The ultimate goal of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is to add four European teams to the NFL.
If that comes to fruition, the league would have nine divisions for a total of 36 teams. Which begs the question: Which conference gets the four European teams?
Or, would the NFL add four North American teams to balance it out? Where would those four teams come from?
No matter the answer, it likely means another round of realignment. Especially if it is only the four European teams that are added.
How would such a realignment impact Dallas. Should the Cowboys be looking to pack their bags and leave the NFC East even earlier?
A Third Conference?
If it is just the four Euros, would it be fair to have 16 teams in one conference and 20 in the other? Or would it make more sense to create a third conference?
You would have 12 teams, in four divisions of three teams each, in each conference. Only division winners, 12 teams, would advance to the playoffs with the top four teams getting a first round bye.
The AFC/NFC monikers would be discarded. Enter the Pacific, Central, and Atlantic Conferences. The European teams would join the Atlantic, of course.
You could add the Patriots, Giants, Jets, Bills, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Panthers to this conference.
The Central would consist of the Steelers, Eagles, Ravens, Commanders, Falcons, Bengals, Browns, Titans, Colts, Lions, Packers, and Bears,
The Pacific would host the Vikings, Chiefs, Saints, Texans, Cowboys, Broncos, Cardinals, Chargers, Rams, Raiders, 49ers, and Seahawks.
Why Wait?
The Europeans expansion is likely years down the road. But why wait until then?
Isn’t it time to shuffle the deck a little and take more advantage of regional rivalries? And possibly cut down on some teams’ travelling too.
For example, the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, and the Seattle Seahawks travel the furthest for their three road divisional games than anyone else.
Dallas appears to lead the pack, a combined 7,694 miles roundtrip per season for just those three games. Miami and Seattle aren’t much further behind.
Because of where they are in the Northwest, nothing can be done to cut the Seahawks’ travel down.
But moving Dallas out of the NFC East and into a division say with Las Vegas, Arizona, and Houston cuts their mileage down to 4,294 miles roundtrip.
It also gives a more regional feel to their division games. Moving Miami out of the AFC East and into a division of the Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Falcons reaps similar benefits.
Tradition Is Nice. This Is Better.
I get the traditional rivalry arguments. I do. And usually I side with tradition.
But if the NFL really wants to shake things up, getting all eight divisions regionally aligned is a great way to do it.
Many of them are almost that way already. The rest just need a tweak or two.
The added benefit for Cowboys’ fans? We don’t have to hear from those Eagles fans anymore. I mean, that reason alone is justification enough for me.
New NFL Divisions
Here’s the proposed realignment I came up with pre-Euro expansion. The NFC North survives completely intact.
Otherwise, teams are gathered regionally. Give it a look and then let me know what you think of it in the comments.
NFC (WESTERN) CONFERENCE
Pacific
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Los Angeles Rams
- San Francisco 49ers
- Seattle Seahawks
Southwest
- Arizona Cardinals
- Dallas Cowboys
- Houston Texans
- Las Vegas Raiders
Midwest
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs
- New Orleans Saints
- Tennessee Titans
Great Lakes
- Chicago Bears
- Detroit Lions
- Green Bay Packers
- Minnesota Vikings
AFC (EASTERN) CONFERENCE
Mid-Atlantic
- Carolina Panthers
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Indianapolis Colts
Southeast
- Atlanta Falcons
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Miami Dolphins
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlantic
- Baltimore Ravens
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Washington Commanders
Northeast
- Buffalo Bills
- New England Patriots
- New York Giants
- New York Jets
It’s not about geography or travel, it’s about dollars. The NFC East has the highest grossing markets and Jerry Jones won’t leave it.
Actually that’s not a bad idea. Some of the traveling doesn’t make sense. This idea will mostly fix that and allow easy expansions that make sense in the near and long term. I don’t really like breaking up rivalry and tradition but the NFL is always adding to its story. Not a bad idea at all.
No. Tradition and old school rivalries and what make football great. To toss that aside is to not understand the sport and the fans. Just no.
That would be great!!! Then the cowgirls would actually have a chance of winning something.
Found the Eagles fan…
There’s no team called Cowgirls ma’am.
