My New-Look NFL

In everybody's overreaction to the admittedly horrible 7-9 Seattle Seahawks making the playoffs, people started throwing around their suggestions to answer the question, "How do we prevent this from happening again?," as if the Seahakws making the playoffs at 7-9 is suddenly going to bring an end to life as we know it.  (If the Rams had won and been 8-8, nobody would be complaining anywhere near as loudly, just saying.)  Anyway, my favorite of these suggestions was an ESPN.com poll question where one of the solutions offered was creating a West Coast division with the Seahawks and the three California teams.  I decided to take this idea and run with it.  I realigned the entire NFL based strictly on geography (no AFC or NFC, no Dallas in the "East" or Indianapolis in the "South").  You can see with my hypothetical divisions, that this "solution" isn't necessarily much better (although doing this was fun).

Here we go with the JBFL (Joe Brackets Football League), which is divided simply into an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference.  I'm definitely open to suggestion on division names as long as you don't have any association with the Big Ten.  (To make things easier, I just used everybody's actual 2010 record to determine the standings.)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast Division: 1. Patriots (14-2), 2. Jets (11-5), 3. Giants (10-6), 4. Bills (4-12)
Atlantic Division: 1. Ravens (12-4), 2. Eagles (10-6), 3. Redskins (6-10), 4. Panthers (2-14)
Central Division: 1. Steelers (12-4), 2. Lions (6-10), 3. Browns (5-11), 4. Bengals (4-12)
Southeast Division: 1. Falcons (13-3), 2. Bucs (10-6), 3. Jaguars (8-8), 4. Dolphins (7-9)

Playoff Seeds: 1. Patriots (NE), 2. Falcons (SE), 3. Steelers (C), 4. Ravens (A), 5. Jets (WC), 6. Eagles (WC)

WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northwest Division: 1. Bears (11-5), 2. Colts (10-6), 3. Packers (10-6), 4. Vikings (6-10)
Southwest Division: 1. Saints (12-4), 2. Chiefs (10-6), 3. Rams (7-9), 4. Titans (6-10)
Mountain Division: 1. Cowboys (6-10), 2. Texans (6-10), 3. Cardinals (5-11), 4. Broncos (4-12)
Pacific Division: 1. Chargers (9-7), 2. Raiders (8-8), 3. Seahawks (7-9), 4. 49ers (6-10)

Playoff Seeds: 1. Saints (SW), 2. Bears (NW), 3. Chargers (P), 4. Cowboys (M), 5. Colts (WC), 6. Packers (WC)

As you can see, things would be pretty much the same, except the Mountain Division would be the crappy one.  10 of the 12 playoff teams would be the same, with San Diego and Dallas making it instead of Kansas City and Seattle.  The whole point of this little exercise was to prove that no drastic measures have to be taken about the disaster that was the 2010 NFC West.  As a whole, the league was pretty mediocre this year, so it just goes to figure that four of those mediocre teams would wind up in the same division, landing one of them in the playoffs (while two 10-6 teams that beat that team are out).

Now for the real playoffs, which get underway tomorrow.  The defending champion Saints will roll the NFC West "champion" Seahawks 34-14 in the first game.  In the AFC Championship Game rematch, it's "personal" between Rex Ryan and Peyton Manning.  I'm not exactly sure what Peyton did to piss off Rex (other than beat the Jets in the AFC title game), but Rex is going to have to deal with losing in Indy in the playoffs again.  24-17 Colts.  (Sidebar: how "happy" must NBC be about getting the three teams from last year's championship weekend that made it, and the Seahawks?)  On Sunday, I like the Ravens to beat the Chiefs 17-13.  Kansas City really wanted to play the Jets and avoid Baltimore's defense, which might be the only one capable of shutting down the Chiefs' running game.  Then in the late game (which is probably the best game of the four), I think I'm going to go with the Eagles in a close one that might put the stupid new playoff overtime rules to the test.  But I think the winning field goal comes at the end of regulation: 23-20 Philly.  So, that gives us divisional playoff matchups of Ravens-Patriots and Colts-Steelers in the AFC, and Saints-Falcons and Eagles-Bears in the NFC.  Should be a good weekend of football.  Enjoy!