Magnus

Whatever actually happens, I just want the teams to remain solvent for a good number of years, whatever markets they may be in. While I'm here... it's an MLB realignment! (with some colour schemes borrowed off of other members' concepts). I also changed a couple of teams' schemes because there is way to much red-blue going on in baseball. Interleague play happens for the odd team out of 5 while intradivisional play is going on for the other 4, and is featured on TV as the Interleague Matchup of the Week.

Yeah, I flip-flopped on that one for a while. See, I don't really get that. Ohio seems like a more central state than Georgia, which has Atlantic coastline. Plus it would break up the geographical integrity to have Georgia shifted to the Central and Ohio stuck out with the Atlantic states. I get that maybe it would bring Cleveland in line with the other Great Lakes cities, but then I'd be moving Atlanta away from Florida and Carolina. To those teams: Suck it up, buttercup. This isn't high school basketball.

My NBA: West - Blazers, Warriors | Kings, Clippers | Lakers, Suns | Jazz, Nuggets | Thunder, Mavericks | (Most of these teams are in the Pacific or Mountain time zone. I didn't want to separate Dallas from Houston and San Antonio, but this was the best I could do.) Central - Spurs, Rockets | Grizzlies, Hornets | Wolves, Bucks | Bulls, Pacers | Pistons, Cavaliers | (Most are in the Central time zone.) East - Raps, Nets | Celtics, Knicks | Sixers, Wizards | Bobcats, Hawks | Magic, Heat | (All of these teams are in the Eastern time zone) SEASON Division opponents 4x (36), other divisions twice each (40), one rival four more times(4). (total 80) PLAYOFFS Top 5 in each division qualify, plus the best 6th-place team. All teams seeded 1-16. 4 rounds determine the league champion.

Moves: Atlanta to Winnipeg, Phoenix to Kansas City. Changes in division without team relocation: Colorado shifts to Pacific, Nashville shifts to Southeast. Northwest: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Minnesota, Winnipeg Central: Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago Pacific: Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas, Colorado Northeast: unchanged Atlantic: unchanged Southeast: Nashville, Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina

This makes a nice 10-conference layout. Got a playoff to go with it? Say, all ten conference champions, with #7 meeting #10 and #8 meeting #9 in the first round?

Time for the Ontario Hockey League to pointlessly realign: OHL NORTHERN CONFERENCE NORTH Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville CENTRAL Peterboro, Barrie, Oshawa, Owen Sound, Brampton OHL SOUTHERN CONFERENCE SOUTHEAST Erie, Missisauga, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara SOUTHWEST Windsor, London, Plymouth, Sarnia, Saginaw --- Teams play 40 divisional games. Teams then play the other 15 teams twice each. The schedule is 70 games long; two more than the current OHL. At 3 games per weekend, the 2011-12 season would run: sep 23 24 25 30 (4) 4 oct 1 2 7 8 9 14 15 16 21 22 23 28 29 30 (14) 18 nov 4 5 6 11 12 13 18 19 20 25 26 27 (12) 30 dec 2 3 4 9 10 11 16 17 18 29 30 31 (12) 42 jan 6 7 8 13 14 15 20 21 22 27 28 29 (12) 54 feb 3 4 5 10 11 12 17 18 19 24 25 26 (12) 66 mar 2 3 9 10 (4) 70 (Of course, an entire schedule of 3-game weekends is an unreasonable demand on the players, so mid-week games would still need to occur, but this serves as a starting point.) Standings are wins and losses only. The OHL playoffs take the top 4 teams in each division. Round 1 is divisional semis, Round 2 is divisional finals, round 3 is conference finals, Round 4 is OHL finals. Here's the WHL while I'm at it: Western Conference: Prince George, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Kamloops, Kelowna, Kootenay, Everett, Seattle, Spokane, Portland, Tri-City. Eastern Conference: As is, minus Kootenay. Conference opponents 5 times each (50), opposite conference twice each (22). Top 8 of 11 teams in each conference make WHL playoffs. QMJHL: Currently looks good to me. Three divisions of 6 for organizational purposes, 16 playoff spots. Nice.

