If one is going to play the hypothetical 'what if the Patriots were in another division' game, it could be expanded to 'what if the NFL had realigned differently heading into the 2002 season'?
In 2001 each conference had three divisions; in 2004 it became four four-team divisions in each conference.
What if geography played a larger role than rivalries?
- Miami would be in the AFC South rather than keeping four AFL teams together in one division.
- That would have put the Ravens in the AFC East.
- The Colts would have been in the AFC North.
- That would have also been a perfect time to realign the NFC East, and put the Cowboys in the NFC South and Carolina in the NFC East.
- As far as the two western division go, perhaps Seattle would not have moved from the AFC. There could have been an AFC Pacific division consisting of San Diego, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco, with an NFC West division of St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Arizona. Of course that part would have never happened due to the way the networks do things (two teams in the same division/conference in the Bay area, two teams in the same division/conference in Missouri).
Ravens-Patriots in the same division would have replaced the Baltimore-Pittsburgh rivalry, while the AFCN would instead have had Indy-Pitt. Dallas would have had a more logical division rivalry with the Saints. Jacksonville-Miami would have become an I-95 rivalry in the AFC South.
2001 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com
2002 NFL Standings & Team Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com