You mite wanna check the win/loss records for all the NFC East teams…. The Cowboys have a better win/loss record against all the NFC East teams, so if the Cowboys left the NFC East, it would be the opposite of what you said…. It would give the sheagles, midgets, and commandos a better chance of winning something!! But then again, the sheagles and commandos would have the ravens and Steelers to deal with in this scenario, so they would end up losing to the ravens and Steelers just as much, if not more, so they would be stuck winning the division once every few years just like it has been for them, if their lucky!! And the midgets would be in a division with the jets, patriots and bills, so they wouldn’t ever win their division!! So the Cowboys would leave the division with a better record against all the NFC East teams,
Heh, I’ve got one guy telling me I moved Dallas out of the NFC East to find an easier division, now you’re saying the NFC East as is would be an easier division for the Cowboys. I can’t win with you guys, lol.
Seriously, everyone, the main impetus for this is league-wide. Creating regional rivalries and cutting down some of the huge travel disparities teams like Dallas, Miami and Seattle have to deal with.
That’s the only reason.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
You have to overlook some of these people, most of them don’t know what their talking about, and others just skip to the end of the article and think they know what the article is about, and comment about it and the comments don’t even make sense most of the time!! I actually think this move would be a good idea!! A lot of people don’t like it cause they think the NFC East is the biggest rivals of the Cowboys, but they are wrong about that too!! Every cowboys fan should know that the 49ers are the Cowboys biggest rival cause they are closer to each other and had some of the best games in NFL history!! The eagles, giants and commanders aren’t even on the Cowboys level!! The closest one would be the giants I think since they have the 2nd most Super Bowl wins after the Cowboys, while the eagles only have 1, and the commanders are right there with the eagles!! And as far as win/loss records, the Cowboys have a big lead on the win column against all 3 of them!! That’s why when you look up who the Cowboys biggest rival is, it won’t say any of the NFC East teams, it’ll say the 49ers are their biggest rivals!! And even if they did move the teams around like you said, it doesn’t mean these teams won’t play each other anymore, so they’ll still have those games!! So yeah, just overlook what most of these people say!! I kinda like the idea!! The only thing I would change is the division area…. I would keep it North, East, South and West in the AFC and NFC, instead of switching to all those others!!
Lol and u do. Blue Star Loooser!!!
Hating each other is what the NFC East is all about. No breakup here.
Wow it took you all day to find this article, just so you could say Cowgirls? Very original
Realignment is not a bad idea although if it’s not broke went fix it. I agree with the chargers joining the Pacific division but why not put Arizona, Denver, KC & LV in the west. Houston, Dallas, NO & Tennessee in the mid west. I would prefer just scrapping the conferences & create 4 divisions of 8 teams, play each team in the division once, one team twice, play another division entirely, which would repeat every 3 years, leaving only 1 game more, perhaps an international game. It would create a more balanced schedule as 7 playoff teams could come out of the 2 divisions that play each other.
This works too.
Swap the Panthers with the Steelers, the Ravens with the Bills, the Broncos with the Texans, and the Cots with the Lions and it makes a bit more sense.
I’ve been talking about realignment for years, but more simplified using the existing conferences and divisions:
Move Dallas to the south, Carolina to the East, Baltimore to the East, and Bills to the North.
I like the idea of keeping the NFC North intact since they are all pretty close together already. But otherwise, not a bad idea here either.
That don’t make much sense at all!! It makes more sense to have Houston and Dallas in the same division since they’re both in the same state which means less traveling for a divisional games!! Same thing with Pittsburgh…. They’re better off in the same division as Philly, cause they are close together!! That was the whole point in this scenario, to put teams that are closer together in the same division, so they don’t have to travel so far just to play a divisional game!! The way you said to switch teams, it just makes more teams have to travel further, which don’t make any sense!!
Why not make 2 divisions of 8 teams in each conference? Combine both East and South divisions and both West and North divisions- maybe move a couple of teams around. Face it…4 team divisions are kind of ridiculous, too small.
Each team would play at least 1 team in their division, and twice the teams in both the upper half and lower half depending on previous season’s finish. Then play various out of division and out of conference teams according to a similar formula used now. It would be a whole lot more interesting to play more teams every year at least once than once every 4 years.
