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17 Game
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17 Game Season
In manufacturing, prime numbers are utilized
for a very good reason. For example, a hunting gear tooth design typically
features a prime number for at least one of the gears ... usually the pinion
gear. The reason is to ensure that the same gear teeth do not mesh in the
same exact location(s) ...
again & again ... rotation after rotation ... to ensure the longest gear life
possible. Why? Imagine one tooth of the pinion gear having some sort
of possible minor defect that will continually mesh with the same exact
locations on the bull gear. In other words, that pinion gear tooth now directly aligns & meshes with exactly the same 4
teeth of the bull gear each time it rotates ... over & over again.
Can't see it yet, imagine a bull gear with
80 teeth meshing with a pinion gear having 20 teeth (not a prime number) causing the defect to exacerbate
the same 4 exact locations on the bull gear ... over & over again.
This is much like an NFL season. In time that small defect grows & then fails
prematurely. In nature, these types of patterns almost never happen as reoccurrences
can end in extinction. Now consider what is referred to as the hunting tooth design concept using a "prime number"
of teeth for pinion gear. When designed in this manner, the likelihood of reoccurrence drops
to a very low percentage ... much like playing this Vikings franchise playing
the Patriots, to ensure that
the same pattern doesn't continually repeat, over & over again.
So is the NFL headed for extinction. No ... but you might have noticed a
bunch of empty stadium seats recently. As a collective group we may have
lost that suspension of disbelief where not as many people are peering into that
diamond trying to understand that they are about to drop a large chunk of change
on a poor investment ... the result of great marketing. For the NFL, these
new patterns may be coming from a establishing a comfort zone ... and then
wallowing in it. That's great if you're a pig ... but not so much if
you're trying to light cigars with $100 bills ... not to say that that has ever
happened. Sure, this is not the only reason but you've selected your
bed.
In nature, many very dominant species use prime numbers for their success.
In other words, if a locust emerges to breed every 17 years, it is almost
certainly going to ensure it's pattern as cross breading with other variants of
locust becomes less likely, whereas a species relying upon a breeding year
separated by 6, 9, 12, or 16 years is
doomed to failure. Why? It is much more likely to have two different
variants emerge in the same year for breading introducing the possibility of
destroying your own species as opposed to being exclusive to only your variant.
In other words, a 16 game schedule opens up the possibility of Vikings inbreeding
with Packers or Bears. Oh! The humanity!.
When applied to the NFL, our 32 franchises can & do act in their own self
interest which might help to explain why the present scheduling of divisional
games at the end of the season is an absolute disaster. Tell me, who came
up with the idea of scheduling "2 for 1" games when they don't
matter? In other words, franchises
know the rules by which they play where they can collectively act in their own
self interest to achieve a result whether or not those results are positive or negative.
Based upon this weekends time slot match-ups, if the Bears do end up beating the
Vikings in the 1 pm slot, as unlikely as it might seem, facing a 99% chance of
it not happening, it is in
the NFC South's best interest to have a Falcons lose, resulting in a Panthers
victory, along with a New Orleans loss. Why? Because that would
result in the Panthers having the #2 seed in the playoff format. Even
though the Falcons might miss the playoffs, assuming that the Seahawks win,
leaving only two NFC south teams available for the upcoming tournament, seeding
becomes much more important to the Division as compared to the number of teams
entering the NFL playoff tournament. Why? Because the #2 seed will gives the NFC
South its best opportunity of bringing home that Lombardi trophy.
Regardless of who wins that title, it represents the entire division. It
wasn't all that long ago that the NFC East had a round robin between the
Cowboys, Redskins & Giants sharing the Lombardi year after year.
Statistically, that result was a virtual impossibility. This
is the direct result of the present tie-breaker playoff format which gives
division games a 2:1 rating & also give conference wins priority over
non-conference wins. In other words, our present NFL scheduling system
inbreeds both contempt & combines it with self interest. Said another way, if I help you
out today ... maybe you can help me tomorrow. Of course, this result is
mute unless you know that the Ram's might be taking the week off to instead
prepare for the following weeks playoffs.
As bad as the present college scheduling & bowl system is, they have at
least got one thing right. They don't schedule home & away contests.
On the other hand they heavily rely upon the inbreeding within their conference
which is especially suspect when each conferences share their revenues between
the members of their conference.
Presently, under our 16 game format, 25% of your regular season schedule is
against non-conference games, counting only in the win-loss column but is useless
in the present tie breaker format. Almost 40% ( 37.5%) of your games are
scheduled against the inbreeding of your divisional opponents. 75% of the
regular season games are
scheduled against your own conference, which does have some weight, but these
conference do not trump other playoff tie-breakers. In other words,
conference wins can be diluted to having almost no meaning. This
present season scheduling is so ludicrous that if the
Vikings played Tom Brady in 2017, they would not see him again in the regular season
until 2021. Hello! People are paying to see your team have the
chance to stack up
against the best ... not a dead horse ... year after year.
