Gentlemen (and ladies), I'll be honest. I haven't been around here in a long while. Haven't really been much of a poster when I was. But I recently posted something on a website about realignment that could be interesting. I stress that I haven't been here in a while because there are probably 10 gazillion other Fanposts on here about possible realignments. I don't know if this has been done, I don't know if there is a moratorium on realignment-related posts, and I don't know how well this will go down. But here goes nothing.

If the Big 12 collapses and sets off realignment frenzy, then I could see us taking the two Kansas schools, maybe Iowa State, and Notre Dame. Beyond that, I dont think there is anybody geographically feasible enough for us to take. We'd keep the Big Ten name because by then, we'd have ten states represented:

Indiana: IU, PU, ND

Michigan: UM and MSU

Iowa: Iowa and ISU

Illinois: ILL and NW

Kansas: KU and KSU

Penn: PSU

Ohio: OSU

Minnesota: Minn

Wisconsin: UW

Nebraska: Neb

The ONLY other school that could maybe make sense geographically would be Cincy.

This way, a four division format would be feasible; the scheduling could work similar to how the NFL schedules its season - 9 divison games, always play your division opponents (3 games), Play every team from another division (4 games), then play the teams that finished in the same place last year from the other two divisions. Big Ten championship would be the best teams from each divisional pairing, with the tiebreaker being head-to-head matchup, then possibly BCS ranking. It would encourage the rise and fall of teams, and would certainly make things more interesting as far as games go.

Geographically ideal divisions:

Northwest/ "Frigid North" division - NW, Minn, Wisc, Neb

Southwest/ "Newbies plus Iowa" division - KU, KSU, Iowa, ISU

Northeast/ "Gauntlet" division - Mich, MSU, PSU, OSU

Southeast/ "Wake us up when basketball starts" division - IU, ND, PU, ILL

Saved rivalries - Wisc/Minn, Wisc/Neb (this one could/should be growing), KU/KSU, Iowa/ISU, Mich/OSU, Mich/MSU, MSU/PSU, IU/PU, IU/ILL, PU/ND

Lost rivalries (that could still be played, just not as often) - ILL/NW, Mich/ND (who have considered going on a break anyway)

Obviously, these would not be perfect divisions, but I think something like this would be very beneficial for the Big Ten. The network reaches into a new (albeit small) market in Kansas, the member institutions have more of a Big Ten "feel", rather than what our other expansion targets like Rutgers or Syracuse might have been (Pitt would have been a great addition), and the Big Ten would be competing with the way college football and the divisional format is headed.

What does the OTE community think about this? Obviously Delaney isn't going to be reading this, but how well would this work out?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7093244/oakland-raiders-agree-trade-aaron-curry-seattle-seahawks

Aaron Curry just got traded by the Seahawks to the Raiders. Remember when our fans were clamoring for Curry, even chanting "Don't draft Stafford"? No Detroit fan would be saying that now. Same goes for Brandon Pettigrew. I remember when Michael Oher, "Blind Side" star and huge presence at LT at Ole Miss and USC MLB Rey Maualuga were still available, knowing that at the time, both positions were places where we could have used an upgrade, only to find us taking Grew with the pick we got in the Dallas trade (another great Mayhew move). That 2009 draft changed everything for us. It's great that we FINALLY have someone in there who knows what he is doing and has built (and is still building) a great franchise for years to come. Cheers to you, Mr. Mayhew.

Read the title. The quip about the ranking sums up everything I have been telling my Chicago-loving fraternity brothers - If Matt Stafford stays healthy, the Lions are going places. However, the most interesting thing to note is their rise compared to the end of last season, going from #24 to #18. Only Arizona had a bigger leap (28th to 21st). I personally think we should be right above the Rams, since we absolutely ripped them up last season. Whaddya say, POD?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings

Okay, yeah, here's another "OMG, *insert player here* just got cut, we should sign him!!!!" moment, but would Olin Kreutz be a worthwhile addition to the O-Line? I'm 80% sure that he and Dom Raiola are good friends, plus he would provide veteran leadership in the locker room. And if Dom or Peterman gets injured/sucks, we could plug him in. But possibly the most important thing he could provide to our team would be giving us the schemes, calls, and playbook intricacies of the Bears. If we treat him right, it would be similar to Brett Favre (team mainstay gets unceremoniously dumped, joins division rival to wreak havoc). Whaddya think, POD?

Jags just dropped Derrick Harvey. Former first-rounder from Florida. Could he be a fit here? We do have a history of doing well with former first-round castoffs (see Jackson, Lawrence and Smith, Alphonso), and he would be walking into one of, if not the, most talented DL in the NFL. Besides, the person who drafted him in Jacksonville, Shack Harris, is now in the Detroit front office. At best, he lives up to the first-round billing and gets a boost after a change of scenery. At worst, he's depth. He'd also be getting tips from KVB, who is aging, but has one of the best motors in football. I could see a KVB/Harvey/McBride RE platoon and an Avril/LoJack/Young LE depth chart. POD, whaddya think?

I've been trying to float the nickname "Bullet Train" by Mikel and Jahvid on Twitter. Think about it. JB is the "bullet". Bullets are fast. They also hurt when you get in their way. But they are more known for being fast. Similar to Jahvid. Coincidentally, a popular gun size is a .44, JB's number. Mikel is the "train". Trains are powerful. So is ML. They are also fast. But they are more known for being powerful. I think Detroit could "Take the 25 train to Touchdown City, USA" quite a few times this season. Both names also work as a replacement for the player's name, similar to Cadillac Williams. I.E., Bullet Best and Train LeShoure. They'll need some getting used to, but I think they could work. What do you think, POD?