Yes, that looks very similar to mine, and for similar reasons as well. Good find, Mindless!

Initially I was going for an East-West split, but because most of the league is in the eastern half of the continent, it didn't make much sense to me to call them the East and West conferences, so I stuck with the current conference names. As for all the conference switching, this is the pointless realignment thread, is it not? My AFC North is a mix of 3/4 the AFC East with the Giants instead of Miami because they are a helluva lot closer. My AFC East takes Indy and the Titans from the South along with the Ohio teams from the North and groups them together based on relative proximity. My AFC West is sort of based on NFL history, given that the Seahawks started there before switching conferences. My AFC South replaces all 4 teams because, aside from Houston being in the South, none of the real teams seemed to fit into a 'south' division to me. My NFC North has no team changes. It's perfect the way it is. My NFC East replaces the moved Giants and Cowboys with two teams that are much closer geographically to the remaining two of Pitt and the Skins. This way, the (football) Battles of the Beltway and Keystone State can become annual rivalries. My NFC Central is so named because I wasn't going to call it the NFC West with Carolina and Atlanta as members, and the state of Missouri still being in what I consider the eastern half of the continent. Finally, the NFC South consists of the Florida teams and New Orleans. Now, granted, I could probably swap out the Saints to the Central for the Panthers to the South, but otherwise, I think it works well. Each team still has access to at least one of its traditional rivals, whether they are in the same division or conference. It also will create some new rivalries. | NE-NYJ | NYG-BUF | IND-TEN | CIN-CLE | CHI-GB | DET-MIN | PIT-PHI | BAL-WSH | | OAK-SD | SF-SEA | DAL-HOU | DEN-ARZ | KC-STL | CAR-ATL | JAX-MIA | TB-NO | [EDIT]Season structure for this setup: 2 game preseason, 18-game regular season. Teams play 6 divisional games. Teams then play one division in their own conference (4). Teams then play two divisions from the opposite conference (8). The divisions against which a team plays rotate (independently, by conference) on an annual basis. Ex: 1st season: NFC N plays NFC South, AFC North, AFC South. 2nd season: NFC N plays NFC East, AFC East, AFC West. 3rd season: NFC N plays NFC West, AFC North, AFC East. 4th season: NFC N plays NFC South, AFC West, AFC South.

Most NHL teams have a majority/plurality of Canadian players, so it doesn't really matter in that respect. Also, giving them two rounds off would be disastrous for the Canadian teams unless they were one-off eliminations. Injuries would abound for the teams given byes because they would be rusty after 2 weeks off. Whichever Canadian team made it through would get thumped by its opponent in the Final. However, if you kept the divisions as is and took the top 3 from each, I think that would be a fair system. I would also put Pitt in the Central, move Nashville to the Southeast, and move Philly to the Northeast.