And make the “wild card” a true wild card by taking all the playoff teams with the best record…especially if a wild card team can’t even be over .500, that should be a “playoff disqualification” if you ask me.
So what? You may wind up with a Super Bowl with teams from the same conference (or the same division)? So we can see the Cowboys beat the Seagulls in the Super Bowl..Now Imagine the Philly fans jumping off the Ben Franklin Bridge over that one!!
That’s a possibility as well. And base the playoff teams on best record instead of division champions getting an automatic home game?
Maybe give the top team in each conference a first-round bye as a reward for the regular season?
4 divisions, 8 per means 2 games against each in division, and play 1 game vs each other based on the teams record. 14 division games, 3 others fits the 17 game schedule too and still builds division rivalries.
How very Dallas fan of you to build the weakest division in history of sports for you to be in. Arizona, Las Vegas and Houston lol. That’s one way to make the playoffs….. and then get killed
You do know that these things come in cycles right? A couple of years ago the NFC East was the laughingstock of the NFL. Last year it was the NFC South.
The only criteria I used was to put four teams that were located closer together as opposed to have Dallas (in the Midwest) in the NFC East. Or Miami having all three of its opponents over 1,000 miles away in the northeast.
That’s how it works when those states are that close together!! In case you didn’t notice, the whole point in this scenario is to move the teams to a division so they didn’t have to travel as far to play their divisional games!! It’s not just for Dallas…. It’s to help every team from having to travel so far just to play a divisional game!! Why do you think Philly and Pittsburgh are in the same division in this scenario…. It’s cause they are so close to each other!! Same thing with the bills, jets and giants!! It’s not a Dallas fans fault that the Cowboys are closer to Houston, Arizona and Las Vegas!! That’s just how it plays out since Dallas is closer to those states!! Besides, just cause the cardinals, Texans and raiders were bad last year, it doesn’t mean they will be this year, or next year!! That’s why teams sign new players and draft new players!! Just cause Dallas would be the better team in that division right now, it don’t mean they will be next year or the year after that!! That’s how football works!! And in case you didn’t notice, Dallas has been in the playoffs the last 2 years, so changing divisions won’t change anything!! So try learning how football works, or at least pay attention, before you leave stupid comments that don’t make any sense!!
How very Richard of you, Richard. Geography wasn’t your best subject, eh?
New Orleans would be closer than Phoenix or Vegas. So are Kansas City and Nashville. I’m going to guess you’re not a cartographer, either.
So wrong. The NFL is about TV and old rivalries. This writer kills both. TV ratings are about multiple national regions watching a game. The Cowboys- Giants captures 2/3 of the nation. Cowboys – Texans captures one state TV stations.. Then, rivalries…no one wants to lose Cowboys -Eagles. Move on.
Cowboys draw viewers regardless don’t matter who we play, people will tune in.
Makes sense regionaly. Denver division is weird.
But now NO interstate Team can play in Super Bowl….
BIG PROBLEM !!!
Come up with a better system.
Dalla needs to be moved but Arizona isn’t exactly close. They belong with KC, NO, Tennessee instead of Denver.
While realignment makes sense from a geographical rivalry standpoint, travel time isn’t as significant as it once was. The longest would likely be Seattle to New York. The NFL probably isn’t overly concerned about travel times, but majorly concerned about television revenue.
The league should not interfere with longstanding rivalries. For example, look at the Texans; they’ve been in the league almost a quarter of a century and really only have a minor rivalry with the Colts. Dallas vs. any of the NFC East division team is an NFL rivalry at its aged best.
Most of it sounds great! But adding more teams, even from Europe I do not like! Why, because the draft beyond the 4th round yields very few solid players and if you add even 1 more team you mines we’ll kiss the excitement of the NFL draft goodbye
I myself am opposed to adding 4 Euro teams. But Roger Goodell rarely listens to me…
The draft is one thing, but player depth and quality, especially at the QB position seems very thin these days.
The Texans were established in 2002, not quite a quarter of a century yet. However they still suck hahaha. Dallas is my team and always will be win or loose, I love the Boys.
You walk the path of the righteous, my child…
This is the way
Same here for the Cowboys. A google check showed the Texans originated in 1999 but began play in 2002… my bad.
