RE: NBC Sports: Could St. Louis emerge from Rams relocation case with an expansion team?
The NFL could do nine divisions of four:
6 games in Division
8 games, 1 each against each division based on prior year standings
3 games, balance of teams in one division (rotates yearly)
Only drawback is that you won't have a case where you have a conference of teams that played 9 road games one that played 8 road games, so that may be an issue with playoff seeding. That might be the push to go to 18 games. Another issue is that having 9 division champions means one of them doesn't get a home game
Expansion to 36 would also work better with a team in the Mountain or Pacific Time Zones - likely Salt Lake City.
West 1: Seattle, San Francisco, LA Rams, Arizona
West 2: Salt Lake City*, Las Vegas, LA Chargers, Denver
West 3: Houston, Saint Louis*, Kansas City, Chicago "AFC"*
Central 1: New Orleans, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Carolina
Central 2: Minnesota, Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago Bears
Central 3: Indianapolis, Tennessee, Cleveland, Cincinnati
East 1: New York Giants, Washington, Dallas, Philadelphia
East 2: New York Jets, New England, Miami, Buffalo
East 3: London, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh
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