Here's my take on it with the NHL. Teams play 72 games in the regular season. | 32 divisional games | 20 in-conference | 20 opp. conference | Contenders' Conference (2012): Top 12 make the 1-16 playoff bracket as 1-12 seeds. Bottom 3 are relegated to Pretenders' Conference the following season. West: Van, Sjs, Lak**, Ana**, Col. Central: Chi, Mtl, Bos, Det, Pit. East: Phi, Nyr**, Wsh, Tbl, Car. Pretenders' Conference (2012): Division winners and one wild-card become seeds 13-16 in the bracket. West: Edm, Cgy, Min, Dal, Phx. Central: Stl, Clb, Nsh, Atl, Fla. East: Tor, Ott, Buf, Njd, Nyi. Playoff seeds: 1. Van 2. Chi. 3. Phi 4. Sjs 5. Det 6. Col 7. Pit 8. Mtl 9. Bos 10. Wsh 11. Tbl 12. Car. --------------------------------------------- 13. Phx* 14. Nsh* 15. Buf* 16. Dal. *Promoted to Contenders' Conference the following season. *If the 16th-seed wins the Cup Final, it will be promoted to the Contenders Conference, replacing the 15th-seed.* Round 1: 1.Van 4 Dal 0 | 2.Chi 4 Buf 1 | 3.Phi 4 Nsh 2 | 4.Sjs 4 Phx 3 | 5.Det 4 Car 0 | 6.Col 4 Tbl 3 | 7.Pit 4 Wsh 3 | 8.Mtl 4 Bos 3 | Round 2: Van 4 Mtl 1| Chi 4 Pit 3| Phi 4 Col 3| Sjs 4 Det 3| Round 3: Van 4 Sjs 3 | Phi 3 Chi 4 Round 4: Van 3 Chi 4 Further to this, the following season, 15 of 16 playoff teams will form the next season's Contenders' Conference. The rest will form the Pretenders' Conference. So the next year's conferences would be: Contenders: West: Van, Col, Chi, Sjs, Phx North: Buf, Phi, Det, Mtl, Bos South: Nsh, Car,Tbl, Wsh, Pit Pretenders: West: Edm, Cgy, Dal, Lak, Ana. Central: Stl, Clb, Min, Atl, Fla. East: Tor, Ott, Nyr, Njd, Nyi. It's essentially a promotion and relegation system this way. Teams have to perform well to get into the Contenders' Conference by winning their Pretenders' division (or becoming the 16th seed). The three worst teams in the Contenders' Conference, by contrast, have proven themselves unworthy, and are 'demoted'.

It does sound wacky for one of the Big Four in North America to think about doing this due to travel considerations, but considering the Leafs were in the West for a long time, I don't think it's out of the question.

Must have missed that. Swap them for the Royals, I guess.

The Red Hat, Blue Hat, Black Hat division version of Major League Baseball, inspired by an earlier post. Red Hat Division: 6. CIN 7. PHI 8. WSH 9. MIN 10. CLE (North) 1. LAA 2. HOU 3. TEX 4. STL 5. ATL (South) Black Hat Division: 1. BAL 2. CHX 3. TOR 5. NYM 6. PIT (North) 4. FLA 7. ARZ 8. COL 9. SFG 10. KCR (South) Blue Hat Division: 1. MIL 2. NYY 3. TB 5. DET 7. BOS (East) 6. LAD 4. SD 8. OAK 9. SEA 10. CHC (West) Each team plays 72 games against its 'hat' league (9 opps, 8 g). THEN (20 games/team) Red5-Blue5 4x Blue5-Black5 4x Black5-Red5 4x THEN (20 games/team) Red-Black (other 5)4x Blue-Red (other 5)4x Black-Blue (other 5)4x The same pattern then repeats for the other 10 teams that each team has not faced, making for a total of 80 inter-divisional games. The season is now 152 games long. ------------ POST-SEASON v.1 ------------ MLB DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES The top 2 teams in the Red, Blue and Black divisions (winners of North and South) automatically qualify for the first post-season series, to crown the individual division winners. The next best 2 teams in the whole league also qualify as wild cards. MLB SEMIFINALS SERIES The remaining four teams are seeded 1-4 based on regular season record. The #1 seed plays the #4 (wild card), and #2 plays #3. MLB CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES The remaining two teams play for the MLB championship. ------------ POST-SEASON v.2 ------------ Top 4 teams in each division qualify. All 12 teams are seeded 1-12 on season records. ROUND 1 - MLB KNOCKOUT SERIES: Seeds 5-12 play 3 games; first at lower seed's park. ROUND 2 - MLB QUARTERFINAL SERIES: Seed 1v8, Seed 2v7, Seed 3v6, Seed 4v5 (7 GAMES) ROUND 3 - MLB SEMIFINAL SERIES: (7 GAMES) ROUND 4 - MLB FINALS SERIES: (7 GAMES) ------------------------------------- *New MLB Season Structure* ***SPRING TRAINING*** BEGINS MAR. 1 (10 GAMES IN DIVISION) --REGULAR SEASON-- BEGINS MAR. 11 (all the dates you see indicate when that stretch of games is completed) 8 DIV MAR. 21 4 OP1 4 OP2 APR. 1 8 DIV APR 11 4 OP1 4 OP2 APR 21 8 DIV MAY 1 4 OP1 4 OP2 MAY 11 8 DIV MAY 21 4 OP1 4 OP2 MAY 31 8 DIV JUN 10 4 OP1 JUN 20 --ALL-STAR BREAK-- JUN 21 - JUN 25 8 DIV JUL 5 4 OP1 4 OP2 (8) JUL 15 8 DIV JUL 25 4 OP1 4 OP2 AUG 5 8 DIV AUG 15 4 OP1 4 OP2 AUG 25 4 OP2 SEP 1 8 DIV SEP 11 4 OP1 4 OP2 SEP 21 8 DIV OCT 1 --POST-SEASON-- ROUND 1 ELIMINATION SERIES OCT 5 ROUND 2 QUARTERFINAL SERIES OCT 13 ROUND 3 SEMIFINAL SERIES OCT 21 ROUND 4 MLB FINALS SERIES OCT 28 *****OFF-SEASON*****

