Realignment in the NHL, MLB, the NFL, and the NBA

TL;DR

This paper presents a flexible method for realigning major North American sports leagues to reduce travel and improve structure, demonstrated through applications to NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL.

Contribution

It introduces an adaptive approach for league realignment that minimizes travel and can be tailored to different sports leagues' needs.

Findings

MLB and NFL could reduce travel by about 20% with optimal realignment.

The method is adaptable to various league sizes and structures.

Significant travel reductions are achievable through strategic realignment.

Abstract

Sports leagues consist of conferences subdivided into divisions. Teams play a number of games within their divisions and fewer games against teams in different divisions and conferences. Usually, a league structure remains stable from one season to the next. However, structures change when growth or contraction occurs, and realignment of the four major professional sports leagues in North America has occurred more than twenty-five times since 1967. In this paper, we describe a method for realigning sports leagues that is flexible, adaptive, and that enables construction of schedules that minimize travel while satisfying other criteria. We do not build schedules; we develop league structures which support the subsequent construction of efficient schedules. Our initial focus is the NHL, which has an urgent need for realignment following the recent move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, but our methods can be adapted to virtually any situation. We examine a variety of scenarios for the NHL, and apply our methods to the NBA, MLB, and NFL. We find the biggest improvements for MLB and the NFL, where adopting the best solutions would reduce league travel by about 20%.