Quote:I'm not sure how it would be possible, if you want the divisions to have an equal number of teams.


If you add two new teams you have 34. Which wouldn't be divisible by any sensible number


If you add three more teams you have 35, you could have 7 groups of five or 5 groups of seven. But having an odd number of divisions is messy


And if you added four more team (which I think is the realistic maximum) you have 36. You could have nine divisions of four, or six divisions of six.


Of those I think six divisions of six is the only workable format. But do you really want divisions with six teams in each ? And can the league support four more franchises in one go ?


Or am I missing an obvious answer ?

 

The obvious answer is realignment. Get rid of the N/S/E/W divisions, go to 34 teams, have 17 teams in each division, go to 18 games per season, and have every team in each conference play every other team in the conference once along with two games against the teams in the other conference based on the prior year's record.

 

Of course the main change would be that you'd get rid of the possibility of 8-8 or 7-9 teams making the playoffs based on the weakness of their division, which seems to be unpopular among NFL ownership, but it's the most logical course for the NFL to take.

 

This way they could add a team in LA and add one in London or an eastern area of Canada.

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