This is not a vent board or any other kind of therapy. Before you hit the POST button, ask yourself if your contribution will add to the level of discussion going on.

Important notes on articles:

• Please do not copy entire articles into your post; rather, provide links to them.. We are now links-only for ALL Internet publications. If only a small portion of the article pertains to your post, Fair Use allows you to copy those one or two paragraphs, provided you cite the author's name and the publication for which he writes. Otherwise, put a link in the HTTP Link box.
• Even if you're copying a reference to an article, provide a link to the page from which the article came. We're trying to cut down on duplicate topics, and the posting process will check the link to your article to see if it's already being discussed on this board. At the very least, you'll save yourself some grief on the boards.
• If your first reaction after reading the article you're going to share is the author is uninformed / stupid / a jerk / all of the above, it's not worth sharing with anyone. Not every article needs to be discussed. The more the hair-pulling articles are discussed (e.g. ESPN Page 2), the more the authors will write hair-pulling articles.

Post being replied to

"Protected from Relegation"? by IrishintheD

That should be a non-starter...at least long term. I could see certain assurances being given to certain teams that they won't be relegated for the first x years (I'd suggest 2-4), but to NEVER be relegated is a sham.

I posted about it before, but I still think there is a path for a 2-level, 4 conference, 8-division system. Based on geography. I linked a spreadsheet where I looked at this before.

64 teams in the top level/64 teams in the lower level
4 conferences of 32 teams (16 teams in the top level, 16 in the lower level)
2 divisions of 8 teams in each conference per level.

12 game regular season where each top level team plays:
1 team in the lower tier but part of its same conference/division
2 teams from any other conference of the top level
2 teams from the opposite division within its conference
7 games against the other 7 teams in its division

Regular season champs of each division within a conference play each other (conference championship)

That leaves four teams in the 'playoffs'.

Last place team in each division is relegated and the division champs from the lower division replace them.