NHL to Vote on Expanding Regular Season to 84 Games

With this weekend having the NHL All-Star Game, club owners have gathered in Atlanta to consider league business. One of the most important proposals to be voted on concerns expanding the regular season from 82 to 84 games. This is an important critical matter to make scheduling more balanced and realistic. Prior to the '04-'05 lockout, the schedule was unbalanced and unpredictable with, for example, some Eastern Conference teams playing at Western Conference teams only once or twice a decade. Since the resolution of the lockout, the league has weighted the schedule heavily towards divisional games with only ten nonconference games each of the last three seasons for clubs. With an increase to 84 regular season games, a balanced regular schedule could be implimented. This would mean three home/three road games against each of a team's four divisional opponent for a total of 24; two home/two road games against a team's ten nondivisional intraconference opponents for a total of 40; a home and away game against the five teams in one division in the other conference for a total of ten; a home game against five teams in the second nonconference division for a total of five; and a road game against five teams in the third nonconference division for a total of five. This would total to 84 games. For example, Western Conference teams would host all Eastern Conference teams twice every three years and play games on the road at each Eastern Conference team also two of every three years. This new plan could easily go into effect starting in the '08-09 regular season.

Adopting this new 84 game schedule with its balance and logic would give the NHL the second best schedule arrangement of the major four sports instead of the worst which it has now. The NFL scheduling system is easily professional sports' best. The NBA would be strongly encouraged to follow the NHL lead as they also play 82 regular season games with 30 clubs. A compromise would be to keep the 82 game schedule by having teams play nondivisonal intraconference opponents that finished in the same position in the standings the prior season two less times, one on the road and one at home. For example, if Minnesota won the NW, San Jose the Pacific, and Detroit the Central, Minnesota would play at San Jose just once, host Detroit just once, and Detroit would host San Jose but once the following season. A similar plan could also be implimented in the NBA.

Baseball has serious scheduling woes. With the NL having sixteen clubs and the AL fourteen, imbalanced, unfair schedules are the rule. The only solution is expansion to 32 clubs, and eventually 36. With 32, there would have to be four divisions which would eliminate the wild card. With imbalanced divisions such as exists now (NL Central with six clubs, AL West with just four clubs), there is no balanced and logical solution. Even if the AL were to expand and have five teams in the AL West (expandees Portland and Las Vegas, for example, and Texas moving to the AL Central), a schedule imbalance would still occur but there would be some improvement. Lets hope MLB figures this out and begins planning for at least two new expansion clubs in the next few years so the scheduling imbalances and injustices is mitigated to a small extent.

http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/mckenzie/?id=228124

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