The schedule I'd like to see in the NFL

[ctpatsfan77]

There's no fundamental reason it can't happen, and, IMO, it would create more excitement and be fairer.

So, without further ado (the teams in brackets are who the Pats would play this year):

Weeks 1-2: Intraconference matches (one of SD, OAK; one of DEN, KC)
Weeks 3-5: Divisional matches (NYJ, MIA, and BUF)
Weeks 6-7: Interconference matches (one of SEA, SF; one of STL, ARI)
Weeks 8-10: Equal-placement matches (PIT and IND) and BYE
Weeks 11-12: Intraconference matches (the other two)
Weeks 13-14: Interconference matches (the other two)
Weeks 15-17: Divisional matches

The advantages of the system, in my mind, are these:
* It's unlikely anyone can putz around with the system and front-load/back-load a schedule.
* Everyone gets their bye week at around the same time in the middle of the season. No one gets a bye in week 4 and then have to play 13 straight weeks.
* Unless you have a situation like the AFC East this year, most division races will still be up for grabs until late in the season.
* When there are fewer games, you know there will also (probably) be some better games to compensate.
* Since this is a "modular" schedule, the "blocks" can be moved around without too much difficulty (e.g., in theory, you could end with all six divisional games).

Thoughts?

 

[BradyManny]

* Unless you have a situation like the AFC East this year, most division races will still be up for grabs until late in the season.


Thoughts?

That to me is a big advantage and would make it worthwhile. I don't know why they don't consider that more when they schedule the games, as Goodell recently said something about wanting to make those final games matter. This would accomplish that. It'd almost be like conference championship weekends in college football or conference tournaments in college basketball. After it'd been built up for a few years, it could really be a playoff type atmosphere going into the playoffs.

 

[Disco Volante]

I do like those final weeks of division matches.

 

[Sicilian]

Sad as I am to admit it, I'm a fantasy junkie. Having about 10 teams on byes each week over three weeks would be brutal.

I like the idea of having division games at the end though, like they try to do in baseball.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Sad as I am to admit it, I'm a fantasy junkie. Having about 10 teams on byes each week over three weeks would be brutal.

I like the idea of having division games at the end though, like they try to do in baseball.

To be quite blunt, I don't give a rat's behind about the fantasy implications. (I don't play fantasy football largely because I never want to be in the position of having to root against a Patriot or the team as a whole.)

But if it's that important, you can always schedule it so that every team in the NFL has a bye the same week (think of it as the equivalent of the "All-Star Break").

 

[Sicilian]

To be quite blunt, I don't give a rat's behind about the fantasy implications. (I don't play fantasy football largely because I never want to be in the position of having to root against a Patriot or the team as a whole.)

But if it's that important, you can always schedule it so that every team in the NFL has a bye the same week (think of it as the equivalent of the "All-Star Break").

Fair enough. Not saying the NFL would / should make policy around fantasy sports, just mentioning it.

And I actually like the idea of having a designated bye week better anyway, as it is the only way to guarantee every team is on even footing for each of their games (relatively speaking).

The only issues would be what could the NFL do during that week to keep the season's momentum going? Having the Pro Bowl midseason is not a possibility. Is there another event they could stage that doesn't involve potential injuries?

 

[JoePats]

There's no fundamental reason it can't happen, and, IMO, it would create more excitement and be fairer.

So, without further ado (the teams in brackets are who the Pats would play this year):

Weeks 1-2: Intraconference matches (one of SD, OAK; one of DEN, KC)
Weeks 3-5: Divisional matches (NYJ, MIA, and BUF)
Weeks 6-7: Interconference matches (one of SEA, SF; one of STL, ARI)
Weeks 8-10: Equal-placement matches (PIT and IND) and BYE
Weeks 11-12: Intraconference matches (the other two)
Weeks 13-14: Interconference matches (the other two)
Weeks 15-17: Divisional matches

The advantages of the system, in my mind, are these:
* It's unlikely anyone can putz around with the system and front-load/back-load a schedule.
* Everyone gets their bye week at around the same time in the middle of the season. No one gets a bye in week 4 and then have to play 13 straight weeks.
* Unless you have a situation like the AFC East this year, most division races will still be up for grabs until late in the season.
* When there are fewer games, you know there will also (probably) be some better games to compensate.
* Since this is a "modular" schedule, the "blocks" can be moved around without too much difficulty (e.g., in theory, you could end with all six divisional games).

Thoughts?

I like it. The league will never put so many teams on bye in one week, but the basic premise I think is great, especially the divisional matchups late in the season.

One question, why don't you flip the inter and intra conference matchups in weeks 11-12 and 13-14 so you at least have teams playing conference games in the last 5 weeks of the season.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I like it. The league will never put so many teams on bye in one week, but the basic premise I think is great, especially the divisional matchups late in the season.

One question, why don't you flip the inter and intra conference matchups in weeks 11-12 and 13-14 so you at least have teams playing conference games in the last 5 weeks of the season.

There's no reason that couldn't be done; I kept going back and forth in my mind about it. In fact, there's no fundamental reason that you couldn't split the blocks up further (i.e., week 11--inter, week 12--intra, week 13--inter, week 14--intra).

Also, let me point out something about the way the bye week would be "built." For simplicity's sake, I'll use numbers instead of teams.

In week 8, you'd have, say, AFCE1 v. AFCN1, AFCE2 v. AFCN2, etc.
In week 10, you'd have, say, AFCS1 v. AFCE1, AFCS2 v. AFCE2, etc.

You'd "build" the bye week by removing games from other weeks and putting them into the bye week. So, for example AFCE1 v. AFCN1 would be moved from week 8 to week 9--giving those two teams byes in week 8. Similarly, you could then move AFCS2 v. AFCE2 to week 9--giving those two teams byes in week 10. The "logic" behind that decision, in my mind, was to make sure that all the byes take place in the same segment of the schedule. The schedule could just as easily be drawn up with the byes spread out this way:

1-2: Intraconf.
3-4: Interconf.
5: Equal placement
6-9: Divisional + bye
10: Equal placement
11-12: Interconf.
13-14: Intraconf.
15-17: Divisional

 

[Randy Moss]

It takes the randomness out of it. they would never change it. i would like to see more games played on weeknites tho. so we can see more games. we see 4 games a week. 5 after thanksgivng. i would like to see 10!

 

[ctpatsfan77]

It takes the randomness out of it. they would never change it. i would like to see more games played on weeknites tho. so we can see more games. we see 4 games a week. 5 after thanksgivng. i would like to see 10!

Well, if the tradeoff is that games mean more, I think they might be willing to trade off on that randomness.

Besides, the most important thing is not the randomness per se, but anticipation. If this schedule meant more eyeballs, I think they'd do it.

 

[Randy Moss]

Well, if the tradeoff is that games mean more, I think they might be willing to trade off on that randomness.

Besides, the most important thing is not the randomness per se, but anticipation. If this schedule meant more eyeballs, I think they'd do it.

I like the idea. i just said that they probally wont do it. my idea of more games on the weeknites would definately mean more eyeballs. if you are like me than you watch games whenever there on even if its sucky nfc teams.