As the NFL and its network partners put the finishing touches on their TV rights deals, they’re doing so with the expectation of a 17-game schedule.
According to Peter King of NBC Sports, a 17-game schedule is “highly likely” beginning with the 2021 NFL season. The extra home game that comes from an odd numbered schedule would alternate each year by conference. 17 regular season games in 18 weeks also means Super Bowl LVI, currently scheduled for Feb. 6, 2022 in Los Angeles, will be pushed back one week to Sunday Feb. 13. Keeping the Super Bowl as scheduled and beginning the regular season early would mean playing on Labor Day Weekend, a ratings disaster.
In addition to the extra regular season game, King also reports the NFL is considering two Christmas Day games this year, which falls on a Saturday, a move the NBA won’t be pleased about. Last year’s Saints-Vikings matchup on Christmas Day averaged 20.1 million viewers for FOX, their highest non-Sunday rating in more than two years.
Another potential schedule change will be moving one Wild-Card game to Monday night. Last season, the NFL played six Wild-Card games for the first time ever, but putting one on Monday night would have competed with the college Football National Championship. Moving to a 17-week season means starting the NFL Playoffs after the college football season ends, which opens up the possibility of a Monday night Wild-Card game.
The league hasn’t made the 17-game regular season official for the 2021-22 season, but there’s no reason to anticipate a delay considering the Players Association agreed to an expanded schedule during last year’s new CBA negotiations.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
How would they divide the new games would they all stay on Fox and CBS or would we see an extra game on Monday night/ Thursday night or Saturday. Also Will they be going back to Europe (London) again. Also what about exclusive games on Prime Video. We have more questions than answers yet.
NBC & CBS swapped Super Bowls so that CBS aired it this year while NBC will have a turn next year so as to cross-promote the forthcoming Winter Olympics, for one thing.
This 1-week delay would then come right in the middle of the Olympics, breaking up NBC’s Beijing momentum, instead of being on its first weekend, yet this article said nothing about this. I wonder what NBC has to say about this (beyond the expected PR-like comments of things like, “we’re more than thrilled to have both big events on our network in February 2022”.