The Pointless Realignment Outpost

[pmoehrin]

I ran the numbers and got 110,911 so my question did you account for the curvature of the earth with your format?

It is better by about 5,000 miles though.

[BrySmalls]

No, I didn't consider the curvature of the Earth. However, I found the travel distance between NFL teams from here: Sport Map World

[pmoehrin]

No, I didn't consider the curvature of the Earth. However, I found the travel distance between NFL teams from here: Sport Map World

Almost nothing there that is off by more then a mile or two from what I have for distance between teams, (for instance they have the distance between Miami and Seattle being 2722.9 miles, I have it as 2719.8 miles and that's the furthest distance between two NFL teams that exists) but that wouldn't account for a difference that large so I think you just made an addition mistake. From the total you have my guess is you left out a team like the Panthers or the Titans. Both of them would account for that 3700 mile difference between our two numbers.

[BrySmalls]

No, I didn't consider the curvature of the Earth. However, I found the travel distance between NFL teams from here: Sport Map World

Almost nothing there that is off by more then a mile or two from what I have for distance between teams, (for instance they have the distance between Miami and Seattle being 2722.9 miles, I have it as 2719.8 miles and that's the furthest distance between two NFL teams that exists) but that wouldn't account for a difference that large so I think you just made an addition mistake. From the total you have my guess is you left out a team like the Panthers or the Titans. Both of them would account for that 3700 mile difference between our two numbers.

Good catch! I left out Tennessee when summing Conference 2. The total number is 110,860.

[pmoehrin]

Its the most common mistake I make. For the Panthers I have their conference mileage being 3636 and for the Titans I have 3617, and those were the only two teams I could find in that range.

A 50 mile difference seems a bit more reasonable between what that site would have and what I would have. They may just have a different computer program then excel which is not the greatest program in the world for handling geometric equations, so that site is probably more accurate then what I have, but excel is good enough to get you in the ballpark of the true figure.

[AnythingChicago]

College Football (and some basketball) Realignment.

The Run Down:

• There is no such thing as an "independent" school for football nor basketball.
  
• There as no such thing as a "partial membership" (such as San Diego State and Boise State are planning on doing by being a Big East football member and a Great West/WAC basketball member). Schools will participate in the same conference for football and basketball. All other sports do not apply to this rule, as the hockey/baseball/soccer conferences are pretty much completely different from that of football and basketball.
  
• All of these conferences are geographically sound for the most part.
  
• The WAC and Conference USA no longer exist.
  

Here she is:

Big East

Atlantic

Connecticut Huskies

Central Florida Knights

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

South Florida Bulls

Syracuse Orange

Temple Owls

UAB Dragons

Midwestern

Cincinnati Bearcats

Louisville Cardinals

Marshall Thundering Herd

Memphis Tigers

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Pittsburgh Panthers

Tulane Green Wave

Great Plains (formerly Big 12)

East

Houston Cougars

Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas State Wildcats

Iowa State Cyclones

Missouri Tigers

Texas A&M Aggies

Tulsa Golden Hurricane

West Virginia Mountaineers

West

Baylor Bears

Boise State Broncos

Brigham Young Cougars

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Texas Longhorns

Texas Christian Horned Frogs

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Midwestern (formerly Big 10)

Legends

Iowa Hawkeyes

Michigan Wolverines

Michigan State Spartans

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Nebraska Huskers

Northwestern Wildcats

Leaders

Illinois Fighting Illini

Indiana Hoosiers

Ohio State Buckeyes

Penn State Nittany Lions

Purdue Boilermakers

Wisconsin Badgers

Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic

Boston College Eagles

Clemson Tigers

Florida State Seminoles

Maryland Terrapins

Navy Midshipmen

North Carolina State Wolfpack

Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Coastal

Army Black Knights

Duke Blue Devils

East Carolina Pirates

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Miami Hurricanes

North Carolina Tarheels

Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia Tech Hokies

Mountain West

North

Air Force Falcons

Colorado Buffaloes

Colorado State Rams

Idaho Vandals

Nevada Wolfpack

Utah State Aggies

Wyoming Cowboys

South

Fresno State Bulldogs

New Mexico Lobos

New Mexico State Aggies

Southern Methodist Mustangs

Rice Owls

San Diego State Aztecs

UTEP Miners

Sun Belt

Arkansas State Red Wolves

Florida Atlantic Owls

Florida International Golden Panthers

Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns

Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

North Texas Mean Green

Sam Houston State Bearkats

Troy Trojans

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Pacific Coast Conference (formerly Pacific-12)

