How do they schedule a season?

[Oraukk]

I am just curious:

How do they schedule what teams we play each season? I know that we play six division games and four games with another division, but what about the other six?

And how do they decide who plays at home? We beat Indy at Indy this year but I saw that we are playing them again in Indy next year.

 

[Hok]

http://www.giants.com/news/press_releases/story.asp?story_id=812

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

I am just curious:

How do they schedule what teams we play each season? I know that we play six division games and four games with another division, but what about the other six?

And how do they decide who plays at home? We beat Indy at Indy this year but I saw that we are playing them again in Indy next year.

http://www.johnnyroadtrip.com/schedules/nfl_future_afce.htm

Six of the games are in the division (3 teams, home and away once)
Four of the games are with one of the divisions in the other conference. This is done on a rotating basis so you play each division in the other conference every four years and they rotate the home/away (two home/two away each year) so a team plays in the other team's city once in 8 years.
Four of the games are a division within the same conference with two home and two away. This also rotates but on a three year basis since there are three other dividions.
The remaining two games are with teams in a division in the same conference that the team is not scheduled to play. The team plays one team from each of those two divisions based on their finish the previous year. For instance, the Patriots finished first in the AFC East and the East is scheduled to play the AFC West next year (KC SD, Oak, Den) The remaining two games would be with teams in the AFC North and South who finished in first place (Indy/Pitt). Even though Indy is not in the East anymore, the reason it seems like the Pats and Colts meet every year is that they both keep winning their division and thus are scheduled to play the next year.

 

[Oraukk]

Thank you very much

 

[pheenix11]

I love how the NFL schedule is set up. It is so beautifully simple and symmetrical. I hope they never add another team, I think it is perfect.