First of all, glad to be back. After the Steelers play off loss I was gutted, i'd stayed up until four in the morning, and when AJ scored I thought that was it. Anyway..... one things for sure, i'm definitely a Bengal

Second, I didn't really know the proper place to post this thread, thought this seemed better than jungle noise.

Anyway, i've been thinking about some of the issues for a while, and i'm sure some of the topics will already have been discussed at great length. I've been thinking about the structure of the NFL, all apsects. From youth development, the world wide appeal of (American) football and to matters such as divisions.

One of my favourite things about the NFL is the draft. It is so different from anything we have in England for football. Here every team has an academy for young players, through which players can progress and hopefully make it to the first team. The draft is very different and I like it, it definitely could not work in football though as it is a global sport....which leads me onto my next point.

I understand that there have been various attempts at globalising the sport, europe had a league (not too successful), there is continuous speculation towards a London franchise (not too keen myself). Could the NFL, or american football ever be truly international? To the stage where it can host world cups? (Well the major flaw would be that it would be a bit one sided of course, but that's not my main point). Is there room for even more expansion within the NFL? I've always believed that there is scope to go far beyond 32 teams. I'm also not a fan of the 4 team divisions, too many divisions go through down periods.
Have concepts such as promotion/relegation e ever been considered? One issue is that there is only one goal - the super bowl. Of course it should be every teams top priority. But then there is a motive for not doing well, draft rankings. Would promotion/relegation scenarios eliminate this? Or would teams in the bottom division still just tank seasons to get that top pick?

Say there is a 32 team league still. It could be split into 2 divisions of 16.

So the top division could have a conference champion still, who finishes top of the rankings. But there is still a play off/super bowl contest, for say the top 8 teams in the top division.
Then you could have the bottom three teams being relegated.

Division two would have three promotion spots. So say the top two ranked teams are promoted automatically. And then there is a play off contest for the final promotion spot.
It could be contested between teams finishing 3-6th, creating a four team play off for promotion. (More teams could be added of course)
In terms of draft order, it could still follow the same principles, so super bowl champ picks last, bottom of div2 picks first. Promotion and relegation may complicate things a little more but it could still work.
I think a format like this makes it more competitive throughout the structure. As things stand there is only a play off race, but imagine relegation battles, promotion battles and all that being thrown in. At the risk of making it even more European you could even throw in an extra cup competition

Of course you could ignore all of this, I am of course just rambling on about little thoughts i've been having, and messing with tradition. Hopefully it creates a bit of discussion though....i'd definitely prefer my NFL

Already noticed one flaw - scheduling.

In order to get 16 regular season games, teams would play all of the teams in their division, plus one random team from the other division. Well there is probably a better way around this but it's all i can think of.

The main reason football will never be as popular worldwide as sports like baseball, basketball, and soccer is that it is so expensive to play. It requires lots of players and lots of equipment.

Relegation would not work well because injuries play such a huge role in which teams are good from year to year. You could have one of the better teams in the league and lose your QB then be relegated out of competition for the next season despite having a championship caliber team.

But here is what I do see happening more and more. College teams from the UNited states will start recruiting more giant athletes from around the globe. There are very few giants who are athletic on this planet, and many of them are not in the United States. Despite basketball being popular all around the world there are still a lot of foreign players that come to the United states to play college ball. I predict that will start happening with football in the near future.

(04-26-2016, 09:45 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The main reason football will never be as popular worldwide as sports like baseball, basketball, and soccer is that it is so expensive to play. It requires lots of players and lots of equipment.

Relegation would not work well because injuries play such a huge role in which teams are good from year to year. You could have one of the better teams in the league and lose your QB then be relegated out of competition for the next season despite having a championship caliber team.

But here is what I do see happening more and more. College teams from the UNited states will start recruiting more giant athletes from around the globe. There are very few giants who are athletic on this planet, and many of them are not in the United States. Despite basketball being popular all around the world there are still a lot of foreign players that come to the United states to play college ball. I predict that will start happening with football in the near future.

Good point of the relegation issue. Would it not be good for entertainment value though? I mean teams in the bottom division would still be drafting top QBs.
The main thought process behind it was creating more stuff to play for.

Agreed on that too. American football is soaring in popularity here. Young rugby players are starting to switch/play both sports, i bet there will be more and more Brits to come...and Germans too i reckon

Division one:
1. (League champion - 1st play off seed)
2. P/o
3. P/o
4. P/o
5. P/o
6. P/o
7. P/o
8. P/o
9
10
11
12
13
14 (relegated)
15 (relegated)
16 (relegated)

Division two:

1. Champions, promoted
2. Runner up, promoted
3. Promotion p/o
4. Promotion p/o
5. Promotion p/o
6. Promotion p/o
7.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16. Number one draft pick

I think that the week before the Super Bowl the worst two teams in the league should play for the #1 draft pick.

(04-26-2016, 10:39 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I think that the week before the Super Bowl the worst two teams in the league should play for the #1 draft pick.

The Toilet Bowl