Very Serious NFL Expansion Scenarios Would Have Given Detroit Lions Very Strange Divisional Rivals

The Detroit Lions are in what might be a prefect division in the National Football League. The NFC North includes prefect regional rivalries with Chicago, Minnesota and Green Bay. With the exception of the Vikings, the three other teams are the most historic in the league.

Could you imagine other teams in the division with the Lions. Of course, many NFC North fans will remember when the division that included Detroit was the NFC Central and also included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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In 1993 the NFL was readying a round of expansion with the Carolina Panthers and the yet-to-be-named Jacksonville Jaguars. A Facebook page called On This Day in Professional Football History shared that in October 1993 the league shared several realignment possibilities for the league with new teams.

At the time, divisions had 5 teams, which accounted for the Tampa Bay NFC Central grouping.

Realignment Scenario 1 was a 'straight addition' of two expansion teams which would have brought two divisions to 6 teams while the rest had 5. The NFC Central would have been unchanged with Detroit-Chicago-Minnesota-Green Bay-Tampa Bay.

Scenario 2 shook up divisions accounting for changes made since a previous 1970 league realignment. That group would have swapped out Tampa Bay for Indianapolis. Having the Colts in the NFC North would have been a prefect geographic fit and would have meant a conference change for Indy.

Scenario 3 sought group regionality and some changes made due to the AFL-NFL merger. In this paring, it would have been Cincinnati added to the division instead of Tampa Bay. Still a close geographic group but would have split the Ohio teams.

Scenario 4 was a variation of Scenario 2 (which would have paired Indianapolis with the Great Lakes teams) and while other divisions changed, the division with Detroit was in the same in both scenarios.

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Of course how it played out was to have 4 teams spread out across 8 divisions and the NFC North we know and love today.