17 game season for NFL?

[jstnrgrs]

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Division games are near meaningless.

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How are division games nearly meaningless?

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As far as winning ones division.

In comparison to CFB conference games, they don't carry near as much weight in terms of winning a division.

b

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They are still more important than non-division games, because winning them not only gets a win for your team, but also a loss for your division opponent. Since you play everyone in your division twice, That can be pretty important.

[JaredL]

Just to expand on TSC's idea what about this.

Each year the tournament is seeded based on the previous year. There are 3 tiers, 1-5, 6-22 and 23-32. In the first round teams 24-32 play. The matches are chosen randomly among those teams and it is also randomly determined who plays at home. The second round is teams 6-23 plus the 5 winners of the first round. Matches are determined randomly but teams 6-16 are seeded so they play lower opponents and always at home. The third round is the top 5 teams plus the 11 winners for a round of 16. Draws are random but the top 5 teams are seeded so that they don't play each other and play at home. For the other 3 matches the home team is randomly determined. For the quarterfinals and semifinals the matches are completely determined randomly each time, including which team plays at home. The final is always played at a neutral site.

For scheduling the first round the has 10 teams playing so the schedulers could schedule only matches where the top 22 from the previous years are playing against each other and league and tournament matches would take place on the same weekend (not the same team obviously). In the later weeks only a few teams are in the tournament still so teams mostly could be scheduled to play their league matches then. A huge difference, this happens frequently in soccer, is that this would force the schedules to be flexible. So a match could be set but if a team is still alive in the tournament be moved to later. Schedules would have to be setup so teams have byes in there as well.

I personally would like it better, but I'm not sure most fans would. Traditionalists would hate it because it's not traditional and things like the flexible schedule and just having different competitions to follow might not be something that they like. It would make the regular season mean more. Teams would compete for the 5th spot, which admittedly happens already with the wild card spots, and for the 22nd spot to get a bye. Another edge would be that there would be the rare but occasional time where a very low team advances deep, which you see in other playoffs where a lot of teams qualify. The biggest benefit would be making the regular season mean something.

[Michael Davis]

Sounds like an awful idea but I'm in favor of any system that adds a regular season game and takes one away from the preseason.

-Michael

[Spy Dog]

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anyway this is a horrible idea. i think the NFL is very naive if it thinks that NFL football will catch on in any significant way overseas, much like the soccer people keep shoving soccer down our throats.

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I'm an American living in Europe. While the NFL can't compete with soccer over here, it's popularity is gaining very quickly. Sky Sports has really beefed up it's coverage. They used to show tape-delayed games on Monday and now they show 4 live games every Sunday. I doubt they would do that if the interest wasn't there. I have a lot of nephews over here in Ireland and they watch a few of the games. Plus, NFL video games are more popular over here than one would think, which further fuels the interest.

I can't say for sure, but I believe the Germans are really into the NFL (relatively speaking).

[WhoIam]

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I'm an American living in Europe. While the NFL can't compete with soccer over here, it's popularity is gaining very quickly. Sky Sports has really beefed up it's coverage. They used to show tape-delayed games on Monday and now they show 4 live games every Sunday. I doubt they would do that if the interest wasn't there. I have a lot of nephews over here in Ireland and they watch a few of the games. Plus, NFL video games are more popular over here than one would think, which further fuels the interest.

I can't say for sure, but I believe the Germans are really into the NFL (relatively speaking).

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The NFL has some popularity in Australia as well, but it will never catch on as a result of the huge time difference (+ ~12 hrs). People want to watch live sports, not sports on tape delay.

When I mentioned I lived in Pittsburgh, I often got the response "oh, the Steelers," and people were aware of big events like last season's "Manning bowl." There are some games shown on tape delay or live (most of the games are in the middle of the night on Monday), but I have no idea what the ratings for these are. There are even a few minor and recreational leagues for people to play "gridiron football."

Football is my favorite sport because of the complexity and tactical thinking involved, but this is a major reason why it won't catch on elsewhere. A total newbie can sit down and watch a soccer game and understand most of what goes on, but I imagine things like pass interference rules in the NFL are frustrating for casual fans. I can imagine a dumbed-down football variant with lots of passing and action catching on globally.

Another reason it won't be big globally is the amount of equipment needed to play. This requires a significant investment from schools and parents--something difficult outside the wealthiest nation on earth. To play soccer, all you need is an open space and some kind of ball, even if it's a bundle of rags.

[Jack of Arcades]

The great thing about football is that you don't need to understand it to really enjoy it. Besides, the really complex rules are kind of rare calls.

[BobboFitos]

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The great thing about football is that you don't need to understand it to really enjoy it. Besides, the really complex rules are kind of rare calls.

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THE TUCK RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PokerFink]

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Division games are near meaningless. In theory, you could lose all divisional games and still win your division. Unlikely, but possible. I think this may be the only major sport where that could happen.

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What? Come on Bernie, that's really pushing it.

Yeah, division games are a slightly smaller percentage in football (6/16 as compared to something like 70/162 in baseball) but "near meaningless"? Come on.

[jstnrgrs]

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Division games are near meaningless. In theory, you could lose all divisional games and still win your division. Unlikely, but possible. I think this may be the only major sport where that could happen.

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What? Come on Bernie, that's really pushing it.

Yeah, division games are a slightly smaller percentage in football (6/16 as compared to something like 70/162 in baseball) but "near meaningless"? Come on.

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Also, the teams within a division play almost all of the same non-division teams, so the competition for the division title is almost fair eventhough most of the games are not division games.

[ZeTurd]

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anyway this is a horrible idea. i think the NFL is very naive if it thinks that NFL football will catch on in any significant way overseas, much like the soccer people keep shoving soccer down our throats.

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I'm an American living in Europe. While the NFL can't compete with soccer over here, it's popularity is gaining very quickly. Sky Sports has really beefed up it's coverage. They used to show tape-delayed games on Monday and now they show 4 live games every Sunday. I doubt they would do that if the interest wasn't there. I have a lot of nephews over here in Ireland and they watch a few of the games. Plus, NFL video games are more popular over here than one would think, which further fuels the interest.

I can't say for sure, but I believe the Germans are really into the NFL (relatively speaking).

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As a Norwegian, I can confirm that the interest for NFL is high, and most certainly on the rise. The high school equivalent in Norway offers a year abroad in the US as part of the package; all the people I know who's been in the US for a year are now huge NFL fans. The TV coverage has been upped, and we can now basically get all the games Americans get, both live and as reruns. I'd say that in the circle of people I'm friends with or know well, at least 30% are following NFL.

In addition, NFL has created a Euro league. While it'll never be able to compete with soccer, I'm pretty sure it's going to continue to gain traction and increase interest for the American NFL.

To put it this way, I can see myself traveling to Germany/Netherlands/<insert country> to see a live match between two interesting NFL teams. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.