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http://operations.nfl.com/the-game/creating-the-nfl-schedule/
CREATING THE NFL SCHEDULE
It takes hundreds of computers and four NFL executives to create the NFL's 256-game masterpiece.
Each spring four NFL executives take on an enormous task: creating the NFL schedule for the next season.
The NFL schedule-makers — Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Howard Katz, Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones, Manager of Broadcasting Charlotte Carey and Senior Director of Broadcasting Michael North — have to consider the fans, the league’s broadcast partners and many other factors when building the 256-game schedule that spans the 17 weeks of the NFL season and showcases the league’s best matchups and talent.
They have to work around events that are already scheduled to take place in or near NFL stadiums — events that may compete with the games, put undue stress on the playing surface, or create traffic or logistical nightmares. The league begins collecting information from the clubs in January about any events that may create scheduling conflicts.
They are also constrained by internal factors. A formula determines each team’s opponents every year, and a rotating schedule ensures that every team plays each of the other 31 at least once in a four-year period.
It takes hundreds of computers in a secure room to spit out millions of possible schedules — a process that sets the stage for the schedule-makers to begin the arduous task of picking the best possible one.
THE ANATOMY OF THE NFL SCHEDULE
The league’s 32 teams are split into two conferences — the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The 16 teams in each conference are split into the East, North, South and West divisions; every division has four teams.
Here’s how each team’s opponents are set:
GAME TIMES AND BROADCAST PARTNERS
The NFL's marquee matchups often are scheduled to air during the week’s premier time slots — Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights or the late game on Sunday afternoons. In 2017 the league will also schedule games on the Saturdays of weeks 15 and 16.
Most NFL games are played on Sunday afternoons, with early games starting at 1:00 p.m. ET and the late games starting at either 4:05 p.m. ET or 4:25 p.m. ET, depending on whether the game is part of a network doubleheader.
The Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on Fox (NFC) and CBS (AFC); most games with AFC road teams are shown on CBS, and most of those with NFC road teams are broadcast on Fox.
Over the first 16 weeks of the season, Fox and CBS will each get eight doubleheaders — meaning that one will show games during both Sunday afternoon time slots, while the other airs a game in only one. They alternate doubleheader weeks; but not always. While this may result in one network airing doubleheaders on consecutive weeks, the league prevents either network from airing doubleheaders three weeks in a row.
FLEX SCHEDULES
To make sure the best matchups at the end of the season are broadcast to the largest audiences, the NFL introduced “flexible scheduling” in 2006. This involves moving a game from its scheduled Sunday afternoon slot on CBS or Fox to the prime time hours of “NBC Sunday Night Football.”
The NFL consults with CBS, Fox and NBC to determine which games will be flexed, and the league reserves the right to move the start times of Sunday games as long as it provides the teams affected and ticket-holding fans with 12 days’ notice. In week 17, the league can flex a game with playoff implications with only six days’ notice.
From 2006 through 2013, only games scheduled during weeks 11 through 17 could be “flexed.” Beginning in 2014, the league extended flex scheduling to include games starting in week 5. Between weeks 5 and 10, though, only a total of two games can be flexed, while no restrictions apply from week 11 on.
Flex scheduling does not apply to Thursday, Monday or the occasional Saturday games. The NFL always has had the ability to move Sunday afternoon games between the 1:00 p.m. ET and the 4:05 p.m. ET or 4:25 p.m. ET time slots.
In 2014 the league introduced “cross-flexing,” which allows up to seven games annually that would have typically aired on Fox or CBS to be aired on the other network. That means, for example, that an all-AFC matchup could air on Fox and an all-NFC game could appear on CBS. An equal number of games must be cross-flexed: if CBS airs three games originally slated for Fox, then Fox would have to get three games that would have originally aired on CBS.
AND THERE’S MORE …
Each team has one bye week between weeks 4 and 11. Determining where that bye week falls for each team presents additional challenges for the schedule-makers. For example, the league tries to limit the number of times a team that played the week before has to face a rested team coming off its bye. The additional rest could be seen as a competitive advantage for the team coming off the bye.
With games on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays, the schedule-makers have to allow enough time between games so teams aren’t at a disadvantage against an opponent that has had more time to prepare and rest. Teams scheduled to play on Thursday nights will not have to play on a short week more than once a season.
The league tries to limit the number of consecutive home or road games any team plays to two games, though unavoidable situations have forced the schedule-makers to place a team at home or on the road for three straight weeks.
Schedule-makers also work to avoid putting teams in a position where they have to cross the country too often over a short period of time or endure inordinate amounts of travel that may put the players at a competitive disadvantage compared with the club they’re playing.
The league tries to avoid scheduling teams that play on the road on Monday nights with an away game the following week to avoid having two road games separated by a short week.
The league typically schedules the Super Bowl champion at home for the Thursday night game that kicks off the new season.
The process is challenging, and there may be no such thing as a perfect schedule, but the schedule-makers consistently provide the NFL’s fans and broadcast partners with a compelling and entertaining slate of games week after week.
CREATING THE NFL SCHEDULE
It takes hundreds of computers and four NFL executives to create the NFL's 256-game masterpiece.
Each spring four NFL executives take on an enormous task: creating the NFL schedule for the next season.