North

California Golden Bears

Oregon Ducks

Oregon State Beavers

San Jose State Spartans

Stanford Cardinal

Washington Huskies

Washington State Cougars

South

Arizona Wildcats

Arizona State Sun Devils

UNLV Rebels

Hawai’i Warriors

UCLA Bruins

USC Trojans

Utah Utes

Southeastern Conference

East

Georgia Bulldogs

Florida Gators

Kentucky Wildcats

South Carolina Gamecocks

Tennessee Volunteers

Vanderbilt Commodores

West

Alabama Crimson Tide

Arkansas Razorbacks

Auburn Tigers

Louisiana State Tigers

Mississippi Rebels

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mid-American Conference

East

Akron Zips

Bowling Green Falcons

Buffalo Bulls

Kent State Golden Flashes

Massachusetts Minutemen

Miami Redhawks

Ohio Bobcats

West

Ball State Cardinals

Central Michigan Chippewas

Eastern Michigan Eagles

Northern Illinois Huskies

Toledo Rockets

Western Michigan Broncos

Because of the no partial membership rule, a new basketball conference had to be made for the former basketball only Big East schools as well as one former C-USA basketball only school. Here are your Metro America League teams:

• DePaul Blue Demons
  
• Georgetown Hoyas
  
• Marquette Golden Eagles
  
• Providence Friars
  
• Seton Hall Pirates
  
• South Alabama Jaguars
  
• St. Johns Red Storm
  
• Villanova Wildcats
  

The other basketball only C-USA school was Denver. They will join the Big West.

Due to the new no independent schools rule, the four NCAA independent basketball schools have each found conferences.

Longwood Lancers - Patriot League

Seattle Redhawks - Big West

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners - Big West

Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks - Summit League

Lastly, some schools switched leagues in basketball due to former partial memberships:

Navy AND Army - moving from Patriot to ACC

Temple - moving from Atlantic 10 to Big East

Massachusetts - moving from Atlantic 10 to MAC

Sam Houston State - moving from Southland to Sun Belt (Southland divisional system would therefore fold)

And that's all she wrote. So how'd I do?

[McCall]

Considering you have schools like San Jose State in the Pac-12 and East Carolina/Southern Miss in the ACC, not too well. You can't base NCAA conferences so much on just geography. And saying "there's no such thing as" sounds kind of like this is magical fantasyland.

[AnythingChicago]

Considering you have schools like San Jose State in the Pac-12 and East Carolina/Southern Miss in the ACC, not too well. You can't base NCAA conferences so much on just geography. And saying "there's no such thing as" sounds kind of like this is magical fantasyland.

Well, it is the Point Less Realignment Outpost and/or Fantasy Land, right?

And I do see what you're saying about some of the smaller schools in bigger divisions. What would you suggest I could do with them?

[aci]

Alright, I came up with this idea after thinking about how if any sports league overextended itself, it's the NBA. Not only do a lot of teams struggle on-court and lose money off-court, but because the athletes who compete in the league seem to prefer being in large metropolises, small-market teams get doubly-screwed.

Basketball has only recently picked up the idea of having a minor league (the D-League), and while it has proven useful, it's financial success has been mediocre and it's franchises numbers have really ebbed and flowed. Currently, there are 16 teams in the D-League.

My realignment proposal is huge in effect. The NBA would lose 7 of its current teams, the Seattle SuperSonics would return. All teams that end up being cut are in effect demoted to the D-League, which due to the decreased number of jobs for NBA players becomes a true minor league and has a much higher level of play (which hopefully attracts more fans).

NBA

West Division

Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers

Phoenix Suns

Portland Trail Blazers

Seattle SuperSonics

South Division

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

Houston Rockets

Oklahoma City Thunder

San Antonio Spurs

Utah Jazz

Central Division

Atlanta Hawks

Chicago Bulls

Detroit Pistons

Indiana Pacers

Miami Heat

Orlando Magic

East Division

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

New York Knicks

Philadelphia 76ers

Toronto Raptors

Washington Bullets

--------------------------------------------

NBA D-League

West Division

Anaheim

Idaho Stampede

Reno Bighorns

Sacramento Kings

San Diego

Vancouver

South Division

Austin Toros

Charlotte Bobcats

Iowa Energy

Rio Grande Valley Vipers

Texas Legends

Tulsa 66ers

Central Division

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dakota Wizards

Fort Wayne Mad Ants

Memphis Grizzlies

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

East Division

Buffalo

Erie Bayhawks

Maine Red Claws

New Jersey

New Orleans Hornets

Springfield Armor

Any of the unnamed D-League teams are ones that don't currently exist. Also of note is that I didn't keep every existing D-League team, as I felt some markets were too small for a more expansive minor league.

