Why doesn't the NFL fix their stupid bye system

[ctpatsfan77]

What the eff is your problem? Do you always insult people with whom you disagree, or do you just not like independent thought in general? If it were up to people like you, the queen of England would still have her face on our money.

The fact is, the bye system is flawed and needs to be fixed. There is no way - no way - that a team should have a bye earlier than after its 4th game.

I like Gumby's plan the best: 2 divisions off, one from each conference, for 4 weeks, beginning Week 7. The divisions can then rotate bye schedules over 4 years, similar to how a division from one conference plays a different division from the other conference every year for 4 years.

Also, with bye weeks being determined by division, the unfairness of scheduling one team, coming off a bye, against another team, not coming off a bye, is eliminated.

I don't see how that can possibly be guaranteed unless all 32 teams have a bye the same week.

 

[JoePats]

I don't see how that can possibly be guaranteed unless all 32 teams have a bye the same week.

You could give each division the same bye week, and rotate it every year, from 4 thru 11. Then play a division game after the bye week.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

You could give each division the same bye week, and rotate it every year, from 4 thru 11. Then play a division game after the bye week.

OK, that might work, although I definitely don't like the idea of having eight weeks of byes. I'm also not 100% sure it works mathematically without producing some clunky scheduling results.

 

[jbb9s]

GET RID OF THE BYE WEEK ALTOGETHER.

Get rid of the 4th preseason game which is worthless anyway. I can't imagine any network or stadium really makes money for the game. (Except Krafty and his 169 tickets.) Anyway now you have one less week in the preseason and one less game in the regular season. Thats fine with me. All that matter is that they still play 16 games that actually count.


If the NFL really gets heartburn over this proposal, they can increase the schedule to 18 games equalled out by no bye week and no 4th preseason game. Then the overall calender remains constant and the money flows for the fat cats.

 

[DaBruinz]

I've never understood why the NFL goes with this ridiculously unfair bye system. It's an absolute joke and has been since its' inception. Why can't they figure out a way to have half the AFC and NFC take week 8 off and the remaining half of the AFC and NFC take week 9 off???
There are 4 divisions in each conference.
Have the AFC East - NFC South - AFC North - NFC West take week 8 off
Have the NFC East - AFC South - NFC North - AFC West take week 9 off
Each season they can flip it so last year those who had week 8 now have week 9 and and so on.
This is a fair system for every team and it provides regional games for every TV market in the country during the 2 bye weeks. I simply don't understsnd why they can't figure this out. Don't tell me it's a sceduling thing because I don't buy that at all.
I don't get it!! Can someone explain to me why the NFL can't streamline the bye weeks and make them middle of the season for every team??
Anyone????

Sure. Its called TV contractual obligations. They are obligated to have a certain number of games each week during the regular season.

Also, it IS a scheduling thing. You don't seem to understand that the current match-ups were set years in advance for all except 2 games, right?
One other thing to remember is that the more limiting parameters you set in the schedule, the harder it is to create one.

 

[DaBruinz]

OK, that might work, although I definitely don't like the idea of having eight weeks of byes. I'm also not 100% sure it works mathematically without producing some clunky scheduling results.

The league currently has 7 bye weeks. And I believe that is what they had PRIOR to Houston being added.

Its clunky now because you have 2 weeks where 6 teams have byes and 5 weeks where only 4 teams have byes.

Personally, I'd have no problem with them going to 4 weeks of byes with 8 teams resting. And you can start it at week 6 and run through week 9 or week 7 and run through week 10.

That IS much fairer than the current system and only reduces the schedule to 12 games instead of 8 like someone else mentioned.

 

[blackglass3]

How about this...Week 9 EVERYONE has off. Schedule a couple of big college games on that Sunday.

I know it sucks, but bye weeks are part of the game.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Also, it IS a scheduling thing. You don't seem to understand that the current match-ups were set years in advance for all except 2 games, right?
One other thing to remember is that the more limiting parameters you set in the schedule, the harder it is to create one.

I don't see what the match-ups being set years in advance have to do with assigning the byes. If you look at this thread, you'll see that, theoretically, the schedule could be made extremely uniform if everyone agreed to do so. [In a manner of speaking, you start off with 256 games filling 16 weeks of a 17-week grid in the manner I explained there. You can then move games around as much as you want, so long as no team plays twice in the same week.]

 

[Topher]

GET RID OF THE BYE WEEK ALTOGETHER.

Get rid of the 4th preseason game which is worthless anyway. I can't imagine any network or stadium really makes money for the game. (Except Krafty and his 169 tickets.) Anyway now you have one less week in the preseason and one less game in the regular season. Thats fine with me. All that matter is that they still play 16 games that actually count.


If the NFL really gets heartburn over this proposal, they can increase the schedule to 18 games equalled out by no bye week and no 4th preseason game. Then the overall calender remains constant and the money flows for the fat cats.

I half agree with you. Its not a bad idea to get rid of the 4th preseason game. But in addition to that, the NFL should provide all teams with 2 bye weeks. That way the season extends over 18 weeks - which I am sure would be good for business / tv.

More importantly, if a team has an early bye week, they are also guaranteed a later one, so that there is less concern over where the bye falls. Also, it could be used to decrease the number of short weeks a team has, by giving it to teams after a monday night road game or before a thursday game.

 

[LuRkeR1978]

Didn't the league have a 2 bye week system a long time ago?

 

[captain stone]

OK, that might work, although I definitely don't like the idea of having eight weeks of byes. I'm also not 100% sure it works mathematically without producing some clunky scheduling results.

JoePats is correct - about scheduling a division game after your bye week. That way, both teams would be coming off their byes at the same time, and would not be playing a team coming off a bye.

However, I still prefer Gumby's plan to Joe's: have two divisions, one from each conference, on byes, from weeks 6/7 through 9/10. In addition, whichever divisions had their byes on the first week (Week 6/7) would have their byes on the second week (Week 7/8) the next season, then on the third week the season after that, on the fourth week the season after that, and then back to the first week the season after that.

Easy, peasy, Japaneesy.

 

[Skree]

I actually talked about this in this thread back in February.

There's no fundamental reason they can't schedule the bye over just three weeks. Or, perhaps, why not give every team a week off, and have two eight-week half-seasons in which every team plays every week?

I agree with you. 8 weeks, bye week for everyone, play 8 more weeks. Like the All Star break in baseball but no All Star game.

And for uneven numbers, give LA a team or get rid of the Detroit Lions or Arizona Cardinals

 

[Dbrooks55]

I said in another thread that they should just give one whole division a week off and rotate them every year, weeks 4 thru 11.

There's no way they would give half the league off in the same week. First of all DirectTV wouldn't like that at all. Because with only 8 games, two in primetime, that leaves 6 for Sunday afternoon. I'm sure there are other reasons.

Also, are you complaining about this because the Pats have a week 4 bye week this year? That's bad, but we had a great bye week last year.

yea thats a good idea i like that. The half the league off idea I don't think would do so well