The NFL schedule-makers — Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Howard Katz, Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones, Manager of Broadcasting Charlotte Carey and Senior Director of Broadcasting Michael North — have to consider the fans, the league’s broadcast partners and many other factors when building the 256-game schedule that spans the 17 weeks of the NFL season and showcases the league’s best matchups and talent.
They have to work around events that are already scheduled to take place in or near NFL stadiums — events that may compete with the games, put undue stress on the playing surface, or create traffic or logistical nightmares. The league begins collecting information from the clubs in January about any events that may create scheduling conflicts.
They are also constrained by internal factors. A formula determines each team’s opponents every year, and a rotating schedule ensures that every team plays each of the other 31 at least once in a four-year period.
It takes hundreds of computers in a secure room to spit out millions of possible schedules — a process that sets the stage for the schedule-makers to begin the arduous task of picking the best possible one.
THE ANATOMY OF THE NFL SCHEDULE
The league’s 32 teams are split into two conferences — the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The 16 teams in each conference are split into the East, North, South and West divisions; every division has four teams.
Here’s how each team’s opponents are set:
- Every team plays six games against the other three teams in its division, facing off twice per season — once at home and once on the road.
- Every team plays one game against each of the four teams from a division within its conference — two games at home and two on the road. Which division a team plays is determined by a rotation system ensuring that the teams in one division will play the teams in every other division in its conference once every three years.
- Every team plays one game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference once per season — two games at home and two on the road. These matchups are also determined by a rotation, which ensures that all teams play every team from every division in the other conference once every four years.
- Every team plays its remaining two games against teams from the two remaining divisions in its own conference — one game at home and the other on the road. The matchups are determined by where the teams finished in their divisions in the previous season. For example, a team that finished the previous year in third place in its division will play the third-place teams from the two other divisions in its conference.
GAME TIMES AND BROADCAST PARTNERS
The NFL's marquee matchups often are scheduled to air during the week’s premier time slots — Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights or the late game on Sunday afternoons. In 2017 the league will also schedule games on the Saturdays of weeks 15 and 16.
Most NFL games are played on Sunday afternoons, with early games starting at 1:00 p.m. ET and the late games starting at either 4:05 p.m. ET or 4:25 p.m. ET, depending on whether the game is part of a network doubleheader.
The Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on Fox (NFC) and CBS (AFC); most games with AFC road teams are shown on CBS, and most of those with NFC road teams are broadcast on Fox.
Over the first 16 weeks of the season, Fox and CBS will each get eight doubleheaders — meaning that one will show games during both Sunday afternoon time slots, while the other airs a game in only one. They alternate doubleheader weeks; but not always. While this may result in one network airing doubleheaders on consecutive weeks, the league prevents either network from airing doubleheaders three weeks in a row.
FLEX SCHEDULES
To make sure the best matchups at the end of the season are broadcast to the largest audiences, the NFL introduced “flexible scheduling” in 2006. This involves moving a game from its scheduled Sunday afternoon slot on CBS or Fox to the prime time hours of “NBC Sunday Night Football.”
The NFL consults with CBS, Fox and NBC to determine which games will be flexed, and the league reserves the right to move the start times of Sunday games as long as it provides the teams affected and ticket-holding fans with 12 days’ notice. In week 17, the league can flex a game with playoff implications with only six days’ notice.
From 2006 through 2013, only games scheduled during weeks 11 through 17 could be “flexed.” Beginning in 2014, the league extended flex scheduling to include games starting in week 5. Between weeks 5 and 10, though, only a total of two games can be flexed, while no restrictions apply from week 11 on.
Flex scheduling does not apply to Thursday, Monday or the occasional Saturday games. The NFL always has had the ability to move Sunday afternoon games between the 1:00 p.m. ET and the 4:05 p.m. ET or 4:25 p.m. ET time slots.
In 2014 the league introduced “cross-flexing,” which allows up to seven games annually that would have typically aired on Fox or CBS to be aired on the other network. That means, for example, that an all-AFC matchup could air on Fox and an all-NFC game could appear on CBS. An equal number of games must be cross-flexed: if CBS airs three games originally slated for Fox, then Fox would have to get three games that would have originally aired on CBS.
AND THERE’S MORE …
Each team has one bye week between weeks 4 and 11. Determining where that bye week falls for each team presents additional challenges for the schedule-makers. For example, the league tries to limit the number of times a team that played the week before has to face a rested team coming off its bye. The additional rest could be seen as a competitive advantage for the team coming off the bye.
With games on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays, the schedule-makers have to allow enough time between games so teams aren’t at a disadvantage against an opponent that has had more time to prepare and rest. Teams scheduled to play on Thursday nights will not have to play on a short week more than once a season.
The league tries to limit the number of consecutive home or road games any team plays to two games, though unavoidable situations have forced the schedule-makers to place a team at home or on the road for three straight weeks.
Schedule-makers also work to avoid putting teams in a position where they have to cross the country too often over a short period of time or endure inordinate amounts of travel that may put the players at a competitive disadvantage compared with the club they’re playing.
The league tries to avoid scheduling teams that play on the road on Monday nights with an away game the following week to avoid having two road games separated by a short week.
The league typically schedules the Super Bowl champion at home for the Thursday night game that kicks off the new season.
The process is challenging, and there may be no such thing as a perfect schedule, but the schedule-makers consistently provide the NFL’s fans and broadcast partners with a compelling and entertaining slate of games week after week.