The only thing I would change is, I would switch Denver Broncos in the Midwest with the Houston Texans Southwest. Does anyone else know what I mean. Other than that I like it a lot
This us another attempt to micromanage. Travel distance is what it is, just deal with it. The traditional rivalries outweigh any new regional ones. This would be progress for the sake of progress. Besides, teams move so much already (something I oppose, don’t get me started on that), that once this new idea would be put in place, a few more teams would move and it would be messed up again. Just don’t do this.
Umm, why on earth would Dallas be in the Pacific as they’re about as central as it gets. We’re know where near the pacific.
The Pacific Conference would only come about if the 4 Euro teams are added.
Dallas would be one of the 12 western-most franchises thus Pacific. The Euro teams plus eight teams right on the Atlantic coasts on both sides of the pond would be the Atlantic.
Central seemed as good a name for the conference of the remaining 12 teams in between.
What a bunch of … putting the Cowboys with those teams lol can’t hang with the Eagles can ya wow making sure u cake walk to the playoffs
Dallas has won 8 of the last 11 games versus the Eagles.
The realignment has nothing to do with records or “hanging” but is simply for the purpose of having the four teams in each division be actual regional rivals.
Look beyond just the NFC East…
Dallas has won 8 of the last 11 games against the Eagles.
Who can’t hang with whom?
Once again, the realignment is for the entire NFL and based solely on creating true regional divisions and rivalries.
Wanna bet on the next 11 games?
See me after the first game between the two in 2028. We’ll compare notes.
Hahaha deal
No!
Part of the agreement between NFL and Cleveland to avoid lawsuit and return the Browns to NFL is that the Browns and Squealers must forever be in same division.
I think that’s a good idea if the players are for it adding more competition and players let’s go for it
The reason Tex Schramm wanted the Cowboys in the East was because the media markets were the biggest. The coverage gained in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia is part of the reason they became America’s Team. Let them be!
Surprisingly I am not only unoffended by removing Dallas from the NFC EAST but I would relish feasting on LV, ARI & that other team twice per season. And arent we kind of already routing for uniforms only?
This is trash and fantasy. NO WAY the NFL brings in foreign teams and ownership. NO WAY the AFC and NFC team agree to re-align in that manner. And NO WAY the NFC EAST is broken up.
Sounds like Cowboys fans are just tired of being third rate in the East
Sounds like you don’t know football very well.
I feel that the Kansas City Chiefs need to stay in the AFC division sides of things, because Lamar Hunt started the AFC and I think that might be a little disrespectful to the Hunt family!
Absolutely a terrible idea. Leave the league alone. It’s perfect the way it is. We don’t need 4 foreign teams. That’s just ridiculous. It needs to stay the way it is. Cowboys, Giants, Redskins (yes, Redskins…screw political correctness!) and the lowlife Eagles. That’s the way it should always be. Stop messing with TRADITION!
Don’t understand why there are 4-team divisions in the first place. Should be 8-team divisions; NFC East, NFC West, AFC East, AFC West. No need to play the same team twice each year in the 4-team format.
Credit for the thought! I certainly understand the motivation behind this.
There was a mention in the article that is at the heart of this idea, and I think the mistake in it is where this all goes wrong as a proposal: the notion that regions create rivalries. If you’re starting fresh, sure, but who really cares about proximity? If you look at sports history, when reorganizations or expansions have happened before, often rivalries have taken forever to form even with proximity, because it takes history and competition to form that. Fans of AFC North teams aren’t rushing to feel a deep rivalry with the Browns, because the Browns have been too mediocre. Meanwhile, the Cowboys and 49ers are far apart and rarely play, but the history there is huge and that has forged a rivalry.
As a Cowboys fan, I dry heave at the idea of the Cowboys being stuck with those teams as division “rivals”, and I would long for annual contests with the Giants and Eagles (and Commanders, whenever they get competitive again).
The article also cites the benefit of improving travel distances for teams, but that goal goes out the window (permanently) if and when European teams become a thing.
At this stage, the NFC East should be sacred – it’s too good, too fun, too deep with history to discard for what would amount to a minor gain in a different area. No hate at all for the proposal, and the thought that went into it was very nice, but…pass.
Aaron Thomas
Hell no!