Expansion/NFL Model

[jay]

I know we keep hearing about how watered down the talent in the NBA is, and they should retract down to 28 or even 24 teams.  The truth is the game keeps getting more popular and we see stars coming from Canada, China, Argentina, and all over Europe and everywhere in between.  I think expanding to 32 would not be a bad thing at all.  Seattle wants a team, Columbus, Virginia Beach, etc.. have been mentioned.  Columbus and Omaha have Fortune 500 companies in their cities and no pro Football/Baseball teams to compete with.  Im not worried as much about soccer or hockey (no offense).  Nashville has Football to deal with.  Columbus has a huge NCAA program in town.  Omaha has one down the road, but its not in their town.  What would 32 teams look like:

Seattle
Portland
Utah
Denver

LAC
LAL
GSW
SAC

Phoenix
Spurs
Dallas
Houston

OKC
Omaha
Minny
Memphis

--------------

Boston
New York
Brooklyn
Philly

Miami
Orlando
Atlanta
New Orleans

Charlotte
Washington
Toronto
Cleveland

Detroit
Chicago
Indiana
Milwaukee



Or if Columbus or VA Beach got a team, New Orleans could go back west, Charlotte would move back to the Southeast Division, and Columbus or VA Beach would go in with Cleveland, Toronto, and Washington. 

16 teams make the playoffs out of 32 is a little more reasonable than 16 of 30 too.

Thoughts?

[Moranis]

I would actually think Louisville would make the most sense aside from Seattle. 

If you are going to add 2 teams and re-align into 4 team divisions, then there should be some more overhauling to the conferences (Minnesota and Milwaukee absolutely should be in the same division in that scenario, for example).  The problem is you have pockets where 5 or 6 teams make sense to be together, but no real way to divide into 4 without throwing everything for a loop.

Frankly, I think they should re-align the western conference anyway.

NW
Portland
Denver
Utah
Golden State
Sacramento

SW
L.A.
L.A.
Phoenix
Houston
Dallas

WCen
Memphis
New Orleans
San Antonio
Oklahoma City
Minnesota


That would make a lot more sense.  The Eastern Conference is fine as is, but with teams like Seattle and Vancouver moving from the west coast to the center of the country, the divisions are a bit out of whack.