UPDATE - is Vic fangio the Broncos head coach reading my posts from a week ago? LOL I just read on Twitter today that he has proposed the same thing. Below is my post from a little over a week ago.
Simply have each team play every other conference opponent once per year. Rotate games locations each year. Home team in 2020, (CHI @ DET), for example, is the visiting team in 2021 (DET @ CHI) - repeat annually. That creates 15 game season alone. Then add an inter-conference opponent. Easy cheesy.
It’s also equalizes the amount of travel for each team each year with the exception of the one, possibly two if a 17 game schedule, games against opposite conference each year. Further it should help clear up tie-breaking procedures because each team has basically played the exact same teams
That creates a MUCH MORE Level Playing Field as I explained in an opinion I posted a a while back in another thread. The league could discontinue divisions entirely; leaving conference only and the only differences in each years schedule would be the one or two inter conference games with AFC opponents and vice a versa. This would ensure that the actual best teams (or at least best W-L records) each and every calendar year would be the ones that qualified for the playoffs . That would eliminate once and for all, for example, a 7 win team hosting a playoff game against an 11-win team from the same conference They should also in my opinion re-seed the teams after each round to reward the higher seeds much in the way that’s the NBA does.
I don’t believe this will ever happen because it would the against the interest of all the glamour teams, IMHO.
First thing that comes to mind is it would suck if NFC team #1 had to play Baltimore and NE this year and team #2 had to play Cincinnati and Miami.
But I do like the idea of playing all the NFC teams each season. The thing about that is we might have a lot more teams going 8-8 with 16 games or 9-8 or 8-9 with 17 games.
I like the out of box thinking, but I don’t see it. I think owners and fans (other than AFC East fans the last 20 years) like the intra-divisional rivalries and that would, for all intents and purposes, be eliminated.
Although I don’t think it would ever happen actually what you’re describing could be easily implemented. It already happens every year that a fourth-place team within each given division plays fourth-place schedule from other divisions of the conference xcetera. So you could easily continue that type of equalizer per se, by having first place team in the NFC play the previous first-place team from the AFC, second place against second place, third Place against third place and so on to schedule the 16th game
But we all know the actual schedule you play doesn’t match what you theoretically were going to play based on finish from the previous season.
I do not see anything wrong with the current scheduling format, so I say keep it the same. The divisions help correct for imbalances in opponents just fine. I don’t mind seeing an 8-8 or even 7-9 team get into the playoffs, so I’m not trying to correct for that. Those teams won their division, and their record could reflect a really tough schedule for that division…since everyone suffered so bad that a .500 or lower record won the thing. It does bother me that an 11 win team can miss the playoffs. While it disrupts the apple cart, I could get behind the idea that all division winners get into the playoffs, but the wildcard teams are true WILDCARDS. The best record is in, regardless of conference. So the 11-5 Cardinals that missed the playoffs a few years ago would have played in the AFC wildcard round, and the 11-5 Patriots team that missed the playoffs a decade ago would have played in the NFC wildcard round.
Its goofy but I think it would be fun and I could support it, even though I prefer the current format better.
I think the current schedule works well, every team plays 4 games against teams that finished first in their division last year, 4 games against teams that finished second, 4 games against teams that finished third and 4 games against teams that were last. It’s not perfect but it’s about as level a playing field as you can get in the NFL IMO.
What I would change is I would introduce a second bye week and coordinate the byes so that all teams in the division have byes at the same time. In my 18 week season two divisions would have byes in each of weeks 5, 6, 7 and 8 and then another bye in weeks 11, 12, 13 and 14. No team would ever play more than 7 weeks in a row without a bye, so the players would be healthier and the quality would improve, the league has an extra week of games to sell to TV and it cuts the off-season by a week.
The only change is like to see is it you have to have Thursday night games. Each team has they’re bye the Sunday before. This would mean no TNF until week five. Oh, the horror!
I just saw this on Twitter today that Vic fangio head coach of the Broncos has Expressed the exact same opinion that I proposed a few weeks ago and then again in this thread as it’s own topic. Interesting… I wonder if perhaps may actually gain some traction.
I like his idea too. I don’t buy the travel aspect. NFL pros have it easy when it comes to travel compared to every other sport.
I would add that assuming it’s a 16 game schedule, I think you should have a legacy in which we would always play Minny, GB and CHI once and would play four AFC teams still.
I think this format would work really well for an 18 game schedule (cut two preseason games. Start and end regular season one week earlier/later.)
You play the whole conference once. You play three games in the other conference. NFC/AFC opponents are seeded worst to first. This would both try and add a little extra parity and create some really juicy matchups for TV.
So (theoretically) next year we’d play the whole NFC plus the Bengals, Dolphins and Jags.
I like Vic’s idea, but I LOVE it if we go to an 18 game schedule. The NFL playoffs are almost like the electoral college in that the strength of your division matters A LOT. I think this method would be more fair. Need the 18 game schedule to really make it work though.
Well it was actually my idea that was posted on this board over a week ago.
(check the original opening post date)
But I don’t believe that it is such an earth-shattering thought that more than one person could have the same thoughts so both myself and Vic fangio apparently independently arrived at the same way to improve the scheduling dramatically. I just found it really interesting that Vic fangio, apparently today or yesterday, was proposing the same thing for the schedule
As to the travel in my post from last week I wasn’t trying to compare the amount of travel of the NFL to the NBA and certainly not to MLB. I was merely pointing out that by playing each team once every year that all the teams would have the same amount of travel each and every year with the exception being the intra-conference game against the AFC and vice versa so that would be yet another way to level the playing field so to speak for each and every team