We haven't had as many opportunities to create rivalries over the years. Sure, there's always the Packers, Vikings, and Bears, who are division rivals, but we don't have a team whose game we circle on the calendar. We may be playing the Bears on MNF, and I would currently consider them our biggest rival, mainly due to the city rivalry of Detroit and Chicago (each of the four major sports has the Detroit and a Chicago team in the same division). But the Bears wouldn't consider us their biggest rival, that would be the Packers. Thus, we must look elsewhere. Great rivalries usually begin in the playoffs. The Bulls-Pistons rivalry of the late 80's/early 90's was due to the fact that both teams played high-caliber basketball and would usually have the conference championship on the line. The Avalanche-Wings rivalry was the same. The Lions really haven't had the playoff experience to develop a rivalry such as the Colts and Patriots, who play in different divisions but still see each other every year because of the way NFL scheduling works, with there also being the possibility of the two teams meeting in the AFC championship. The biggest reason they are rivals, though, is because they feature the two best QB's in the league, whose names I don't even need to mention. The two teams are very similar. Which brings me to my point. Is there a team that is similar to Detroit, with a somewhat similar history, significant players at similar positions, who we play quite often? There's a team I'm implying here.

Tampa Bay

Think about it. Class of '09 QB. Class of '10 DT and RB. Both teams are on the rise. Both teams had two division rivals in the playoffs last year. Both teams are poised to make the playoffs this year. Both teams have had winless seasons in the past. The Lions snapped their away losing streak against the Bucs. I think it takes a not-so-clean hit by Fairley on Freeman or LeGarrette Blount punching Louis Delmas to start a little bit of bad blood between us two and to start one of the premier rivalries of the '10s. What do you think?

And below some links for other articles, I see an ad for Yahoo!'s NFL team shop. You know, nothing out of the ordinary. They usually put some popular or noteworthy teams as the three or four sample shirts. You know where I'm going with this. I saw a Lions shirt, and now I'm seeing that the media is changing its perception of the Lions. I like it a lot. Just thought we all should know.

With the talent we have on both sides of the ball, a glaring need now presents itself to the Lions. We discussed this last year, and I think now it is imperative that we address this issue once again.

We are in desperate need of some more nicknames.

For the D-Line, I suggested "The Motown Maulers" for the ability to cleverly adapt it to different situations - "The Motown Maulers have placed Jay Cutler on the menu for Monday Night's feast", "Detroit's Motown Mauler Defensive Line has snacked on opposing QB's 58 times during the regular season and have feasted at least five times in the last three games, showing that the Defensive Line will hold up well during the playoffs."

For the offense, we could do something Transformers related, for obvious reasons, but I have another idea, "The Move-The-Chain Gang". This could be better for a team with many arrests (like the Bengals), but it's my idea, so it goes to my team.

Also, individual nicknames need to happen. No Fair has been used to describe Nick Fairley (or the Fairley-Suh combo), but others need to come up as well. Nicknames = greatness... usually (I'm looking at you, Can't Cover Brown).

Post what you think in the comments. Who knows, if cameras catch a PODer (podder, maybe?) with a sign with a clever nickname, it could catch on.

...just got released from the colts. what do you guys think? an unbelievable talent that has been plagued by an inability to stay healthy. I wouldnt mind seeing two long-haired safeties wearing honolulu blue. not to mention two safeties who can bring the hammer when necessary. i'm not sure about his coverage skills, but he's great in run support. let's give him an incentive-laden contract with something small guaranteed, but incentives to be healthy and start games.

I'm not sure how many people here used atdhe.net to watch Lions games away from the comfort of a TV, but being a student at the wonderful Indiana University has forced me to sometimes use the internet to watch games. The most reliable site I knew of was atdhe.net, and it has recently been seized by the government, never to be used again. Sure, it may have been of questionable legality being a hub for TV feeds, but nonetheless, to me, it was a vital source of Lions action. Please leave your condolences in the comments below.

The Chargers are set to release Shawne Merriman once his calf injury is healed. I wanna know, What do my fellow PODers think about bringing him to the Lions? He would definitely improve our LB corps, as much as I like Zack Follett, he could be better as an "important backup" that still gets PT and contributes on special teams. He also has a history of of getting in trouble with the law and worse, hanging out with women with an alcoholic drink for a last name.

What do you guys think?

this is a link to an espn article on matthew stafford and mkaing a big jump from rookie year to sophomore year. click on it, and tell me something. looking at the picture of stafford, dropped back and reading the defense, don't you just get the vibe from his facial expression that stafford knows what he's doing now? as soon as i looked at it, i noticed how calm, collected, and confident he looked. does anyone else agree with me?

The Lions have moved quite a few players around the past few years, many of them well-liked by fans. It shows a new direction that the Lions are taking. Unfortunately, not everyone is a die-hard Lions fan, and has been turned off by the recent losing seasons, most recently the infamous 0-16. What would you guys at POD think of this idea? Have a jersey trade. Trade in an old-style jersey (for example, my Honolulu Blue #11 Roy Williams) for a new jersey with a new player (#81 Calvin). The fan prints off an online form showing what kind of jersey they have and what kind of jersey they would like in return. They mail the form, the jersey, and maybe a small fee and their requested jersey is mailed back to the return address. This would engineer some interest in the Lions, possibly bring some estranged fans back (maybe even into some seats), and would bring some positive press to the front office. What do you guys think?