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Sunday, March 25, 2001

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The Steelers' new division will look a lot like their old one when National Football League owners vote to realign for the 2002 season.

Cincinnati, Cleveland and the Steelers will be joined by either Houston or Baltimore in what likely will be called the AFC North Division. Jacksonville and Tennessee will leave the AFC Central in 2002 and play in the new AFC South, which will include Indianapolis and either Houston or Baltimore.

NFL owners will discuss realignment at their annual meetings which open in Palm Desert, Calif., today. They won't take a final vote until May, but the alignment of the 32-team league is virtually set, except in a few cases.

The league will consist of eight four-team divisions when expansion Houston joins in 2002. It now has six divisions, five with five teams and one, the AFC Central, with six.

The only real doubt in the new setup involves one team each in four divisions -- the AFC North, South and West and the NFC West.

In the AFC North and South, it's down to which division gets Houston and which gets Baltimore. In the two West divisions, it's a matter of whether San Diego or Seattle leaves the AFC and joins the NFC.

This is how the new NFL should look in 2002:

North -- Steelers, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Baltimore or Houston.

South -- Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee and Baltimore or Houston.

East -- Miami, New York Jets, Buffalo and New England.

West -- Kansas City, Denver, Oakland and San Diego or Seattle.

North -- Detroit, Minnesota, Green Bay and Chicago.

South -- Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta and New Orleans.

East -- Dallas, Washington, New York Giants and Philadelphia.

West -- San Francisco, Arizona, St. Louis and Seattle or San Diego.

"Basically, we're really in good shape. It should not be that difficult," Dan Rooney said of realignment.

The owners will not vote on realignment this week, partly because they want to do it when there's not so much interference. All 32 coaches will attend the meetings this week and they generally are more concerned about the short term rather than the long. For example, it would not be surprising if Steelers Coach Bill Cowher would push for expansion Houston to be included in his team's new division over reigning Super Bowl champion Baltimore.

"That's why we don't want the coaches to vote," Rooney said, laughing.

The Steelers president prefers to have the Ravens join the AFC North with Houston his second choice.

"It makes sense," Rooney said. "It gives us an Eastern exposure and they've been in our division a long time, taking them back to Cleveland."

If it is Baltimore and not Houston, every opponent in the AFC North will be within five hours driving time from Pittsburgh. Each team will play the other in its division twice for six games. They will play all four teams in another division within their conference and four teams from one division in the NFC.

Their remaining two games will be based on how they finish from the previous season.

"What's real exciting about the schedule format," said Roger Goodell, a league executive vice president, "is every team will play every other team at least once every four years and will play them home and away once every eight years."

That will eliminate flukes in the schedule that had the Steelers playing in Kansas City six consecutive times, including next season, without a visit from the Chiefs here, or the Raiders playing here just once in the past 20 years, or Miami and Denver playing just once between 1983 and 1997 when Dan Marino and John Elway were the league's best quarterbacks.

"Those kinds of aberrations will never happen again," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

In the meantime, the owners are poised to keep instant replay, perhaps permanently. They are satisfied with the coaches' challenge system that has been used the past two seasons and may vote to extend it longer than a year. The owners have approved the use of replay on a one-year basis each time and must vote on it again this year.

"The commissioner and the clubs do not want a replay system that unduly interferes with the pace or length" of games, said George Young, the league's head of football operations.

Last year, play stopped for challenges by coaches 247 times in 248 games, with 83 reversals of the calls made on the field. There were no challenges in 82 games.

"Last year, they really didn't have too many problems," Rooney said. "It's definitely going to pass, it's just a question of how long.

"I don't like to see them put it in permanently. But the argument for putting it in permanently is that they spent a lot of money on equipment. They really have it down now that it's working."

Among other business that will be conducted in the desert this week will be rules governing taunting on the field, rules covering when team officials can talk to an assistant on another team about becoming a head coach, and various rules proposals, all minor.