Maybe you haven't noticed Tom Brady stifling
the AFC East division year after year because he absolutely owned
that division. Did anyone notice 27 years under Rodgers & Favre
era's. There's no sense of fair play in regard to which franchises
count & which ones don't, which begs the question are dynasties a good thing? Let me ask that question another way.
Are you ok with 31 people putting all there money & resources in the pot of a circular table where I don't have to because that's
just more weight for me to pick up year after
year.
Based upon our present system, this Vikings franchise will get to play Mitch Trubinski
12.5% (8 in 64 tries) but only see Tom Brady 1.6% (1 in 64 tries) of
the regular season. So what does that say about our Super Bowl which pits a 1.6%
chance of a match up against 75% of playing NFC teams? Does this
make sense to anybody?
No! It's about match ups. How do compare Xavier Rhodes versus any
other defensive back in the AFC when at best there is only a 1.6% chance of
seeing them on the same field let alone the 75% match-ups of playing NFC teams.
This has become a league of desperation. When things go bad based upon our
present system, owners flinch. Tom Brady & A. A. Ron have stacked
up overwhelming odds that franchises have to face within their division rather than to have
the full advantage of continuity. This Vikings franchise has faced 27
years of having to face a franchise quarterback from Green Bay whereas our best
efforts were to oppose that with an athlete sporting a Wonderlick Score of 13.
Is it any wonder coaches are fired year after year ... the annual bloodbath ...
which is now pending ... where the new regime coming in will have to somehow incorporate players that were selected by
the coaches of several other prior regimes that were suited for a completely different
concept or system.
How does this benefit the season ticket holders or those that purchase the NFL ticket. Said directly
... it doesn't. The word hope shouldn't the only factor driving the
Cleveland Browns season.
Some time ago it made sense to locate teams in divisions based upon proximity
where costs of preparation were based directly upon proximity. Said another way, it
would save on cost if Minnesota only had to travel to Detroit, Green Bay &
Chicago but this doesn't hold up today. In fact the NFL has completely
disregarded proximity playing games in London, Mexico City & Toronto
Canada. When 85% of the cost to fly is consumed at take off, it becomes
apparent that the cost to
cruise becomes almost irrelevant. Although this is only one issue is the
overall mix, the cost concepts generally applies to all of it, making Divisional
concepts obsolete. It's time this league moved on into the
21st century by revising its schedule to accommodate a superior product
based upon all 32 franchises rather than accommodating just a few. Change is a very basic axiom
of life but not in the NFL & not when it comes to that schedule & the
manipulations relating to divisions. Hey
we based on entire draft based upon that schedule. Really! How smart
was that?
So what would a 17 game format look like. Well first and foremost, at
least one irrelevant preseason game would go bye-bye in favor of adding 1
additional regular season game. All 32 franchises will have 8 home games
where each franchise will have to play one contest at a neutral sight like in
London England, Mexico City Mexico, Tokyo, Japan, Berlin Germany, Toronto Canada
& virtually just about anywhere ... introducing the regular season NFL
effect throughout the world. As for how the
banana gets sliced between the players & owners ... well ... there are
agents to make sure that this gets divided for their purposes alone. In
return the players get to scrap the Thursday night debacle where home games for
Thanksgiving are rotated amongst all 32 franchises. The
league would still maintain the eight present divisions, 4 AFC & 4 NFC
divisions, as they presently are but with much less divisional distinctions, with no more
home & away scheduling. Yup! You would only get to play in
historic Lambaeu Field every other year. Every three years you would
rotate the three other NFC Division by playing 4 games like we did this year (Buc's,
Panther's, Saint's & Falcon's). You would also play 2 games versus NFC
teams that finished as you did the prior year in your division, keeping these
games as the only games that vary amongst your division. The other 8 games
would be played against AFC teams of two rotating divisions. In year one,
you would play the AFC East & West Divisions. The following year your would
play the AFC West & North Divisions, The following year your
franchise would be followed by the AFC North & South. Lastly your
franchise would play the AFC South & East Divisions. In short 9 of 16
games (52.9%) of your games will be played in the NFC whereas 8 of 17 (47.1%) of
your games would now face AFC
opponents.
Year 1: Three NFC North Division Games, Four NFC East Games, two NFC 3rd
place games, 4 AFC East games, 4 AFC West games.
Year 2: Three NFC North Division Games, Four NFC South Games, two NFC 4th place
games, 4 AFC West games, 4 AFC North games.
Year 3: Three NFC North Division Games, Four NFC West Games, two NFC 1st place
games, 4 AFC North Games, 4 AFC South Games.
Year 4: Three NFC North Division Games, Four NFC East Games, two NFC 2nd place
games, 4 AFC South Games, 4 AFC East Games
Maybe the most important aspect of this new scheduling concept would be in the
inherent variance which would ensure that no team regular season schedule would
end up being a soft schedule. Division dominance would be a thing of the
past in favor of league-wide matchups.
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: December 28, 2017
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