---------------------------------------------------------

I've heard a lot in recent weeks that "Nobody cares about the NBA til Christmas". I didn't take it literally, but I did factor it in for the scheduling... instead of an 82-game season, from now on, NBA teams would only play 72 games, with the season starting a few weeks later than usual (obviously not on Xmas, but maybe late November).

I also decided to use the new NHL format where each division is essentially its own conference during the regular season: Each team would play all its divisional rivals six times apiece, and every other team twice. In addition, every year there would be a rotation between the divisions where all the teams in one division would play one other divisions' teams an extra time.

For the playoffs, all division winners would be guaranteed playoff spots, and 4 other teams from any division would make the playoffs based on their record. Teams would face off in best-of-seven quarter-finals, semi-finals and a Championship Series to determine the NBA Champions.

The D-League would have a shorter season, but the same playoff style as the big league. Instead of playing 72 games, however, the D-League would play 54: 6 games against each division rival, 2 games against each team in one division (rotating annually), and 1 game against each of the 12 teams in the other two divisions. This schedule would cut down on travel while still allowing each city to see each team twice every three years.

Each NBA team would be directly affiliated with a specific D-League team, though just like most other minor leagues, they would have the option of switching affiliations, owning their affiliate or not, relocating, etc. The NBA Draft would also be slightly expanded (from 2 rounds to 3 or 4) so that the NBA could have a consistent flow of young developed talent on its way up through the system of each NBA team, which could help make drafting, development and trades more important than attracting superstar free agents, who in a smaller NBA would have an easier time teaming up on stacked teams without leaving the smaller teams devoid of talent.

[The Imperfect]

My fantasy scenario for the NBA is that they rid

Say goodbye to...

the Milwaukee Bucks

the Minnesota Timberwolves

the Indiana Pacers

the New Orleans Hornets

the Charlotte Bobcats

the Sacramento Kings

the Denver Nuggets

the Cleveland Cavaliers (toughie since I'm from Cleveland)

The paradigm of sports divisions/conferences needs to change.

The Eastern Conference

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Chicago Bulls

Detroit Pistons

Miami Heat

New Jersey Nets

New York Knicks

Orlando Magic

Philadelphia 76ers

Toronto Raptors

Washington Wizards

The Western Conference

Dallas Mavericks

Golden State Warriors

Houston Rockets

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers

Memphis Grizzlies

Oklahoma City Thunder

Phoenix Suns

Portland Trailblazers

San Antonio Spurs

Utah Jazz

In a supplemental draft of all of the players on the teams which are disbanded, the Raptors would have the first choice for having the poorest record last season, choosing a player such as Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Tyreke Evans, Danny Granger. Very good players would end up going to the worst teams in each conference, allowing for a major balance in parity between teams. The season would perhaps be shortened a month to wear it would be a new sports tradition for the NBA to start its season on Thanksgiving Day. If this system were in use last season, a playoff system would be in place where the top four teams from each conference would make the playoffs, resulting in a 9 game series between teams from the West pitted against teams from the East. Like I said, a paradigm shift. The number one seed from the East facing the number three from the West. Number two from the West, taking on four from the East. Such as...

East #1 (Chicago Bulls) vs. West #4 (Oklahoma City Thunder)

West #1 (San Antonio Spurs) vs. East #4 (Orlando Magic)

East #2 (Miami Heat) vs. West #3 (Dallas Mavericks)

West #2 (Los Angeles Lakers) vs. East #3 (Boston Celtics)

East 1/West 4 Winner vs. West 2/East 3 Winner

East 2/West 3 Winner vs. West 1/East 4 Winner

1/4 or 2/3 Winner vs. 1/4 or 2/3 Winner

True talents would be tested for these teams hardly face one another, and it's no longer a matter of studying tape and preparing thanks to useless regular season games. Instead, every game would be exciting, no more blowout first rounders were a team who has already been 4-0 against a team all season, wastes another four games to eliminate them with relative ease. The best of the best would be on display, and the league would shift in fairness. Drafts would be more plentiful for teams, and the level of play would go up a couple of notches with better players playing on better teams thanks to the lack of 8 teams taking up 12x8 amount of players which could be scattered to other teams with contending abilities.

