Could an emergency Pandemic realignment be necessary for 2020?

[Wallyhorse]

This may be necessary:

Just wrote a full blog post noting why the NFL may need to do an emergency realignment for 2020 only that would have teams groups to where they are close to each other and to have either four divisions of eight playing a 14-game schedule (all games within the same division playing everyone twice) or 16 games where its the traditional eight divisions of four (four divisions per conference) where you play teams in your own division four times and teams in the other conference's same regional division once.  The latter format would allow for eight "bubble cities" of four teams each should such be necessary.  This is how I would do the divisions if such a realignment was necessary doing eight divisions of four and two conferences (potential "bubble cities" are in parentheses):

AFC East (East Rutherford)
Patriots
Giants
Jets
Bills

AFC North (Indianapolis)
Steelers
Browns
Bengals
Colts

AFC South (Atlanta)
Falcons
Jaguars
Dolphins
Buccaneers

AFC West (Santa Clara)
Chiefs
Broncos
Seahawks
49ers

NFC East (Philadelphia)
Eagles
Ravens
Washington FC
Panthers

NFC North (Chicago)
Bears
Vikings
Packers
Lions

NFC South (New Orleans)
Titans
Saints
Cowboys
Texans

NFC West (Las Vegas)
Raiders
Rams
Chargers
Cardinals

Yes, you lose some traditional rivalry games but this is all about making sure there is a season in the safest way possible.

[Bwestbrook36]

That isn't gonna stop the spread of the virus still to many players coaches and staff involved in every game and 3 of those cities are hot beds already and you are not going to keep 400 players and coaches in a bubble in a city for 6 months. 

[Guest]

If you could get local law makers to switch the ravens and Jets then I am on board

[Wallyhorse]

16 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

That isn't gonna stop the spread of the virus still to many players coaches and staff involved in every game and 3 of those cities are hot beds already and you are not going to keep 400 players and coaches in a bubble in a city for 6 months. 

The NBA is doing a bubble with 22 teams, the NHL is doing two bubbles of 12 teams.  This would be doing bubbles of four teams with the only movement as I would do it being where a team goes to the opposite conference division bubble for two weeks to play "road" games against the opposite conference on back-to-back weeks.  

[Bwestbrook36]

3 hours ago, Wallyhorse said:

The NBA is doing a bubble with 22 teams, the NHL is doing two bubbles of 12 teams.  This would be doing bubbles of four teams with the only movement as I would do it being where a team goes to the opposite conference division bubble for two weeks to play "road" games against the opposite conference on back-to-back weeks.  

Yes and all 22 teams for the NBA equals 330 players. Just a 4 team bubble for the nfl is already 220 not including practice squads coaches staff and refs. They would all eventually have to travel for playoffs and Superbowl. Again you are putting 3 of those bubbles in hot beds and you are not containing 5-600 people in one city for 5-6 months

[Wallyhorse]

2 hours ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Yes and all 22 teams for the NBA equals 330 players. Just a 4 team bubble for the nfl is already 220 not including practice squads coaches staff and refs. They would all eventually have to travel for playoffs and Superbowl. Again you are putting 3 of those bubbles in hot beds and you are not containing 5-600 people in one city for 5-6 months

Then there may not be an NFL season.  

[Dawkins 20]

There's no way the NFL can bubble. Realistically you could need 100 bubble spots per team for a total of 3,200 for the league. At best you would likely need 4 or 8 regional bubbles, but what happens after that? How long do you think you can bubble for before it all falls apart? The only reason why it has a hope in hell of working for the NBA and NHL is because every game is a playoff/relevant game... and even they've had a glitch in the matrix (*ahem* Lou). When a bubbled NFL team gets blown out to fall to 0-5, it's almost a certainty that these guys will be breaching the bubble.

Unfortunately, while I don't see the NFL creating a bubble, I don't think completing an NFL season is possible without one. 

