Abolish Divisions In Sports

EDITOR'S NOTE: I realize this may be (probably is) a controversial topic and I can foresee people arguing over this. That's perfectly fine. You have a right to your opinion just like I have a right to mine. So feel free to disagree with my position, but do so in a calm, making-a-rational-argument sort of way. Any foul language or insults in the comments will be deleted. To not facilitate any heated arguments I, for the most part, will not comment on this post. I feel I have made my point very clear.

Recently, it was talked about and heavily disagreed with by everybody that a realignment plan should be implemented in Major League Baseball. Even despite the huge backlash this created, I don't per se have a problem with it.

My main beef is with playoff seeding in general. In the vast majority of American sports, mainly with the MLB and NFL, playoff seeding is determined by division winners. We have divisions in sports for the sole reason of who gets to play who when the post-season comes around. Sure, divisions help determine schedule for you play more teams within your division, but is the extra burden on the professional sports leagues to make a schedule really worth this supposed benefit we get?

Think about the core root of a playoffs: it's supposed to determine who the champion of the league is. Sure, sabermetricians will tell you that playoffs are dumb because the larger sample size of a regular season is a better indicator of which team is the best versus the luck heavily (especially in college basketball and baseball) post-season. While that is true, the New Orleans Saints, Duke Blue Devils, and Los Angeles Lakers are considered the champions in their sport because they won their post-season, not because they won their regular season. Like it or not, the reason a post-season exists is to determine who the best of the best is. But how can we determine who the best of the best is when the top teams in the sport are not competing in the post season?

Last year, the Texas Rangers (87-75) technically has a better winning percentage than the AL Central winners the Minnesota Twins (87-76). In 2008, the third place in the AL East (NY Yankees, 89-73) had a better record than the Chicago White Sox (89-74) who again won the Central. That same year, the St. Louis Cardinals (86-76), Houston Astros (86-75), New York Mets (89-73) and Florida Marlins (84-77) all had a better record than the Los Angeles Dodgers (84-78). But because the Dodgers won the NL West, they got the playoff spot. Again that year but in the NFL, the New England Patriots (11-5), New York Jets (9-7) had a better record than the San Diego Chargers (8-8), but guess why the Chargers made it over the Pats and Jets with a crappier record?

Sure, the vast vast majority of the time the winner of the divisions and wild cards are the teams with the best record (a la the 2009 MLB season), but why can't this be the case for every single season? We've already said (and this is proven, don't argue with this) that the regular season is the best measure we currently have to judge how good a team really is. So we're saying a team that had a better record in the regular season and therefore is a better team does not get to compete to see if they are the best team in their sport, just because of divisions?

The best of the best in the regular season should earn a spot in the post-season. This is sort of what NCAA basketball tries to implement to determine the field of 65. However in professional sports, it is easy to determine and still not done.

Another reason I think divisions should be abolished, and this ties into my last point, is that the crappier teams in the division will never be able to go to the playoffs because of the stronger teams in the division- mainly the AL East. The Yankees and Red Sox have such a huge stranglehold in that division, that I don't foresee the Orioles or the Blue Jays getting to the playoffs any time soon. Sure, the Rays won the wild card in 2008 and went to the World Series, but because the Yankees and Red Sox have all the money, the Rays have a very little shot of ever getting another taste at the post-season. The Rays show it can be done, but they also are showing us that you can't get it done consistently (I'm happy to be proven wrong this year though). But without divisions (or if the Yankees and Red Sox were in different divisions), the Yankees and Red Sox money would have less of an effect.

The biggest criticism and I think the best argument I hear for having divisions is because the rivalries created/divisions generate a lot of money. The Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/Cardinals rivalries are not only good for the individual teams but are also good for the sport as a whole. Even though the Rays are good and one of baseball's best right now, the only way they sell out their stadium is when the Red Sox or Yankees come to town.

However, scheduling teams is independent of whether there are divisions or not. Having the Dodgers play the Giants often can be done without divisions. Having the Cubs and White Sox play the Brewers in Milwaukee so Miller Park can be sold out can occur with or without divisions. The MLB can still schedule rival games no matter what. The Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots play every year now because it's currently a great rivalry that America seems to care about. Yet the Pats and Colts are not in the same division yet the NFL schedules those games anyway because it knows doing so generates revenue. The same can be done in the MLB.

In the NBA and the NHL, because there are only three divisions but eight playoff spots, this problem is a non-factor. And (at least in the NBA, I'm sorry but I am too unfamiliar with the NHL to know this) even if you win your division, you're not guaranteed a top three seeding (see the Boston Celtics this year). But because of the limitations of playoff spots in the NFL and MLB, divisions do become a problem and they easiest way to eliminate the problem is to eliminate divisions. Maybe the realignment plan is not the best idea, but this current system is not the correct one either.