Why nobody sees this idea as being viable amazes me:
Northeast: BOS, BUF, TOR, OTT, MTL, FLA, TB
Atlantic: NYR, NYI, NJ, PHI, PIT, CBJ, WSH, CAR
Central: DET, CHI, STL, MIN, NSH, WPG, DAL
Pacific: COL, PHX, CGY, EDM, VAN, SJ, LA, ANA
I think that's close. I think this works better:
Adams: BOS, BUF, TOR, MON, OTT, DET, CAR
Patrick: NYR, NYI, NJ, PHI, PIT, WAS, TB, FLA
Norris: CHI, STL, MIN, NSH, WPG, DAL, CBJ
Smythe: COL, PHX, CGY, EDM, VAN, SJ, LA, ANA
If an alignment such as that is reasonable, then almost any alignment is reasonable.
I mean seriously... The Canadian and Florida teams in the same Division. Talk about bending over backwards to "not separate the two Division groupings in the northeast". That alignment is pure nonsense, other than your decision that Columbus should be the team put in the East.
And how about stopping for a moment to think about why the League is apparently shying away from the 4-Division idea. Could at least a tiny part of it be that an alignment such as you're suggesting is also seen as ridiculous by the League? Or could it be that no one other than you thought of it? Which do you think is the case?
I'm with him, though. Breaking up the Southeast is the SMARTEST THING TO DO for a number of reasons:
1. They're the division short a team.
2. They really only have THREE teams (CAR, FLA, TB)
3. Lack of historic rivalries
4. Their isolation might be causing lower attendance
5. Makes Washington happy
6. It's the path of least resistance.
For all the talk of "you can't put ______ and _______ in the same division because they are so far away," to crap on people's ideas, take a look at the schedule.
Road trips:
Montreal: CAR/PHI, OTT/TB/FLA, WAS/FLA/TB, CAR,
Toronto: CAR/TB/DAL/ANA, FLA/CAR/WIN, WAS/FLA/TB/OTT/BOS,
Ottawa: CAR, CAR, TB/FLA/NYI, FLA/TB,
Florida: MON/OTT/BUF, TOR/WIN, OTT/BOS, TOR/WIN, MON/MIN/CBJ
Tampa: CAR/BOS/WAS/NYI, BUF/NASH, OTT/NYI/NYR/PHI, TOR/MON/OTT, MON/TOR/WIN
The vast majority of the "travel concerns" is a completely separate issue than the alignment; the alignment just gets scapegoated. Maybe if they scheduled better, the alignment wouldn't be the concern.
those two northeastern Divisions realize that there isn't any kind of a logical scenario that has 4 Divisions and doesn't in some way split up some of the current groupings in those two Divisions. And until something happens that makes that unavoidable, they plan to try to avoid it.
I also keep arguing the reason why this, and every League, went to smaller Divisions in the first place... Because they realize that it's better for team marketing. And some of them probably reminded the rest of that.
The NE and ATL are against the four-team divisions because they have no problem with the current setup. So you have to sell them on ANY realignment. The Patrick/Adams idea is still the "path of least resistance." Adding two teams to what they have is more palatable than losing teams from their divisions.
As far as it better for marketing, if you need to market games against your division rivals, you're in a world of hurt. Those are going to be the marquee games regardless of division. No one has to sell Cubs/White Sox very hard. It sells itself.
They need to make a schedule matrix completely separate from their alignment (maybe the 3x10 format, with eight flex games), and simply not tell anyone how they got there. Just hand a team their proposed schedule and see if they object.