A few friends and I were having some beers and discussing our NFL team, the Colts, when we suddenly noticed the negative ‘vibe’ we were getting and even our Spicy Garlic and Asian Zing wings couldn’t bring the positivity back… so we decided to “change the subject”. So, we talked about football in general… just not about the Colts and this year!! After a few beers we have a very short list of topics we talk about and sports is number 1… as it should be when hanging out with friends!

SO! An interesting question came up… what would be better!? Divisions vs. Conference schedules!

The current NFL schedule is Divisions as we all know; one team plays 3 other teams to make up the division within in the conference. This obviously sets up a few rivalries for a fan of a certain team to have three places they absolutely hate and always want to lose. BUT you see teams have really good records but if they are in a strong conference, they might not make it to the playoffs… so a ‘weaker’ team can make the playoffs and gets destroyed in the first round thus allowing a strong team to ‘get by’.

VERSUS!!! A Conference schedule… there are still two conferences, AFC and NFC. There are 16 teams in each conference and there are 16 games (include the bye week, so really 17 weeks). SOOO… would it make more sense, or should I say would you like to see??... each team in a conference play the entire conference!?
Basically everyone in the AFC would play each other and they would NOT play anyone in the NFC and vice versa for the NFC playing everyone in their conference but not playing anyone in the AFC. Then, you take the top 6 teams from each conference and match them up against the opposing conference!?

As an example… let’s take the AFC for example currently the leaders in a conference schedule would be…
1. Houston
2. Baltimore
3. Pittsburgh
4. New England
5. New York Jets
6. Denver

So, Houston & Baltimore get their bye weeks for being the top dogs and (6) Denver plays (3) Pittsburgh and (5)New York Jets play (4)New England. Winner of the #3 vs #6 plays #2; and, winner of the #4 vs. #5 plays #1. So once there is a definite winner of the conference… that teams goes onto the Super Bowl to play the NFC conference winner.

OR... as someone else brought up at the table what about the playoffs teams playing the other conference teams? So, AFC #6 vs. NFC #6 on up to AFC #1 vs. NFC #1 and then those winners play 'up' to the next high seed?? Not really sure if I like that but it did make for interesting conversation!

Now… obviously this is not a perfect system but would declare a true champion and would allow for the best possible match-ups in the playoffs. There would be some NFC vs. AFC rivalries that would not get to happen but if they met in the Super Bowl it would be even better.

Again… just a couple of guys talking smack and having fun over some beers. Just a nice change of pace from our normal negative 2011 NFL talk. It was much more of a positive discussion... it could have been the third buck of beers, not sure! LOL.
So everyone, thoughts????