I just now sent this email to Roger Goodell (and forwarded it to the NFLPA as well). We'll see if they read it and respond. I figured it was worth a shot. Let me know what you guys think.
A Detailed Plan For an 18-Game Season That Should Work For Everybody
Mr. Goodell,
I believe that I have a plan for the NFL schedule that could make all parties happy. Please indulge me by reading the entire email as I hope that you will find this to be true as well.
Part A - Schedule length and bye weeks
You could implement an 18-game, 21-week schedule with three evenly spaced byes during the season. Since the owners seem sold on an 18-game schedule with more traveling to neutral sites involved, it only makes sense for the players to have more time during the season to recover. If you cut the preseason to two games, then this would only add two weeks onto the end of the year time wise.
Bye weeks could be grouped like this:
Group 1 = off weeks 4, 9, 14
Group 2 = off weeks 5, 10, 15
Group 3 = off weeks 6, 11, 16
Group 4 = off weeks 7, 12, 17
Group 5 = off weeks 8, 13, 18
No bye during weeks 1-3 and weeks 19-21
Part B - How to determine the opponents for the two new games
For the two new games, I recommend that you think regionally and create two non-conference “rivalry” games. One of the games would be an international rivalry game and the other would be a “hometown” rivalry game. The rival team match-ups would be the same from year to year, therefore building an actual rivalry between the two teams. Here’s an example…
The Cowboys (NFC) two rivals would be the Texans (AFC) and the Chiefs (AFC). The Texans would also add the Saints as their second rival, the Saints add the Titans, etc. Alternate years between international and hometown games. I have added a list of my recommendation for the rivalries at the bottom of this email.
Cowboys vs. Texans (in San Antonio year 1, Austin year 3, Waco year 5 and international in years 2, 4, and 6)
Cowboys vs. Chiefs (in Norman year 2, Tulsa year 4, Stillwater year 6, and international in years 1, 3, and 5)
If the Cowboys happen to be playing the AFC West in that year’s rotation, then they just play the Chiefs twice – or the Texans twice if they play the AFC South. Teams already play two games per year against their divisional opponents, so doubling up against their regional rival once each every four years shouldn’t be an issue.
By utilizing college stadiums, you can truly make NFL fandom even more widespread and more regionally effective. Also, by using geographically close teams, many Cowboys fans that live in Dallas would be willing to drive a few hours to Austin or Norman to see their favorite team beat the hated Texans or Chiefs. Many fans in Austin or Norman would get the opportunity to see their favorite NFL team play in their hometown. Who wouldn’t like that?
Imagine the Lions and Browns alternating games in Ann Arbor, Columbus, Canton, and East Lansing… the Saints and Titans alternating games in Baton Rouge, Knoxville, and Oxford… you could use anywhere from 2 to 4 host cities based on the realistic options located between the two teams.
Part C - When to schedule the rivalry games
This would mean that there would be 16 international games and 16 rivalry games each season. The three evenly spaced byes would make scheduling issues more easily solvable, especially if you use the Thursday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Monday night time frames wisely.
International games could be scheduled during the week before a bye, either on Sunday morning (Eastern hemisphere host city) or Sunday or Monday night (Western hemisphere host city) and regional rivalry games could be scheduled for Thursday nights after a bye in order to work around the college stadium that is being used, especially if you can’t find a week when that host college team is on the road. It sounds like a lot until you remember that each team is only affected twice and there are only 32 total games of this manner.
If you schedule the 32 games during the fifteen bye weeks (weeks 4 through 18), that would mean that you would have three rivalry games for two weeks and two rivalry games for the other thirteen weeks. Which week is which would be left up to the availability of the venues that are being used. If scheduled efficiently, you would only have one week in which there would be two international games.
This would also allow the beginning (Weeks 1-3) and end of the season (Weeks 19-21) to be used strictly for more conventional games as teams strive to get off to a fast start and/or finish the season strong. You could have two of the first three and two of the last three be divisional games with the other two divisional games somewhere towards the middle of the season, making all parts of the season (early, middle, and late) important.
Part D - Positives for everyone
The owners should like this as there would be more revenue being generated by both a longer TV contract (21 weeks versus 17) and a percentage of the extra gate money from the rivalry games, both regional and international. As things currently stand, due to the international games, there are always a couple of teams that only have seven true home games. This new schedule would even the playing field by allowing each team to keep their all eight of their home games and everyone is expected to travel internationally once a year.
The players should like the three evenly spaced bye weeks, which would allow for more rest time during the season. Players that have a sprained ankle, for instance, would have more opportunities to let it heal instead of having to play injured and running the risk of aggravating the injury further. This could also lead to players having a longer career overall since they wouldn’t be playing injured as often. You could also allow more IR-Designated to Return slots as there would be a greater chance of return due to the longer season. If you expand the rosters by a few players to help with the longer season, this would create more jobs (making the players happy). Most of those added players would probably be playing for the league minimum, so it shouldn’t negatively affect the increased salary cap much (again making the owners happy). Players should see a general increase in compensation since they are playing 18 games now instead of 16 and they aren’t being arbitrarily forced to sit out for two of those games. No one needs to sit out at all if they don’t want to.
The networks would be happy because a longer season means more football games, which means more ad revenue. Also, NFL games usually receive relatively high ratings, so more games means more frequently high ratings.
The league would benefit from the popularity of being physically present in so many new markets (both foreign and domestic). That could mean a LOT of great things for the NFL.
The fans would benefit from two more games from their favorite team and the opportunity to travel (both locally and abroad) twice a year to watch their team play in a different setting if they so desire. The smaller-market fans have a more realistic opportunity to see their relatively local NFL team play once a year in a city much nearer to them.
I hope that you receive this email in the spirit that it was intended. I love football and the NFL and I want to help to see it be the most successful version of itself that it can be. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
Blue Thunder (I used my real name here though)
Team Rival #1 & Rival #2
Arizona = Denver & Houston
Atlanta = Tennessee & Jacksonville
Baltimore = Washington & Carolina
Buffalo = Philadelphia & Detroit
Carolina = Cincinnati & Baltimore
Chicago = Indianapolis & Pittsburgh
Cincinnati = Minnesota & Carolina
Cleveland = Detroit & Green Bay
Dallas = Houston & Kansas City
Denver = Arizona & San Francisco
Detroit = Cleveland & Buffalo
Green Bay = Cleveland & Pittsburgh
Houston = Dallas & Arizona
Indianapolis = Chicago & Minnesota
Jacksonville = Atlanta & Tampa Bay
Kansas City = Seattle & Dallas
Las Vegas = Seattle & LA Rams
LA Chargers = LA Rams & San Francisco
LA Rams = LA Chargers & Las Vegas
Miami = New Orleans & Tampa Bay
Minnesota = Indianapolis & Cincinnati
New England = NY Giants & Philadelphia
New Orleans = Miami & Tennessee
NY Giants = NY Jets & New England
NY Jets = NY Giants & Washington
Philadelphia = New England & Buffalo
Pittsburgh = Green Bay & Chicago
San Francisco = Denver & LA Chargers
Seattle = Kansas City & Las Vegas
Tampa Bay = Jacksonville & Miami
Tennessee = New Orleans & Atlanta
Washington = Baltimore & NY Jets
The list of rivals above isn't perfect. For instance, I would like to see the Eagles and Steelers as rivals, but this was the best overall geographic fit that I could come up with.