Since yesterday was about "all things schedule", I started thinking about schedules beyond 2021.
And also since I live in the greater LA area, seeing the Giants "locally" was impossible until the construction of SoFi Stadium. I have tickets to Giants-Chargers on 12/12/21. I know that means the next time the Giants will definitely play a regular season game in LA against the Chargers will be in 8 years (2029). But with the new 17 game schedule and the additional interconference game, I was looking for the formula to see when to expect the possibility the NFC East having AFC West being the "17th game".
I found a good article on this on CBS Sports (linked below).
Highlights from the article:
One interconference game based on the prior year's standings on a rotating four-year cycle (one game). These games match a first-place team from one division against a first-place team in an opposite conference division that the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place and fourth-place teams in each division are matched in the same way each year. The home conference for this game will rotate each season. |
The formula for the new game is slightly complicated, but basically, it will go like this: The matchups are based on the cross-conference division that each team played two years ago. Each team will play one opponent from that division that finished in the same spot in the prior year's standings. |
So the above explains why the Giants "extra 17th game" is against an AFC East opponent in 2021 (the NFC East played the AFC East in 2019, two years ago).
With that in mind, here's a look at the four-year rotation of the new scheduling formula. We'll list each division along with the teams from the opposite conference that they'll be playing from now until 2024.
NFC East
2021
AFC West, four games
AFC East, one game (away)
2022
AFC South, four games
AFC North, one game (home)
2023
AFC East, four games
AFC West, one game (away)
2024
AFC North, four games
AFC South, one game (home)
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The article discussed, but didn't show the home versus away for the "17th game" in 2021 - 2024, but I added it in parentheses.
I also found this in a different article on NFL.com:
A resolution reviewed by owners means international fans are expected to benefit from a scheduling formula that, starting in 2022, would have four of the teams from the conference with the nine home games playing an international game.That means international fans, who had been dependent on teams agreeing to give up a home game, will now be assured of seeing all 32 teams over an eight-year period. Putting the best teams and biggest stars in other countries will be important as the NFL turns its attention to expanding the popularity of the sport in other parts of the world -- a key future growth opportunity.
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What I believe the above means is in 2022 and 2024, the Giants might the "home team" for an international game, while in 2023, they may be the "road team" for an international game. That would stink for me if the Giants 2023 game was the international game as the Giants potentially would be playing in LA versus the Chargers IF the Giants and Chargers ended up in the same order in their respective divisions. I'd hope a "NY vs LA" game would stay in the US.
Lastly, I think most of us believe eventually the NFL will have an 18 game regular season. I'd guess the "18th regular season game" would use a modification to the above formula. Probably another interconference game with the opponent finishing in the same order in the standings. Maybe from a different interconference division.
Link to lower part of post:
Expansion to 17-game season promises to keep NFL growing
Link to upper part of post:
CBS Sports:NFL 17-game schedule: Here's how the complicated scheduling formula will work with the extra game - (
New Window )
When the NFL inevitably goes to 18 games, my hope is that every team plays an identical schedule as their division rivals -
6 division games
Play every team in 2 divisions of own conference
Play every team in 1 division out of conference.
Of course in some situations (Drew Brees retiring), the prior year isn't a strong indicator of the next year's performance.
I think where we're headed is an 18 game schedule that includes:
6 Divisional Games
4 Intraconference Games (all team in division play same teams)
4 Interconference Games (all team in division play same teams)
2 "Same Place In Standings" Intraconference games (in two divisons not the same as the 4 intraconference games)
2 "Same Place In Standings" Interconference games (on a rotating basis, not the same as the 4 interconference games).
Teams that finish at the bottom should be helped by better draft picks and an easier schedule for a small subset of their games. I think this "Sports Socialism" does help as it keeps the fan base of the lesser teams interested, which overall, helps the league.
Rotates by conference. This year all the extra home games are in the AFC. Next year they're all NFC (though maybe some will be played internationally).
Quote:
but how do they determine which teams will have more home games in a given year? Throwing that into the calculations has to suck as well. I would assume as we are playing a extra away game this year we would see an extra home game next? Woulda been nice to get the extra home game during a year where we play the Western conference.
Rotates by conference. This year all the extra home games are in the AFC. Next year they're all NFC (though maybe some will be played internationally).
Great thank you for that!
When the NFL inevitably goes to 18 games, my hope is that every team plays an identical schedule as their division rivals -
6 division games
Play every team in 2 divisions of own conference
Play every team in 1 division out of conference.
This makes a lot of sense and hopefully is precisely what will happen. The current allocation of games, while well intended, does create a level playing field. This would solve that. Good stuff.
The "unbalanced" out of division games against similarly seeded (from last year's standings) creates more "division winner versus division winner" games, which become the marquee games for late games on CBS and Fox as well as for Sunday Night Football.
The "unbalanced" schedule gives us Bills vs Chiefs and Bills vs Steelers in 2021 (as well as Jets vs Broncos and Jets vs Bengals).
The networks will accept Jets versus Bengals so they can get Bills versus Steelers. I doubt there would be a clamor for Bills versus Bengals because the Jets play the Bengals.
I doubt a "balanced" schedule that reduces the number of games among "top teams" will fly.
I did waste an hour of my life watching the schedule release show last night before finally bailing on it. Just a bunch of high energy talking (yelling?) about a few matchups. I think the show started with a full 30 minutes talking about TB vs Dallas. I thought Michael Irvin was going to have a heart attack he was so excited. But they couldn’t spend 10 minutes explaining the new scheduling process with the 17th game??
The most interesting thing I learned about a 17 game season is the Giants have done it before, in 1930, so the Giants have experience and knowledge other teams can only dream about.
The next scheduled Giants at Rams will be the 2025 season. Of course the could play the Rams in LA sooner if the Giants and Rams finish at the same place in their respective divisions.
Rams tickets will be harder to get and more expensive.