[Wallyhorse]

1 minute ago, Dawkins 20 said:

There's no way the NFL can bubble. Realistically you could need 100 bubble spots per team for a total of 3,200 for the league. At best you would likely need 4 or 8 regional bubbles, but what happens after that? How long do you think you can bubble for before it all falls apart? The only reason why it has a hope in hell of working for the NBA and NHL is because every game is a playoff/relevant game... and even they've had a glitch in the matrix (*ahem* Lou). When a bubbled NFL team gets blown out to fall to 0-5, it's almost a certainty that these guys will be breaching the bubble.

Unfortunately, while I don't see the NFL creating a bubble, I don't think completing an NFL season is possible without one. 

True.  The setup I would do even without a bubble would keep travel to a bare minimum as much as possible (playing in this realignment your division rivals four times and the opposite regional division once each OR in a 14-game format of four eight-team divisions simply playing everyone in your division twice).  

It's going to be hard no matter what.  It may be the individual sports (Golf, Tennis, Auto Racing, Horse Racing) that make it along with the NBA and NHL, which may have to continue with "bubbles" for much of next season. 

[Dawkins 20]

1 minute ago, Wallyhorse said:

It may be the individual sports (Golf, Tennis, Auto Racing, Horse Racing) that make it along with the NBA and NHL, which may have to continue with "bubbles" for much of next season. 

I can't see them going the bubble route for a regular season for one of the same reasons I don't think it'll work for the NFL... now that it's a regular season, the games aren't "as important" and your cellar dwellers will start breaching the bubble by the half way point. Maybe they could start in a bubble and then transition to a non-bubble model as the virus situation improves (hopefully  - mask up a-holes!).

[Bwestbrook36]

29 minutes ago, Dawkins 20 said:

I can't see them going the bubble route for a regular season for one of the same reasons I don't think it'll work for the NFL... now that it's a regular season, the games aren't "as important" and your cellar dwellers will start breaching the bubble by the half way point. Maybe they could start in a bubble and then transition to a non-bubble model as the virus situation improves (hopefully  - mask up a-holes!).

We both know that won't happen

[Bwestbrook36]

46 minutes ago, Wallyhorse said:

Then there may not be an NFL season.  

You actually went away from your crazy ideas to agree your plan might not work..... 2020 is truly insane lol

[Wallyhorse]

32 minutes ago, Dawkins 20 said:

I can't see them going the bubble route for a regular season for one of the same reasons I don't think it'll work for the NFL... now that it's a regular season, the games aren't "as important" and your cellar dwellers will start breaching the bubble by the half way point. Maybe they could start in a bubble and then transition to a non-bubble model as the virus situation improves (hopefully  - mask up a-holes!).

The NBAPA has already said they will likely need "bubbles" for next season. 

[PoconoDon]

I agree with the NBAPA that precautions will probably still be in place a year from now.

[Wallyhorse]

17 hours ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

You actually went away from your crazy ideas to agree your plan might not work..... 2020 is truly insane lol

2020 truly is insane.

That said, it doesn't have to necessarily be a "bubble."  the actual idea was to reduce travel as much as possible.  The divisions would be set up to as realistically as possible reduce travel.  That's why even though there is the short gap between Philly and New York the Eagles are in a division with the Ravens, Panthers and FC Washington for this "pandemic realignment" while the Cowboys are in the NFC South.

Eagles would still play the Giants and Jets once each along with the Pats and Bills while playing what would be their division rivals four times each, where possible done where a team would travel down and play the same team there on back-to-back weeks, with for this season as much as possible Thursday games being the second of back-to-backs with the same team in the same city.  

[Bwestbrook36]

19 minutes ago, Wallyhorse said:

2020 truly is insane.

That said, it doesn't have to necessarily be a "bubble."  the actual idea was to reduce travel as much as possible.  The divisions would be set up to as realistically as possible reduce travel.  That's why even though there is the short gap between Philly and New York the Eagles are in a division with the Ravens, Panthers and FC Washington for this "pandemic realignment" while the Cowboys are in the NFC South.

