2007 NFL Division Rankings.

With training camps about ready to open around the NFL landscape, I thought it may be a good time to give my pre-season breakdown of the 8 league divisions. The way that the divisions are set up in the NFL create such great rivalries that I figured a good analysis of the league starts at the division level.

To begin with, 6 out of the 16 games played are against the foes in your division. In addition, with the current scheduling paradigm, all the teams in the division play the same people, save 2 games. And perhaps the coolest thing, is that the schedule lines up teams to play an entire division in the AFC and the NFC. In short the 16 games consist of:

• 6 division games. You play each of your division rivals twice. One at home and one away
• 4 intra-conference games. You play each team in a select division inside your conference.
• 4 inter-conference games. You play each team in a select division in the opposing conference.
• 2 positional intra-conference games. You play each team in your conference that finished in the same divisional rankings as you did. These are the only games that vary for divisional foes.

Because of this scheduling system, the divisions in the NFL are extremely important. Not only do the division winners get into the playoffs, but your strength of schedule is determined almost entirely by your division and the other divisions that you happen to match up with. So instead of doing a breakdown on a team by team basis, I thought a division analysis may be in order. I will start with the worst division and work my way up to the best. I will try to add at least one division each day. Get ready to defend your favorite division, because I am pulling out all the stops and hope to be able to offend every fan equally.