Retarded? Probably.

Awesome. Yes!

[raysox]

MLS

Montreal

New England

Toronto

Philly

New York

DC

Kansas City

Chicago

Columbus

Houston

Dallas

Seattle

Vancouver

Colorado

Salt Lake

Seattle

Portland

San Jose

Los Angeles

Chivas

Done.

[BrySmalls]

MLS

Montreal

New England

Toronto

Philly

New York

DC

Kansas City

Chicago

Columbus

Houston

Dallas

Seattle

Vancouver

Colorado

Salt Lake

Seattle

Portland

San Jose

Los Angeles

Chivas

Done.

Two clubs in Seattle would be fantastic for the League!

[raysox]

Hah! I was going off memory and figured I got them all when I counted 20!

[Graysmith]

NHL Realignment Proposal

Now that the (so-so) NHL realignment has been put on hold I figured I'd post mine. Though I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has already come up with it before at some point since it's the most logical realignment, at least proximity-wise. Anyway, here goes. I've basically made this all about geographics, not paying too much of any attention to existing division rivalries, or trying to even out each division and such things because you can try but there's never going to be such a thing as even/fair divisions. Lost rivalries will be replaced by new ones, especially with each division being as geographically close as possible. This realignment wouldn't completely wreck existing divisions though, and only a few teams would see a big change.

Green text = Changes division within conference

Red text = Changes division and conference

EASTERN CONFERENCE

ATLANTIC

? New Jersey Devils

? New York Islanders

? New York Rangers

? Philadelphia Flyers

? Washington Capitals

NORTHEAST

? Boston Bruins

? Buffalo Sabres

? Montreal Canadiens

? Ottawa Senators

? Toronto Maple Leafs

SOUTHEAST

? Carolina Hurricanes

? Dallas Stars

? Florida Panthers

? Nashville Predators

? Tampa Bay Lightning

WESTERN CONFERENCE

CENTRAL

? Chicago Blackhawks

? Columbus Blue Jackets

? Detroit Red Wings

? Pittsburgh Penguins

? St. Louis Blues

NORTHWEST

? Calgary Flames

? Colorado Avalanche

? Edmonton Oilers

? Minnesota Wild

? Winnipeg Jets

PACIFIC

? Anaheim Ducks

? Los Angeles Kings

? Phoenix Coyotes

? San Jose Sharks

? Vancouver Canucks

Here's a map to better illustrate the geographics of each division:

Yeah, the Atlantic division teams are awfully close to each other (and as such will save huge on travel expenses) but the fact is that Winnipeg or Edmonton are always going to be far and further away from others teams than the New York Rangers, etc. are no matter how you slice and dice these divisions, so it'll never be fair. At least with this alignment teams are kept as close to each other as possible.

As for the teams that are moved, I justify the moves as such:

Washington Capitals: Moved into a division with closer rivals. Not a bad thing. They?re also about as strong a team as the moved-out Penguins, so the division wouldn?t really become much easier or tougher.

Dallas Stars: They never belonged in the Pacific division period, so with Winnipeg needing to move, it?s the perfect opportunity to get them into a more suitable division.

Nashville Predators: Should do a happy dance to end up with an easier division (on paper) than the one they are in now, not to mention geographically closer rivals.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Probably the team that was toughest to move, but at least they go from a division with classic teams to another with classic teams, so even if some longtime rivalries are diminished, others can spring to life. A Chicago-Detroit-Pittsburgh rivalry would make for a pretty great "Battle of the Great Lakes" if you ask me.

Winnipeg Jets: They?re the whole reason this realignment is happening so surely there?s not much need to explain this one.

Vancouver Canucks: Though it?s sad to move them away from a division with other Canadian teams, with Winnipeg needing to move into the Northwest division, Pacific is the logical fit for Vancouver and they?d do a good job beefing up a division that's traditionally been weaker than others too.

[DaytonBlue]

NHL 2013-14...5 division format...moving PHX to QUE

Pacific: VAN, EDM, CAL, SJ, ANA, LA

Central: COL, CHI, MIN, DAL, WIN, STL

Eastern: DET, CBJ, TB, FLA, CAR, NAS

Atlantic: NYR, NYI, NJ, PHI, PIT, WAS

Northeast: TOR, MON, OTT, QUE, BOS, BUF

Pros of this setup:

-DET and CBJ get to play more ET games.

