Before the networks with NFL broadcasting rights get to pick their games, the NFL has more work to do to make sure each of the 17 weeks logically work for the season. The committee puts together which games will be played week-by-week, making sure of a few key things.
1. The first game of the season has to be on the Thursday night before the first Sunday of the season and include last year's Super Bowl champion.* This game airs on NBC.
2. Throughout the season, the NFL must make sure teams that play home games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones have a "balanced" number of home games each week compared to the number of home games for Central and Eastern home games. This is because games played in western markets have to start at different times for home audiences. There are only six teams that play at home in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, so these games will always be greatly outnumbered each week anyway.
3. The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders are both West Coast teams and share the same TV market. Since start times are limited for West Coast teams, the NFL must make sure both teams do not end up with home games the same week. If they do, one of those games must be played at night on either NBC, NFL Network, or ESPN. They also cannot play games with the same start time, unless they are both on the road that week, on different networks.
4. Because the New York Giants and New York Jets share the same TV market and the same stadium, the NFL must make sure they are not playing a home game during the same week. Occasionally, this does happen, forcing one of those games to be played on a weekday night (Thursday or Monday) on either NFL Network or ESPN. They also cannot play games with the same start time, unless they are both on the road that week, on different networks.
5. Week 12 or 13 is the Thanksgiving Day week. The NFL makes sure to keep the tradition of Dallas and Detroit both having home games this week, with Detroit always having the early game (12:30 ET) and Dallas the late game (4:15 ET) on that Thursday. Each year, they alternate who they play. One plays a team from the AFC and the other plays a team from the NFC. This switches each year so CBS and FOX each carry one game, alternating which game annually.
6. The NFL moves playable game dates off of Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day for obvious reasons.
7. For Week 17, the NFL makes sure that every game played is a division game. The NFL implemented only intra-division scheduling during Week 17 in order to discourage teams who have secured playoff berths from resting key players and phoning in games at the end of the season. This has a tremendous impact on the 49ers and Raiders. Based on the above information, this rule means in Week 17, the 49ers either have to play at St. Louis or the Raiders have to play at Kansas City to avoid having games at the same time. Games are also only played on Sunday this week to avoid giving playoff teams an unfair advantage in preparing for the post-season.
The committee then finally decides which week teams will take their day off (bye weeks or OPEN DATE). Days off do not usually happen in the first few weeks and usually not after Week 10 or 11.
Next it's time for the broadcasters to pick their games! We'll have those details in tomorrow's blog.
As usual, if you have questions, please comment below.
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*this changed for the 2012 season, as the NFL decided to move the game a night up to Wednesday, saying they do not want to "interfere" with the Democratic National Convention.
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