CJWorks' UFL reel-line-mint: Northwest: 1. Washington 2. Portland 3. Montana 4. Dakota Southwest: 1. Denver 2. Las Vegas 3. Tucson (Cobras) 4. Phoenix California: 1. San Francisco 2. San Jose 3. Los Angeles 4. San Diego Texan: 1. Dallas 2. Houston 3. San Antonio 4. Austin Northern: 1. Minnesota 2. Detroit 3. Chicago 4. Racine Northeast: 1.New York[a] 2.New York 3. Cleveland 4. Cincinnati Central: 1. Tennessee 2. St. Louis 3. Topeka 4. New Orleans Southeast: 1. Asheville 2. Charlotte 3. Miami 4. Florida

One would be branded a Nazi for removing a derogatory label? I'm not sure that any intelligent fan would do that, regardless of their allegiance or appreciation for the history of the club as the Redskins. But there's a possibility given all the irrationality in this country lately. Only lately?

I like the additional AL team names. Where would the Red Devils play? Tijuana? Monterrey?

I can probably say that I don't, and that my proposals in this thread have been based on what I perceive to be a passion for the sport among the populace in the cities, without a lot of consideration to city/region population base, corporate support, etc. Hence, I believe that there are 14-16 markets that could still be well served by a top-level hockey team, but I don't know if they have the economic base for it. I do think that the NHL should contract to a max of 28 teams, with the most obvious one contracted being Phoenix. As for the other pro leagues, I don't have as strong opinions because I don't watch them as much.

I can probably say that I don't, and that my proposals in this thread have been based on what I perceive to be a passion for the sport among the populace in the cities, without a lot of consideration to city/region population base, corporate support, etc. Hence, I believe that there are 14-16 markets that could still be well served by a top-level hockey team, but I don't know if they have the economic base for it.

I think I'd like to see an Arizona Scorpions concept.

Oh well. That's why this is the Pointless thread, is it not?

So split the East and West market shares then, so it's about equal. Give each of the four networks a quarter of the games in the largest cities; don't limit the actual cities the networks can market to. I thought these were all national networks. I get that local affiliates want territorial rights, but if it's on a nation-wide network, don't they all deserve shots at the same markets? Say ABC gets NY/NJ/PA for weeks 1-4, NBC gets them for 5-9, CBS for 10-13, and ABC for 14-17, or something like that. Same with the SoCal market, Texas, and Florida. Those are the big 4 states, IIRC.

Yeah. That's what meant. You can't stop weather. I don't understand why that would really be that much of a problem. Just brand it differently. NFC Game of the Week presented by ABC, AFC Game of the Week on NBC, NFL Western Game of the Week presented by Fox, NFL Eastern Game of the Week presented by CBS. Might be a little more work for the TV graphics personnel, but what other work would have to be added?

Shame, since Naismith invented the damn sport. No wonder I can't find any Raps merch.

LOL. Obviously I don't listen or re-read posts much.