-VAN stays with EDM and CAL

-DAL gets to play more CT games.

-The Atlantic stays together.

-Many more possibilities for Stanley Cup Final match-ups.

play your division 6x=30 games

play everyone else 2x=48 games

play one additional game against non-division teams with same rank from last season=4 games

Playoffs

Division winners+11 wild cards qualify.

Teams are grouped geographically (kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament)

The 8 westernmost teams by longitude are placed in the Campbell Playoff Bracket.

The 8 easternmost teams are placed in the Price of Wales Playoff Bracket.

Division winners are seeded first in their respective playoffs followed by wild cards.

Teams in the central part of the continent could be in one bracket or the other depending on how the standings shake out.

Then playoffs proceed as they are now, except that if teams are traveling more than one time zone the series is played in a 2-3-2 format.

[mattwswfc]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=610343

The National Hockey League announced today that it will not move forward with implementation of the Realignment Plan and modified Playoff Format recently approved by the NHL Board of Governors for the 2012-13 NHL season because the NHLPA has refused to provide its consent.

"It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a Plan that an overwhelming majority of our Clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including Players," said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. "We have now spent the better part of four weeks attempting to satisfy the NHLPA?s purported concerns with the Plan with no success. Because we have already been forced to delay, and as a result are already late in beginning the process of preparing next season?s schedule, we have no choice but to abandon our intention to implement the Realignment Plan and modified Playoff Format for next season."

"We believe the Union acted unreasonably in violation of the League?s rights. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate."

As a result of the League?s decision today, the NHL will maintain its current alignment and Playoff Format for the 2012-13 season.

It's going to be the same division and play-off format next year in the NHL, poor old Winnipeg stuck in the South East.

[wildwing64]

CENTRAL

? Chicago Blackhawks

? Columbus Blue Jackets

? Detroit Red Wings

? Pittsburgh Penguins

? St. Louis Blues

Pittsburgh in the West? The NHL would never have that!

Not sure if this one's been thought of already, but my own proposal involves a simple counter-clockwise rotation of teams between four of the six divisions. This is of course assuming that the Coyotes aren't going anywhere:

Winnipeg to Northwest

Colorado to Pacific

Dallas to Central

Nashville to Southeast

[Magnus]

Six teams need to be shifted.

Winnipeg to Northwest, Vancouver to Pacific, Dallas to Central.

Detroit to Northeast, Boston to Atlantic, Pittsburgh to Southeast.

32 divisional games, play everyone else twice. No complaining about long trips out west/east. Intra-divisional play would be a series of 5-game road trips and 5-game homestands.

The Northeast plays 16 divisional games, the Atlantic plays the Southeast home and away 10 games. The Northwest plays 16 divisional, while the Central and Pacific play home and away 10 games.

Then the Northeast plays the Southeast home and away while the Atlantic plays 16 divisional. Northwest-Pacific 10, Central 16.

Then the Northeast plays the Atlantic, and the Southeast plays their divisional slate of 16. (36) Northwest-Central 10, Pacific 16.

------------So that's 36 per team so far.---------

Then the Western and Eastern conferences do similar trading of home-and-away 5-game stands. (5x2x3=30)

---------That's 66 so far.------

All divisions then finish their divisional slates. (16)

---------And that's 82 games.---------

As far as the playoffs go, the automatic 1-2-3 seeds for the division winners should go away. The divisions only exist for ease of scheduling/making of rivalries. Top 8 teams in each conference should qualify. As a final change, the W-L-OL-SOL and points nonsense all disappears, and the standings simply go W-L. Tiebreakers are GF-GA differential, record vs. common opponents played an equal number of times, etc.

[Graysmith]

CENTRAL

• Chicago Blackhawks

• Columbus Blue Jackets

• Detroit Red Wings

• Pittsburgh Penguins

• St. Louis Blues

Pittsburgh in the West? The NHL would never have that!

I don't like moving teams that have been around for ages, but it has to be done and at least (like I wrote) they'd switch to a division with a few other legendary teams. Rivalries with Detroit and Chicago would be just as awesome as any rivalries they have now.

[crashcarson15]

If there's one way to somehow make the Columbus Blue Jackets Franchise worse, it's to put them in with Chicago, Detroit, AND Pittsburgh.