The_Admiral

So are you positing that the corresponding schools would become dedicated developmental affiliates for their nearest NBA teams, or are you just pointing out that Memphis and Knoxville are in the same state? Oh, and I guess St. Bonnie's would be the Raptors' college counterpart.

six Arkansas schools

Who knew?

So every American team is at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup?

Yeah, I don't think so.

Canada doesn't NEED a yearly participant. They EARN it just like everybody else.

I think TxRangers has said before that his realignment proposals are intentionally absurd. His avatar is that aborted Chargers mascot, so I think he likes to traffic in absurdity like I do.

Dynamite way to sell tickets to half the league in a league that relies on selling tickets, call them the opposite of contenders.

The Dodgers don't wear navy.

The only two team I could change there are the Indians (brown and red) and the Phillies (maroon, light blue optional). Everyone else is fine by me.

Yes, they got their colors from the Pilots. So what? It's an improvement.

The script is okay, pretty Schlitzy, but why aren't there serifs on the WAU?

Funny, I thought people agreed there were too many red and blue teams already. I love the Brewers in royal blue and athletic gold. It's such a solid, no-nonsense pair of sports team colors. Flashy without being gaudy or overly complex, simple without being boring and overdone. The only other color combo I could entertain for the Brewers would be a German-inspired black/red/gold, and even that's not as cool as good old blue/yellow.

Oh what the hell, I'll respond to The Admiral's challenge as well.

Let's do the following...

Major League Baseball: Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California

AAA Pacific Coast League: Southern California/Tucson, Arizona and Vancouver, British Columbia

AA Texas League: El Paso, Texas and Wichita, Kansas

A-Adv California League: Los Angeles Area and San Francisco Bay Area

A Midwest League: Duluth, Minnesota and Green Bay, Wisconsin

SSA New York-Penn League: St. Catharines, Ontario and Kitchener, Ontario

Rookie Pioneer League: Walla Walla, Washington and Logan, Utah

Just an idea.

If you're expanding to Sacramento at the AL level, then you lose the PCL RiverCats and need to account for that, too.

Using alternating colors delineates the elements of the uniform while providing a simple and eye-pleasing pattern. To wit: the Raiders wearing silver helmets, black shirts, silver pants, black socks; or the Packers wearing yellow helmets, green shirts, yellow pants, green socks. Everything is set apart, but at the same time, it matches. The Buccaneers' occasional pewter helmet, red jersey, white pants, black socks sequence; or the Giants' blue/white/grey/red, are just as mismatched as any monochrome.

What if the NFL did the whole East-West thing?

Then you would break up a multitude of 50-year-old rivalries in a league where travel problems are nonexistent.

If you're going out of your way to be unreasonable, then all your choices aren't correct.

REALIGNMENT CHALLENGE

Everyone seems to agree that the natural conclusion of Major League Baseball is a 16-team American League. Unfortunately, not only are the only remaining candidates kinda iffy (Portland, Charlotte), there aren't many smaller cities ready to host their affiliates. So, tell me where you would expand the AL, AAA, AA, Advanced A, Full A, Short Season A, and Rookie Leagues.

With a team that cold have a losing record getting into the playoffs (Seattle), the idea of going back to 3-division conferences doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

tl;dr

That's a terrible idea. The 32-team, 16-game NFL schedule is a thing of beauty. It took them years to come up with a scheduling system that made so much sense and you're scrapping it for two five-team divisions and one six because of the goddamn Seahawks? Reactive crap.

Wannstedt got fired! Now my stupid song is outdated.

