The landscape of college football continues to change drastically as conferences adjust with network deals and players decide which university to attend based, not on the academic programs or even the success of the athletic program, but on how much money they can make. But all of this simply gives me a chance to explore what a newly aligned and expanded NFL might look like. 

My proposal would be to do away with the antiquated conferences that still reference the pre-merger. The idea of expansion would be to reward fan bases and deserving cities and to grow the game in a strategic fashion. There are a few cities for consideration that I will outline in another article, but my resulting teams would be in San Antonio, Salt Lake City and St. Louis. 

With these three new teams it leaves an uneven amount of teams with 35, which seems like an issue. But without the existence of two conferences, the league could be more flexible and fluid to allow for seven regional divisions of five teams each. This regional feel would lend itself to more college like rivalries that are currently on the decline. 

The schedule would be that teams would play the other four teams in their division twice, another complete division and the remaining same seed finisher in the remaining divisions. This would result in an 18 game schedule and the championship game would be played on the Sunday before Presidents Day, resulting in a national holiday the day after. 

Here is how I think the divisions would shake down. The west division would be made up of the Raiders, Rams, Chargers, 49ers and Seahawks. The Cowboys, Cardinals, newly formed San Antonio and Salt Lake City teams would join the Broncos in the mountain division. The midwest division would include the new St. Louis team, Colts, Bengals, Chiefs and Titans. Houston, Saints, and the Florida trio of Dolphins, Jaguars and Buccaneers would be the south division. The north would consist of the Lions, Bears, Vikings, Packers and Browns. The Panthers, Falcons, Ravens, Eagles and Commandos would make up the east division. And the final division of north east would have the remaining teams of Bills, Giants, Jets, Steelers and Patriots. 

Are there division rivalries missing or displaced? Yes. Can they be rekindled in inter division play? Yes. Will new rivalries form? Absolutely. The one glaring issue with this structure is that the Rams/Chargers and Giants/Jets do not provide home field advantage because of the shared stadium. This could be a detriment or could create an even deeper rooted rivalry. 

There are other cities for consideration that I will build a case for in another upcoming article. But for now, give me your take on this proposal or, even better, come up with your own expansion and realignment.