Posted on 02/20/2020 5:35:40 PM PST by EdnaMode
The NFL is reportedly getting ready to make some big changes.
Under a new collective bargaining agreement that NFL owners are pushing for, each team would reportedly add another game to its annual schedule to make a 17-game regular season. And at the end of the season, seven teams would make the playoffs from each conference, up from the usual six that make it right now, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports.
NFL owners and players have been meeting this week to discuss changes that, if agreed upon, would take effect in the next couple years. To start, a seventh team from each conference would make the playoffs, meaning only one team from each conference would get a first-round bye. "That's been agreed to for a long time," one source familiar with the CBS talks told ESPN regarding the playoff change. If the new CBA is ratified in time, that change would go into effect for the upcoming 2020-21 season.
Still reportedly being negotiated is the 17-game regular season that owners are proposing, while one game would be subtracted from the preseason, leaving each team with three warmup games, Schefter reports. That change reportedly wouldn't take effect until at least the 2021-22 season.
A vote on the CBA isn't expected during Thursday's continuation of the meeting, but it could happen at next week's NFL combine, CBS Sports reports. The 12-team playoff format has been around for 30 years. If there were 14 teams around this year, the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs would've played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening round, while the Los Angeles Rams would've faced the Green Bay Packers.
Also what would be the elegance in the scheduling?
Right now there are 8 divisions of 4 teams each.
3 divisional opponents x 2 = 6 games
one division from the opposite conference = 4 games
First and 4th place teams in each division (or is it 3rd now?) play each other in the following season
2nd and 3rd place teams in each division (maybe it’s 2nd and 4th now) play each other in the following season
So that’s 6 games out of your division and in your conference.
Total 16 games
One of the unusual ideas the NFL considered — but quickly discarded — was a proposal to extend the season to 17 games but only allow each player to dress for 16 of them. That would have been a roster-management nightmare but would have helped address injury and workload concerns.
Now they have four games, two on Sat. and two on Sunday, while four teams get a bye. The next week, four more games with winners from week I and bye teams. A week later, the four remaining teams play to produce one champion from each league, which then play in the "Super Bowl" for all the marbles.
If they expand, then six teams contend in the first round, while one team in each league gets a bye. Somehow they have to squeeze six games into one weekend - not impossible, I suppose. On the next weekend, 8 teams play (the six winners from the week before plus the two 'bye' teams. Who do the 'bye' teams play, out of the six 'winning' teams? The lowest ranked, or the highest? After week 2, schedule is the same as it is now.
It's all about revenue, I suppose - much higher fees for advertising during post-season. This way they can add two games without stretching it out another week.
Whatever happened to Tom Brady, QB for the New England Patriots?
the proliferation of sports gambling in different states is helping to drive this increase in games...
I propose that, instead of representing cities, each team should represent a prison.
Put all the teams in the playoffs so nobody gets der, dah,de or whatever feelings hurt.
Haha. Great idea!
I think he is talking to a few teams.
Godell has destroyed the NFL. No one has a problem with the playoff system as it stands.
You play your own entire division twice. 6
you play an entire division of your own conference. 4
you play an entire division of the opposing conference. 4
you play one team each from your conference that you ranked evenly with. 2
16
Seventeen games seems like too many to me, but it’s less than the NBA’s 364 I guess.
- 18 game regular season
- Mid-season bye for ALL teams after 9th game (Great opportunity for the NFL to do a military appreciation week)
- Keep the 12 team playoff format, give ALL teams a playoff bye
- Eliminate the week off before the SB
- Eliminate the Pro Bowl, just pick the teams and have them do a photo-op at the NFL Awards
- Hold a championship round of the best players from each division and have the divisions battle each other for a $100 million dollar prize.
Ok, it was different years ago, no?
There’s still not an elegant way to go to 17 games, is there?
As long as they allow the anti-American kneelers, I will continue to find other things to do during their games.
Or all 3 division winners could get byes.
Nope, I’ve wracked my brain trying to see how they can fit 17. I have long held the current model to be essentially perfect, it is mathematically very elegant and the parity is incredible. Given that you play an identical schedule as all your division rivals, and that the 2 games that are different are matched according to the prior years rankings, and that each division gets a spot in the playoffs... Its perfect. I haven’t seen a single article that proposed how the scheduling would work. You’d think these sports writers would jump at a chance to write something informative instead of churning out the 500th article of the week speculating on where Tom Brady will play next year. Ugh!
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