PALM DESERT, Calif. – For the first time since it decided to add Houston as its 32nd team, the NFL had a candid discussion Tuesday on how to realign into eight, four-team divisions.
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Tuesday, March 27
Realignment was the main topic on the Tuesday agenda at the NFL owners meeting, so three hours was invested trying to trim the 30 or so proposed concepts.
A handful are still on the dockets and will be carried over to a late May, three-day meeting in Chicago. There are five varieties of the main concept that is being pushed in the league: The main proposal is keeping the AFC West, NFC Central and AFC East mostly together, moving Seattle and Arizona into the NFC West and taking Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee and Houston and putting them into an AFC South.
That concept would keep approximately 19 teams in roughly the same
division that they are in today. There are four variations of that plan. The
commissioner is optimistic that there will be the 24 votes needed to pass one of them.
There are also more-dramatic plans, but these are meeting with resistance. One of these includes moving Dallas to the NFC West and Miami to the AFC South with Jacksonville, Houston and Tennessee.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will reconvene the debate next month.
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Surprise: The realignment plans don't appear that difficult to resolve into one.
"The NFC East and Central and the AFC East and West seem pretty well set," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said as he unveiled seven of the dozen or so plans under consideration. "The more difficult decisions are in the others."
There seems to be a pretty clear consensus in the seven plans
unveiled, with expansion Houston going into the AFC, and Seattle – or perhaps San Diego – switching to the NFC to balance the
conferences.
Two NFC divisions look set.
One is the East with Dallas, the New York Giants, Philadelphia
and Washington (Arizona would shift to the West.) The other is the
Central as it was before Tampa Bay joined the NFL in 1976 – the
"black and blue" or "frostbite" division of Minnesota, Detroit,
Green Bay and Chicago.
The AFC would keep the basic configuration of Buffalo, New England, the New York Jets and Miami in the East, with Kansas City, Denver, San Diego and Oakland in the West. Those teams, all original American Football League franchises, were aligned similarly in the AFL and have longstanding rivalries.
All are part of Option A1, which many league and team officials consider the most likely.
"I think that's the one," said Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh, one of the league's most influential owners.
The other divisions in that plan would be Baltimore, Cincinnati,
Pittsburgh and Cleveland in the AFC North (the Bengals, Browns and
Steelers are locked together in most of the plans); Houston,
Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Tennessee in the AFC South (an
orphan division of new or transplanted franchises); Arizona, St.
Louis, San Francisco and Seattle in the NFC West; and Atlanta,
Carolina, New Orleans and Tampa Bay in the NFC South.
Most of the other scenarios are minor variations of that,
flip-flopping Houston and Baltimore in one plan, Indianapolis and
Baltimore in another. A couple would put Dallas into the NFC West,
an unlikely scenario favored primarily by Arizona owner Bill
Bidwill, who gets his only sellouts when the Cowboys come to town.
Most league executives don't seem as hardened to change as some
critics claim they are. And teams that are moving seem resigned to
it.
Bill Polian, president of the Colts, said he was willing to go
anywhere the owners decide.
"We'll do what's good for the league," he said.
The same goes for an official of the Seahawks who declined to be identified, but suggested the team wasn't happy, but was willing to do what was best.
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The NFL's Option A1
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AFC North
Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South
Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans
AFC East
Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets
AFC West
Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers
NFC North
Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals, St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks
Possible Swaps
Seattle for San Diego
Houston for Baltimore
Tennessee for New Orleans
Baltimore for Indianapolis
Votes go to Commissioner proxy
Baltimore
Houston
Tennessee
St. Louis
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Tampa Bay coach Tony Dungy said, "We know we're moving; we're
resigned to that."
Houston is scheduled to rejoin the league for the 2002 season.
The deadline for realignment is June 1. And it's likely to be
decided either at a lengthened meeting already scheduled for
Chicago at the end of May or a special meeting the first week of
May.
There is also another twist: Four relocated or new teams do not
have votes – Houston, St. Louis, Baltimore and Tennessee. Those
votes have been awarded to Tagliabue.
The commissioner said it hasn't been decided if those votes would be abstentions, with just 28 teams actually voting. That would make 21 votes necessary for a plan to be approved.
If those four proxies owned by Tagliabue count, 24 of 32 would be needed, and the commissioner would have the right to cast the votes for the Texans, Rams, Ravens and Titans.
Tagliabue said he was considering giving back those votes to the teams that had them. And he said if he cast the votes, it would be more likely to block a plan he doesn't like than to cast the deciding votes in favor of a plan.
The league has already decided on the scheduling format. Twelve
teams still will qualify for the playoffs: four division winners
and two wild cards in each conference.
Each team will play home-and-home games against teams in its
division, four games against another division in its conference and
four games against a division in the other conference. The final
two games would be based on the previous year's standings – a
first-place team would play the other two first-place teams in its
conference, and the other teams would do the same for where they
finished.
Each team in a division would play 14 common opponents out of 16
games. Last year, the number was 10.
"That's what makes the scheduling format so good," Tagliabue
said. "It means conferences will be decided on equity, not because
one team has an easier schedule than another in its division."
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