pf9 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 The 17th game for each team will be an interconference game based on the previous year's standings. The 18th game whenever that is added down the line can be too. In this format, each team would play a positional interconference game from a team in the corresponding division every year, except for when those divisions play a full interlocking schedule. Basing the years 1-4 assignments on what the interconference assignments were from 2002-05 (the first four years of the current alignment, each division's positional interconference games would look like this: Year 1: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC West, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC West, AFC South VS. NFC North, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC East, AFC West VS. NFC South Year 2: AFC East VS. NFC South, AFC East VS. NFC West, AFC North VS. NFC East, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC South VS. NFC East, AFC South VS. NFC North, AFC West VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC West Year 4: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC East, AFC North VS. NFC West, AFC South VS. NFC North, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC West Year 5: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC South, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC West, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC South VS. NFC West, AFC West VS. NFC East, AFC West VS. NFC North Year 6: AFC East VS. NFC North, AFC East VS. NFC South, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC South, AFC South VS. NFC East, AFC South VS. NFC West, AFC West VS. NFC East, AFC West VS. NFC West Year 8: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC West, AFC North VS. NFC East, AFC North VS. NFC South, AFC South VS. NFC North, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC North, AFC West VS. NFC West Year 9: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC West, AFC North VS. NFC East, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC South VS. NFC West, AFC West VS. NFC North, AFC West VS. NFC South Year 10: AFC East VS. NFC North, AFC East VS. NFC South, AFC North VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC South, AFC South VS. NFC East, AFC South VS. NFC West, AFC West VS. NFC East, AFC West VS. NFC West Year 12: AFC East VS. NFC East, AFC East VS. NFC North, AFC North VS. NFC South, AFC North VS. NFC West, AFC South VS. NFC East, AFC South VS. NFC South, AFC West VS. NFC North, AFC West VS. NFC West Years 3, 7, 11: AFC East VS. NFC East X2 (home-and-home), AFC North VS. NFC North X2 (home-and-home), AFC South VS. NFC South X2 (home-and-home), AFC West VS. NFC West X2 (home-and-home) - in these years, no corresponding divisions are paired in the full-fledged rotation. In this format, over a 12-year period, each team plays 12 positional interconference games against the teams in the corresponding interconference division (ex. East VS. East), and 4 games each against the non-corresponding divisions (ex. East VS. North, South, West). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INbengalfan Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Much easier for the top two teams from a division to play the other top 2 teams intra-conference (but not the division your division is already playing) Simply put. The AFCN plays the AFCW this season. For 18 games, the Steelers and Ravens would play the top 2 teams from the AFCE and AFCS. The Bengals and Browns would play the 3rd and 4th place teams No need to make it so complicated with interdivisional games. Keeping i in-conference also carries more playoff implications, while eliminating the need to have the entire conference play the extra games at home or road, which is, as I understand it for playoff implications, what is happening with the 17th game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf9 Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 (edited) Edit: NVM Edited March 14, 2021 by pf9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf9 Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 As it is in-conference non-division matchups happen pretty often. In the most extreme case, the Colts and Patriots played 10 years in a row from 03-12 (they were previously together in the AFC East where they played twice a year). The NFL wants to make interconference games occur more often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheatieMan Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, INbengalfan said: Much easier for the top two teams from a division to play the other top 2 teams intra-conference (but not the division your division is already playing) Simply put. The AFCN plays the AFCW this season. For 18 games, the Steelers and Ravens would play the top 2 teams from the AFCE and AFCS. The Bengals and Browns would play the 3rd and 4th place teams No need to make it so complicated with interdivisional games. Keeping i in-conference also carries more playoff implications, while eliminating the need to have the entire conference play the extra games at home or road, which is, as I understand it for playoff implications, what is happening with the 17th game. I agree. I feel this 17th game is just a stepping stone to grow the international brand a few more years before they have to revert to a saner even number schedule. They are testing to see if they can grow the overseas brand and will ultimately fail. I do think we may stay at 17 for a while if this is the case though, because the viewership has been declining and will continue to do so until they pick up the flags and improve pace. The NFL is where MLB was 15-20 years ago with the Yankee dynasty and the Brady/Jeter era and it will be a slow and steady decline in the US and overseas until they improve the pace and fluidity of the game. PS: Already aware that the conferences plan on alternating with a home and home but that will only be until COVID passes completely. Then, likely, we will get teams playing in London every week from Week 2 on in the morning window on Sunday. They will secure a few other European locations as well. Edited March 14, 2021 by WheatieMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyDez Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Each team should get two bye weeks during either weeks 6-7 and 13-14. So you’d get about half the normal amount of games for four weeks of the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scar988 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 The other option would be something like a semi permanent set of rivals from the corresponding division with a set of backup rivals from a non-corresponding division. Example: NFC S vs. AFC S. Falcons would have Houston and Titans Saints would have Houston and Indianapolis Panthers would have Jaguars and Texans Buccaneers would have Jaguars and Indianapolis But when they play the AFC S on the schedule, they get the AFC East as the backup division Falcons would have Dolphins and Patriots Saints would have Patriots and Jets Panthers would have Jets and Bills Buccaneers would have Bills and Dolphins Divisions would align like this normally: AFC N vs. NFC N AFC S vs. NFC S AFC E vs NFC E AFC W vs. NFC W And then backup: AFC N vs. NFC W AFC W vs. NFC N AFC E vs. NFC S AFC S vs. NFC E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INbengalfan Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 11 hours ago, WheatieMan said: I agree. I feel this 17th game is just a stepping stone to grow the international brand a few more years before they have to revert to a saner even number schedule. They are testing to see if they can grow the overseas brand and