New NFL Schedule Announced

[silverscreenselect]

The Green Bay Packers will visit the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks in their first meeting since the Replacement Ref Finale Fiasco game as the opening game on Thursday, September 4. Other prime time games that weekend are the Colts at the Broncos on Sunday September 7, and a MNF doubleheader featuring the Giants at the Lions followed by San Diego at Arizona. There's lots of changes this season from last:

-- A London game on October 26 between Detroit and Atlanta beginning at 9:30 Eastern (2:30 London time). Two other London games will begin at 1:00 Eastern. Thanks to the London game, the Falcons have a very bizarre schedule. They play the Bears in Atlanta on October 12, and their next game in Atlanta is Cleveland on November 23 (there's three road games, the London game--which is a Falcons home game, and their bye week in between). That's a great way to keep fan interest going for the new stadium.

--A Thursday night schedule split between CBS and NFL Network. CBS will televise eight games (through October 23), beginning with Pittsbugh-Baltimore on September 11, and the NFL Network will televise the rest of the schedule. Most of the games will feature divisional rivals.

--A Saturday CBS afternoon/evening doubleheader in Week 16 (which is officially part of the NFL Network package), featuring San Diego/San Francisco and Philadelphia/Washington. The order of the games will be determined later with the better matchup presumably being at night.

--Additional schedule flexibility. From Week 5 to Week 10, NBC can flex two games from the afternoon to Sunday night. From Week 11 on, any Sunday afternoon game can be flexed into Sunday night. As with the last couple of seasons, there is currently no game scheduled in Week 17, which features all divisional games. NBC will pick the game that has the most meaning as the season goes on.

--Cross-flexing between CBS and Fox. Traditionally, Fox has broadcast NFC games (including interconference games when the NFC team is on the road), and CBS has broadcast AFC games. This year, there will be some "cross-flexing" in which NFC games are broadcast on CBS and vice versa. The idea is to correct schedule imbalances in a week in which one network seems to have most or all of the "good" games, especially the more coveted late games which bleed over into prime time.

--No AFC teams on Thanksgiving. As part of the cross-flexing, CBS will telecast the Bears-Lions game on Thanksgiving, followed by Fox's broadcast of Eagles-Cowboys. This year the NBC Thanksgiving night game happens to be Seattle-San Francisco, so there will be no AFC teams playing on Thanksgiving.

-- Revised playoff broadcasts. This year for the first time, ESPN will televise one of the wild card playoff games (formerly shown on NBC). In exchange, NBC will televise one of the divisional playoff games (formerly televised exclusively by CBS and Fox). NBC's game will alternate between AFC and NFC.

And, as every year, your team got a raw deal from the schedule makers, while your main rival got all the breaks.

[littlebeast13]

--Cross-flexing between CBS and Fox. Traditionally, Fox has broadcast NFC games (including interconference games when the NFC team is on the road), and CBS has broadcast AFC games. This year, there will be some "cross-flexing" in which NFC games are broadcast on CBS and vice versa. The idea is to correct schedule imbalances in a week in which one network seems to have most or all of the "good" games, especially the more coveted late games which bleed over into prime time.

--No AFC teams on Thanksgiving. As part of the cross-flexing, CBS will telecast the Bears-Lions game on Thanksgiving, followed by Fox's broadcast of Eagles-Cowboys. This year the NBC Thanksgiving night game happens to be Seattle-San Francisco, so there will be no AFC teams playing on Thanksgiving.

Booooo!!!! This was always one of my favorite quirks about how the NFL TV deal worked... the road team's conference determined the network the game aired on....

lb13

[macrae1234]

I think after the schedule is announced they should have a draft to schedule the weeks games each network in turn will get first choice of the game to telecast and then we will rotate by network until all the games are scheduled. NBC and ESPN would get one choice a week no flex scheduling allowed. This, of course, would be much more entertaining then the boring 3 hour telecast last night on NFLNET. Just think we could allow trading as a good week comes up, I will give you my next two ones for first choice this week. Analyze the schedule to see what games are coming up, what is the second or third best game. You could even have fantasy leagues where your results are based on average ratings of your games for the week

[silverscreenselect]

Here's an interesting article at what the schedule makers had to look at in devising the schedule. There's a lot of things to consider:

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/04/24/making-of ... -schedule/

1. The 49ers can't play a non-holiday weeknight game at home because of local noise ordinances.

2. This year the Vikings are playing at the University of Minnesota's stadium, so no home games on Monday, Thursday, or a weekend on which the college team is at home.

3. There's a rugby game scheduled in October in Chicago on a Saturday, so the Bears can't play at home the next day for fear the field will be too torn up.

4. An example of "cross flexing" In the schedule. In Week 12, Washington-San Francisco will be the late CBS doubleheader game. That weekend, Fox already had several strong early games. Because that wasn't Fox's week for the doubleheader, without flexing the game would have aired in Washington and San Francisco only, while the CBS doubleheader game would probably have been Miami-Denver. If Miami is already out of contention by Thanksgiving, the latter game might not have looked too good, so now CBS has a choice which game to give wide exposure to.

Similarly, in Week 4, CBS.s early games were Buffalo-Houston and Tennessee-Indy, while Fox had strong games headed by Bears-Packers. So, one of the Fox games , Carolina-Baltimore, gets flexed to CBS so most of the country will be able to see it.

5. CBS got a very strong schedule for Thursday night football (no surprise). The week the fall TV season officially begins, CBS has Giants-Redskins, so the New York and DC markets get heavy exposure to ads for new CBS shows.

6. The Bears and Cowboys play on Thursday, a week after they play in separate Thanksgiving games. The league has a rule that teams can only play one Thursday short rest game for injury concerns, so scheduling this way frees up another attractive game for the NFL Network Thursday night package.

[lilclyde54]

I am just glad that the actual games are getting closer in time.

[danielh41]

On September 7th, the Texas Rangers have a game against the Seattle Mariners at 2:05. The Dallas Cowboys open their regular season that day at Cowboys Stadium at 3:25 PM. Traffic and parking will be a total mess that day. I must make a mental note not to go to the Rangers game that day. I don't need to make a note not to go to the Cowboys game since I never go to Cowboys games now that Jerry Jones has priced them too high...