FOOTBALL 101: THE NFL SCHEDULE

WELCOME TO FOOTBALL 101

In today’s Football 101 class we are talking NFL Schedule.

Welcome back to Football 101 where we spend time learning the basics about football. This is an ongoing series from “Football and Mom Stuff” where we bring you quick tutorials on a wide range of football topics.

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NFL Schedule

Are you baffled by your team’s schedule each year? Do you wonder why you always play some really tough teams? Does it all seem like some sort of madness? Keep reading to decode the method to the madness, because what you are going to learn is that the schedule is pretty predictable each year!!!

But I am going to warn you that after this post, it is going to be tough to hold on to any conspiracy theories you might have about your team’s schedule and whether the NFL is out to get your team with an especially difficult schedule.

We have put together a video on the NFL schedule you can check out here:

But if you are not the video-watching type we do a full run down here too.

The NFL Schedule Puzzle

Let’s dive in.

The regular NFL season is 18 weeks long, with seventeen games and one “bye” week for each team. A “bye” week is a week that a team does not have a scheduled game. There are also three preseason games played in the end of August.

The NFL sets the schedule each year in early May – roughly four months before the season starts. We did a blog post on the 2024 schedule release that includes links to all the schedules – so be sure to check it out to see what your team’s schedule looks like this year.

There are the basic 4 puzzle pieces to the NFL schedule:

1. Divisional Games
2. Preset AFC/NFC Games
3. Remaining Conference Games
4. And an Extra Inter-conference Game

I am first going to run through the different scheduling pieces. Then, once we talk through one of the pieces, I will put the schedule “madness” into action using an example from the 2024 season just to make sure we completely understand the method. Now let’s break it down

1. Divisional Games

The first piece of the schedule puzzle is the same every year – Divisional Games. Each team plays the other three teams in their division twice. One game is at home and one game is away.

As promised, we are going to use an example from the 2024 schedule. And you know, we’re going to use the Bills, Go Bills! The Bills are in the AFC East, so they will play the other three AFC East teams twice.

This means two games against Miami Dolphins, two games against the New England Patriots, and two games against the New York Jets. One game against each is at home and one game is away, accounting for 6 games.

This happens every year and plays a key role in determining which team moves to post season play, which we will discuss in another post.

2. Pre-Set AFC/NFC Divisional Games

On to the second part of the puzzle – the Pre-Set AFC/NFC Divisional Games. Each team plays against all 4 teams of a pre-set AFC and NFC division. The pre-set divisions work on a three-year rotation for teams within its own conference and a four-year rotation for teams in the other conference. In total this accounts for 8 games.

Sticking with the Buffalo Bills and the AFC East, the pre-set AFC division for 2024 is the AFC South. This means one game against the Houston Texans, one game against the Indianapolis Colts, one game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and one game against the Tennessee Titans. Two of these games will be home games and two of these games will be away games. For a total of 4 games.

And then, sticking with the example of the Buffalo Bills and the AFC East, the pre-set NFC division is the NFC West. This means one game against the Arizona Cardinals, one game against the LA Rams, one game against the San Francisco 49ers, and one game against the Seattle Seahawks. And yes, two will be home games and two will be away games for a total of 4 games.

We have now accounted for:

6 divisional games + 4 pre-set AFC division games + 4 pre-set NFC division games for a total of 14 games.

This goes to my comment about no longer holding some conspiracy theories on the toughness of a schedule. In fact, these 14 games really give each division a bit more of a level playing field. Each division rival plays fourteen out of their seventeen games against common opponents.

3. Remaining Conference Games

The third piece of the schedule puzzle is the Remaining Conference Games. Each team plays against a team from the remaining two divisions within its conference. One game is at home and one away, for a total of 2 games.

Which team they play depends on the record from the prior year. So, if the AFC East team was last in the East the prior season, they would play the teams that also finished last in their division the prior season.

With that in mind, let’s go look at the Bills schedule. We know they play their division rivals – the AFC East, and we know that they play the AFC South as their pre-set AFC division. So that means for the remaining conference games they play one game against an AFC North team and one game against an AFC West team.

What team do they play from the North and West? Because the Bills were the AFC EAST CHAMPIONS last year, meaning first in their division, they will play against the first place AFC North team from last year – the Baltimore Ravens and the first place AFC West team – the Kansas City Chiefs.

4. Extra Inter-Conference Game

And this brings us to the last piece of the schedule puzzle – the extra inter-conference game. This means a team from the other conference. The team from the other conference comes from the division a team played 2 years prior and is the team that finished in the same position in the prior season.

Are we confused? This one takes some extra thought. Let’s look at it from the Bills schedule.

We have established that the Bills are AFC, so we are talking about a team from the other conference – the NFC. And then it is a team from the division the Bills played 2 years ago. So, two years ago Buffalo dug its football team out of the snow and headed to the NFC North.

And remember, the Bills were the AFC EAST CHAMPIONS last year, meaning first in their division, so they will play against the first place NFC North team from last year – the Detroit Lions.

Quick Recap

So quick recap:

And that is how the NFL makes the 18 week schedule. There are some aspects of the schedule that we did not cover, such as determining bye weeks and the scheduling of international games. But I think we need to let this lesson soak in a bit.

You now know what you need to know about the NFL schedule. The regular season starts September 5, 2024, when the Ravens take on the Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. But, before then don’t forget to leave a comment and come back for more Football 101 topics.