Football and Peak Oil

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Sunday February 05, 2006 · 10:12 AM PST

2006/02/05 · 10:12

I was just killing time, waiting for the Super Bowl to start, when I had the thought, "what would happen to football in the future if the scarcity and high cost of oil makes routine, long-distance travel an extravagant business expense?"

Would the NFL realign their teams to, basing divisions on geography rather than traditional rivalries, to minimize travel and foster regional fan interest? Not likely. They just realigned a few years ago and did make some positive changes, like moving the Arizona Cardinals out of the NFC East. But, by and large, they kept the same structure based on the old NFL-AFL structure.

How critical is this traditional NFL-AFL structure? Consider the history of today's Super Bowl teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers are representing the AFC. They were originally formed in the NFL in 1933 as the Pirates, and renamed the Steelers in 1941. When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, they became part of the AFC Central Division. The Seattle Seahawks are representing the NFC. They played their first year, 1976, in the NFC West but then moved to the AFC West the following year. They moved back to the NFC West in 2002 when the NFL last realigned. So, both the Steelers and the Seahawks have been part of both the AFL/AFC and the NFL/NFC.
So what might a regionally-based NFL look like? Consider this realignment:

Let's face it, this would never happen without some forcing issue, like a permanent global energy crisis. Putting Dallas, a traditional wining franchise, in the same division with perennial losers Phoenix and New Orleans, and the new franchise in Houston, would be pretty boring. But there might be benefits to such a regional alignment besides less travel, namely more regional identification with the fans. Think of the regional match-ups in the Super Bowl. It might be east versus west (like today) or north versus south, or maybe even ... Red-State team versus Blue-State team.

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Football and Peak Oil

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