Eagles would still play the Giants and Jets once each along with the Pats and Bills while playing what would be their division rivals four times each, where possible done where a team would travel down and play the same team there on back-to-back weeks, with for this season as much as possible Thursday games being the second of back-to-backs with the same team in the same city.  

It's still a lot buddy. Baseball is already a mess after a week. Football is a whole different animal

[UK_EaglesFan89]

The emergency measures should be that they cancel the season or you postpone.

[nipples]

No. 

[toolg]

NFL has the advantage of watching MLB, NBA, and NHL resume operations.

Seems clear to me the bubble plan the NBA and NHL are using is superior than the MLB plan. Too bad NFL already scrapped a bubble plan.

[Procus]

This is all a crock over a virus that now has a very low mortality rate and whose inflection rate is way and falsely inflated and being way over-reported.  With the players and coaches either deciding to or being bullied into kneeling at game start, look for a large chunk of the fan base - which already has decreased interest due to lower intensity of preparation and lack of fans in the stadium - to tune out.

Believe it or not, even if you are in favor of the kneeling, many are not.  And for those that say, "bye" or "don't let the door slam your arse on the way out" - be careful, because when enough of the fan base does this, the league will implode.  TV networks will not continue to pay on mega contracts if the ratings are not there.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Procus said:

This is all a crock over a virus that now has a very low mortality rate and whose inflection rate is way and falsely inflated and being way over-reported.  With the players and coaches either deciding to or being bullied into kneeling at game start, look for a large chunk of the fan base - which already has decreased interest due to lower intensity of preparation and lack of fans in the stadium - to tune out.

Believe it or not, even if you are in favor of the kneeling, many are not.  And for those that say, "bye" or "don't let the door slam your arse on the way out" - be careful, because when enough of the fan base does this, the league will implode.  TV networks will not continue to pay on mega contracts if the ratings are not there.

All empty talk.  Ratings for sports that have re opened are double what they were last year ( per a wall street journal report ).  Everyone talked about ratings and fan attendance going down over Kap kneeling, but all the ratings did was go up.  

[toolg]

1 hour ago, Procus said:

This is all a crock over a virus that now has a very low mortality rate and whose inflection rate is way and falsely inflated and being way over-reported.  With the players and coaches either deciding to or being bullied into kneeling at game start, look for a large chunk of the fan base - which already has decreased interest due to lower intensity of preparation and lack of fans in the stadium - to tune out.

Believe it or not, even if you are in favor of the kneeling, many are not.  And for those that say, "bye" or "don't let the door slam your arse on the way out" - be careful, because when enough of the fan base does this, the league will implode.  TV networks will not continue to pay on mega contracts if the ratings are not there.

Nobody is forcing you to keep watching if you don't want to. I'm not worried about ratings, they're fine. Plenty enough people are still interested.

Bye. Don't let the door slam your arse on the way out.

[SPIDER-MAN]

14 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

The emergency measures should be that they cancel the season or you postpone.

This has been my thinking all along. If they play, I'll watch. And they aren't going to lose a large chunk of the fan base. Kneeling in 2016 and kneeling are two different scenarios. Some will tune out, but not enough that it will make a huge dent in the ratings. NFL games will still have the highest ratings.

[Bwestbrook36]

2 hours ago, toolg said:

Nobody is forcing you to keep watching if you don't want to. I'm not worried about ratings, they're fine. Plenty enough people are still interested.

Bye. Don't let the door slam your arse on the way out.

Money made in the NFL is in the billions the ignorance of people actually thinking a couple thousand will end the NFL are mind numbingly dumb and are ignorant as hell to think their opinion actually makes a difference. 

[toolg]

18 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Money made in the NFL is in the billions the ignorance of people actually thinking a couple thousand will end the NFL are mind numbingly dumb and are ignorant as hell to think their opinion actually makes a difference. 

That. And I hope some of them turn in their season tickets so my name goes up the list. 

[Bwestbrook36]

7 minutes ago, toolg said:

That. And I hope some of them turn in their season tickets so my name goes up the list. 

Lol yes that would be great!! Kneeling is a great thing!