College athletics is in quite a state of chaos right now, which has teams from all over the country suddenly thrust into conferences together. This fall we will see USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the Big Ten with Rutgers and Maryland. We will also see California and Stanford joining the Atlantic Coast Conference with Boston College, Miami and all those North Carolina schools. The Big 12 will stretch from Arizona to West Virginia.
That's the reality of college athletics and there has been a lot of mockery about it. But professional sports has had several instances of weird geography throughout their history ... and still does in some cases. Here are my favorites over the years.
NHL'S CONFERENCE AND DIVISION NAMES
This isn't about actual geography as much as when the NHL didn't use a compass to make division names. Back in the 1980s, we had the Wales and Campbell Conferences that housed the Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe Divisions. Even though the divisions were pretty much geographically aligned, the kooky names (for us Americans) gave those divisions a different kind of heft. I remember Wayne Gretzky back then saying that the NHL probably needed to ditch those names for traditional directional names (which they did), but the spirit of those old school names should come back. When the NHL realigned a few years ago, they mixed in the "Metropolitan Division" to go with the Atlantic, Central and Pacific divisions. Oh how I wish the Smythe would come back. By the way, the NFL did something similar in 1967 when they broke into the Capitol, Century, Coastal and Central divisions until the merger forced them into the names we've known for decades.
DALLAS STARS IN PACIFIC DIVISION
When the NHL realigned during the late 1990s it put the Dallas Stars in the Pacific Division. That placed Dallas, who is in the Central Time Zone, with teams in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix and San Jose. It had to be done with what they had to work with, but it was still unfortunate to have Dallas stuffed in a division to have so much travel despite being closer to teams in the Central Division.
MILWAUKEE BREWERS IN AL EAST INSTEAD OF CHICAGO WHITE SOX
In one of the weirder decisions, the American League decided to put the Milwaukee Brewers in the AL East and the Chicago White Sox in the AL West. When divisions were formed in 1969, the Brewers were an expansion team known as the Seattle Pilots and were sent to the AL West. After one season, they Pilots moved to Milwaukee but stayed in the AL West. When the Washington Senators moved to Dallas to become the Texas Rangers in the 1972 season, the league moved them from the AL East to the AL West but had a difficult time deciding if the Brewers or Chicago White Sox would move from the West to the East. The White Sox felt they should move East to be with their longtime rivals Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Indians and Orioles (the West had only the Athletics). Even though the White Sox ... an original American League franchise ... had a point, the AL decided to put the relatively new Brewers in the East. What makes it even more strange is that Milwaukee and Chicago are close to each other and they were broken up to play in different divisions. That's even more ironic now since the Brewers were moved to the National League Central during the realignment of 1994 so they could be paired with the Chicago Cubs.
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS IN NFC CENTRAL
Florida teams always seemed to get placed in weird places. Heck, it is the same now. But when the Buccaneers settled on a division after their 1976 expansion, they landed in the NFC Central. By name, that's not too egregious. However they were thrown in a division made up of what is the NFC North now: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. Four franchises that are very close in proximity and known for their cold, harsh winters. And then there's sunny Tampa Bay. In 2002, the Buccaneers were lopped off the NFC Central and placed in the much more appropriate NFC South.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER IN NORTHWEST DIVISION
Oklahoma University will be taking their sports to the Southeastern Conference this fall. Yet their lone professional sports franchise in the state -- the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder -- play in the Northwest Division? The easy explanation is that the Seattle SuperSonics' move to the Sooner State led to this bad geographic issue, but why hasn't it been corrected? The easy answer for that is there is no clear cut franchise to switch with. The one that makes the most sense -- the Sacramento Kings -- wouldn't want to break away from the nearby Golden State Warriors or the down state Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers. Really another other option that isn't already in that division are just as horrible geographically as Oklahoma City.
NHL'S CURRENT EASTERN CONFERENCE
When the NHL went back to a four division format a few years ago, the Western Conference was easy to break up into two divisions. The Eastern Conference was a bit tougher due to some politics and preferences of team placements. The divisions really make no geographical sense. The Metropolitan Division houses the New York based teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils), the Pennsylvania teams (Penguins, Flyers) as well as the Washington Capitals. Then the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets are somehow with that group. Meanwhile the Atlantic Division houses the northeast teams (Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Senators, Sabres, Bruins) with the Florida teams (Lightning, Panthers)? To top it off, somehow the Detroit Red Wings are there? It's really odd. It may have been more geographically sound to have Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens alongside the Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils to form that Atlantic Division and have the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins join the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning in a sort of "Mideast Division". It is messy regardless, but the current geography is strange.
ST LOUIS/PHOENIX/ARIZONA CARDINALS IN NFC EAST
The 2002 NFL realignment did a lot to rectify the league's vast geographic issues that weren't addressed in any way for over 30 years. One of those improvements was to cut the Cardinals from the NFC East. When the division was formed after the merger, the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins (now Commanders), Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals were original members. Obviously Dallas isn't very east, but the rivalry among those teams was real so it made sense to keep them together. St. Louis gave Dallas a team at least sorta/kinda nearby. But in the mid-1980s, the Cards moved to Phoenix and now made the division reach from New York to Arizona. Again, the Arizona Cardinals were placed in a revamped NFC West in 2002. The Dallas Cowboys are still a geographical oddity, but that's more about the deep rivalries they have with the Giants, Eagles and Commanders than anything.
THE OLD NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
The NL West that existed from 1963 to 1993 was quite a setup. You did have western teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, but they were joined by the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. Atlanta and Cincinnati were placed in the NL West despite Chicago and St. Louis further west. When baseball realigned in 1994 to add a Central Division to each league, Houston and Cincinnati were placed in the Central and Atlanta took their rightful place in the NL East.
THE OLD NFC WEST
Until that 2002 realignment, the NFC West was one of the weirdest divisions in sports. It began innocently enough as the NFL created divisions that were less about geography, which caused a "Coastal" division to be created with two teams off the Pacific coast (Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers) and two off the Atlantic coast (Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Colts). When the NFL and AFL merged, the NFL went to geographic divisions (East, Central, West) but the NFC West was still ridiculously off. The Rams and 49ers still were paired with the Falcons, but now the New Orleans Saints were thrown in. When the league expanded in 1995, the Carolina Panthers were added to the division. So the NFC West had three franchises in the southern part of the country and only two ... west.
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