I am the very model of a modern major conference

I've quite a perfect radius, diameter, circumference

I know all of my members whether Catholic or secular

I'll name them alphabetically in manners most spectacular:

Cincinnati sounds deceptively Mediterranean

In Hartford there plays UConn and likewise they're not Canadian

DePaul is nominally part but cannot ever win a game

In Washington is Georgetown where Pat Ewing is their claim to fame

Use three beats to say "Louisville" or else the rhythm goes to hell

And there's Marquette who still don't know just what they want to call themselves

Though Notre Dame's athletics still just are not what they used to be

At least they're not in Pittsburgh where Dave Wannstedt runs the football team

In Providence, Rhode Island they do not produce too many pros

At Rutgers they are known for having several nappy-headed hos

St. John's once had some crazy-looking sublimated uniforms

And Seton Hall is where the Pirates come at you in waves and swarms

South Florida's in Tampa which is really not that south at all

At Syracuse the roof inflates like a balloon or basketball

Then take the Main Line out to Villanova, hope the ride's not long

Then go to West Virginia while your toothless sister sucks your dong

So there you have a round sixteen but TCU just spoiled that

They're all the way in Texas, and they surely wear retarded hats

But rednecks they may be our fair Big East is full of tolerance,

That's why we are the model of a modern major conference.

I could name them all if I set them to the tune of a Gilbert & Sullivan song.

We were going to send Susie to some small private school nobody's ever heard of, but when we found out Arizona State belonged to a conference that didn't let Boise State join in any revenue-generating reindeer games, the decision was easy. Now she's majoring in having orange skin. Praisèd be the academic excellence of the Pac-10.

If Boise's academics are that far below PAC-10 standards, then please explain how they're already a member of the PAC-10 in wrestling. Yes, I realize it's a non-revenue sport, but if the PAC-10 is really that strict about academics, schools like Boise State would be left out in every sport, revenue or non-revenue, right?

Of course, that reminds me of how stupid it is for schools to be able to join a conference for only one sport. If I ran the NCAA, there would be an "all or nothing" rule in regards to that - either take all the schools' sports, or take none of them at all. Cherry-picking just creates needless complications and confusion.

if i'm a parent looking for my child to go to a school and academics are everything, i'd at least want to go to a school where it has some high standards. [boilerplate NCAA status quo boosterism ensues]

If academics are everything, you don't send your child to a flagship state university with thousands upon thousands of undergraduates who are sent down the line to finance graduate studies.

The fans of Pac-10 and Big Ten schools (troublingly, not necessarily alumni) jerk themselves off over the Academic Forefront far more than the schools do, which just want more money.

And before any Boise fan comes in here complaining, get better academically and then maybe you can talk with the Pac 10.

Oh no, not this condescending bullcrap.

the Catholic Cup deserves to remain!

Isn't that what priests call a reacharound?

Chicago's Jersey

Northwest Indiana

The sports demographics are too crystallized. Chicago can support two baseball teams because it's had two baseball teams for over a hundred years. Any second team in another sport is way too late to the party to make any worthwhile inroads in an exceedingly provincial region. Anyone who isn't a Bears fan is a Packers fan, and there's only shame in abandoning either one for the Jaguars or something.

"Likely set at the United Center for a while" is a vast understatement considering the anchor tenants own the real estate and make lots of money off it.

They're guarding the city. Tomahawks don't hide behind anyone or any letter.

I was trying to go with the cities on the circuits rather than the teams. I'm well aware that the Mets weren't established in 1876. Basically, the main idea was to recreate something between the pre-expansion National League and the NL East, and build from there. Going with a true charter/expansion division is truer to the definition, yes, but then you have divisions wherein the Dodgers and Giants see the Padres rarely, but the Pirates often. If you use the Mets as the stand-in for the Dodgers and Giants, and have Milwaukee AND the Braves stand in for the Milwaukee Braves, you get the closest thing to 1957 you're going to get. It's an imperfect system, but which isn't?

This might be a tough decision based on the St. Louis - Chicago rivarly, but I would swap Milwaukee for Chicago Cubs.

Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Chicago have to be in the same division. Milwaukee and Chicago have to be together because they're close and they like it that way. Chicago and St. Louis have to be together because duh. Brewers/Cardinals is a decent secondary rivalry as well, given that Brewers fans don't seem to like sanctimonious Cardinal goobers any more than we do.