16 games prior to the divisional round are played. All teams will know their draft order after the 16 "regular" season schedule is complete. You can keep the draft order inverted, or maybe not invert the draft order to provide additional incentive to finish high?

After the entire league takes Christmas off, in each NFL division, #1 hosts #4 and #2 hosts #3. With those results in hand, the highest remaining seed gets to host the divisional championship while two divisional losers square off in a consolation game hosted by the higher seed. The revenue for each of the divisional championship/consolation games is split 60-40. 

There are considerable intangibles, of course. It stokes up divisional rivalries. If you think Dallas and Philadelphia are rivals now, imagine if the 3-13 #4 seed Cowboys knock off the 14-2 #1 Eagles in the divisional round, and the #3 seed 5-11 New York Giants slide by the 12-4 #2 seed Washington Redskins?

To me, this format would be much more than "the NHL". It will be the ultimate test of survival. 

Using the example, all the 14-2 Eagles can do to survive and advance is knock off a lowly 3-13 team, but that team just happens to be the bitter rival, Dallas. The Cowboys will come gunning to spoil the Eagles' season.

What will be absolutely fun to watch is the strategy each team employs. How will a team approach things to endure the season? The NFL has had nothing like this before. The stakes are incredibly high and with so much to potentially lose every team will play at their highest level of competitiveness. Rivalries become incredibly meaningful. 

This is the ultimate test. 

I've even come up with a way to spice up the two pre-season games. On even years, the AFC team are in the hat. The NFC picks one team each. Then the AFC teams pick one NFC team out of the hat. The NFC teams then host a AFC team picked at random followed by the AFC cities hosting their NFC counterparts in pre-season week two. Flip that all for odd years.

The drawing will take place the day before the first college football prospects take the field at the NFL Combine. So each NFL franchise must have a representative at the Combine to draw the pre-season opponent. It's much more fun to draw opponents randomly, I think.