will ultimately fail. I do think we may stay at 17 for a while if this is the case though, because the viewership has been declining and will continue to do so until they pick up the flags and improve pace. The NFL is where MLB was 15-20 years ago with the Yankee dynasty and the Brady/Jeter era and it will be a slow and steady decline in the US and overseas until they improve the pace and fluidity of the game. PS: Already aware that the conferences plan on alternating with a home and home but that will only be until COVID passes completely. Then, likely, we will get teams playing in London every week from Week 2 on in the morning window on Sunday. They will secure a few other European locations as well. Agreed on neutral sites on a weekly basis. I think Canada and Mexico City might get a few games too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf9 Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 We haven't had interconference games determined by the previous year's standings since 2001. During the last 24 years of the 6-division alignment, every non-division game was determined by the previous year's standings. Most of this time, the NFL had 28 teams, and special schedules for teams who finished last in a 5-team division, in which half the non-division games were against other 5th-place teams (2 against the one in their own conference, and 1 each against the two in the other conference), and the other half against the four-team division in their conference. The remaining interconference games during these 24 seasons were determined on a yearly rotation (involving only the top four teams in each division from 1978-94), with the locations of each game determined by the previous year's standings. Each of the five-team divisions from 1978-94 contained exactly one team that would leave the division in the 2002 realignment: AFC East: Indianapolis (formerly Baltimore), moved to AFC South AFC West: Seattle, moved to NFC West NFC East: Arizona (formerly Saint Louis and Phoenix), moved to NFC West NFC Central (now NFC North): Tampa Bay, moved to NFC South The two four team divisions that existed from 1978-94 are no longer fully intact. The AFC Central, now the AFC North, still has Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, but the Baltimore Ravens have replaced the Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) as the division's fourth team. The NFC West as it existed in this time is now essentially two divisions, with Atlanta and New Orleans now being part of the NFC South and the LA Rams (in Saint Louis from 1995-2015) and San Francisco being part of a revamped NFC West that no longer includes any teams east of the Rockies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf9 Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 Alternately for years 3, 7, and 11 of my rotation, the interconference position games could be this: The first place and second place teams from each division plays the top 2 teams in the corresponding geographical division (ex. East VS. East) in the other conference. The third and fourth place teams in each division play the bottom 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheatieMan Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 (edited) I like the oddity of an every 4 year matchup. Now that appears to be going away. More of it is probably for TV balance but that is less of an issue now that CBS gets a handful of NFC games and vice versa for Fox. Hopefully 17 is a temporary experiment. More likely, they want 19 weeks to muscle Daytona 500 out of President’s Day weekend. I don’t see why you can’t hold that on Saturday. Edited March 15, 2021 by WheatieMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scar988 Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 15 hours ago, pf9 said: We haven't had interconference games determined by the previous year's standings since 2001. During the last 24 years of the 6-division alignment, every non-division game was determined by the previous year's standings. Most of this time, the NFL had 28 teams, and special schedules for teams who finished last in a 5-team division, in which half the non-division games were against other 5th-place teams (2 against the one in their own conference, and 1 each against the two in the other conference), and the other half against the four-team division in their conference. The remaining interconference games during these 24 seasons were determined on a yearly rotation (involving only the top four teams in each division from 1978-94), with the locations of each game determined by the previous year's standings. Each of the five-team divisions from 1978-94 contained exactly one team that would leave the division in the 2002 realignment: AFC East: Indianapolis (formerly Baltimore), moved to AFC South AFC West: Seattle, moved to NFC West NFC East: Arizona (formerly Saint Louis and Phoenix), moved to NFC West NFC Central (now NFC North): Tampa Bay, moved to NFC South The two four team divisions that existed from 1978-94 are no longer fully intact. The AFC Central, now the AFC North, still has Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, but the Baltimore Ravens have replaced the Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) as the division's fourth team. The NFC West as it existed in this time is now essentially two divisions, with Atlanta and New Orleans now being part of the NFC South and the LA Rams (in Saint Louis from 1995-2015) and San Francisco being part of a revamped NFC West that no longer includes any teams east of the Rockies. Actually, the NFC West became a 5 team division in early 90s with the advent of the Carolina Panthers. It made no sense to anyone that the Saints, Falcons and Panthers were in the NFC West though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf9 Posted March 17, 2021 Author Share Posted March 17, 2021 (edited) The 17-game, and later 18-game schedules incorporating the positional interconference games would be a good way to potentially increase the frequency of interconference matchups of geographic significance: Arizona-Denver* Arizona-LA Chargers* Arizona-Las Vegas* Atlanta-Tennessee* Baltimore-Philadelphia Baltimore-Washington Buffalo-NY Giants* Chicago-Indianapolis Cincinnati-Detroit* Cleveland-Detroit* Dallas-Houston Houston-New Orleans* Jacksonville-Tampa Bay* Kansas City-Minnesota LA Chargers-LA Rams* LA Chargers-San Francisco* LA Rams-Las Vegas* Miami-Tampa Bay New England-NY Giants* NY Giants-NY Jets* NY Jets-Philadelphia* Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Pittsburgh-Washington *-matchups of teams from corresponding divisions (East VS. East, etc.) Edited March 17, 2021 by pf9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMountainGoat Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 On 3/14/2021 at 2:13 AM, WheatieMan said: They are testing to see if they can grow the overseas brand and will ultimately fail. They've already succeeded in growing it. There is no turning back now. International growth is inevitable. Just as people said the MLS would never work, or the Austin GP couldn't succeed after Indianapolis 2005. Now they are both embedded in their respective sports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheatieMan Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) Regional games wouldn’t really suit an international audience. Why have Jets Giants in London? Makes no sense. If they keep a home and home beyond 2022 for extra NFC AFC game then that format would be suitable. Otherwise I think they will match an opponent based on previous year standings overseas in 2023. Edited March 21, 2021 by WheatieMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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