Expansion
Plans For The 1999 Season
The
owners voted to accept six of the eight expansion applicants. Washington
and New Orleans were denied. The six franchises awarded and there coaches
were:
Seattle
Seahawks, Brian Cook
Minnesota Vikings, Tony Smith
Baltimore Ravens, James Brooks
Tennessee Oilers, Darryl Johnson
New York Jets, Tom Poon
New York Giants, Edgar Rubio
The
owners then proceeded to adopt the Executive Director's Plan B Alignment
Proposal. Plan B placed all the franchises in the same conference they
were in last year and added three expansion teams per conference. The
conferences were then broken down into two divisions.
EXPANSION
PLAN B
|
AFC
|
NFC
|
|
West
|
Team
|
Last
Year's Finish
|
|
Denver
San Francisco
Oakland
Seattle
|
1
3
5
Expansion
|
East
|
Team
|
Last
Year's Finish
|
|
Green
Bay
Kansas City
Miami
Minnesota
Baltimore
|
2
4
6
Expansion
Expansion
|
|
Central
|
Team
|
Last
Year's Finish
|
|
Jacksonville
Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay
Tennessee
New York Jets
|
2
4
6
Expansion
Expansion
|
Atlantic Division
|
Team
|
Last
Year's Finish
|
|
New
England
Dallas
Detroit
NY Giants
|
1
3
5
Expansion
|
|
Geographically,
the teams are closed to their division region. What also makes this
plan exciting is that THE LEAGUE was able to keep some of the exciting
conference match ups like Denver & Green Bay or Jacksonville &
Pittsburgh. Each team will play its division opponent twice, each
team in the conference once and the remaining games will be scheduled
as inter conference games. For example a typical schedule for Denver
will include San Francisco twice, Oakland twice, Seattle twice, that
gives them six games. Then, Green Bay, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota,
and Baltimore, each once. Then the Broncos would play a first place
schedule which would include games against first place teams Jacksonville
& New England, Pittsburgh and Dallas, and finally Detroit. The
scheduling formula the Executive Director is proposing will work like
this.
First
place teams will play an inter conference schedule that will include
two first place, two second place, and one third place team.
Second place teams - one first place, two second place, two third place,
and one expansion
Third place teams - one third place, two second place, two expansion
teams
Expansion teams - two third place, three expansion teams.
Some
teams will still end up with tougher schedules than others based on
the fact that they will play more division games. For instance, the
AFC east plays eight division games compared to the AFC West six. Each
place team will be given a point to represent the strength of the franchise.
The points will be added up to calculate the schedule strength. For
example:
First
place teams - 100 points
Second place teams - 75 points
Third place teams - 50 points
Expansion teams - 25 points.
Thus,
Denver's schedule strength will be calculated as:
|
San
Francisco - twice =
Oakland - twice =
Seattle - twice =
Green Bay =
Kansas City =
Miami =
Minnesota =
Baltimore =
Jacksonville =
New England =
Pittsburgh =
Dallas =
Detroit =
PFL Schedule Strength
|
150
100
50
100
75
50
25
25
100
100
75
75
50
975
|
This
should benefit some of the expansion teams that come in with marginal
to average playing skills. However, they will be some expansion surprises,
just as they were last year. Keith Franklin's job with Jacksonville
was very impressive, and you can look for some sleepers to emerge from
the 1999 class and challenge for a division title.
The
PFL Schedules are set to be released February 1, 1999.
