nfl.jpg

The NFL is pushing hard to expand the regular-season schedule to 18 games, but if that doesn't happen in the near future, the league is still planning to tweak its scheduling formula. 

During an interview this week, Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning, revealed that the league will be making a small change to the scheduling formula following the 2028 season, but that will only happen if the NFL sticks with a 17-game schedule. 

The NFL originally added the 17th game in 2021, and according to North, the league's plan has always been to make a change after the 2028 season. 

"After the 2028 season, that'll be eight years through, so you will have played every division in the other conference twice. It'll flip," North said on the "It's Always Game Day in Buffalo" podcast. "So all those years when it's AFC East at NFC West, and so you had to go play at San Fran or at the Rams, when we go to the next eight-year cycle -- if we're still in a 17-game season -- that'll flip and it'll be the AFC hosting those. So that was accounted for back in 2021."

Let's explain this in layman's terms: When the NFL added the 17th game, the league implemented a rotation for the new game that was based on the prior year's standings. Here's the explanation from the league: "A first-place team from one division against a first-place team in an opposite conference division that the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place and fourth-place teams in each division are matched in the same way each year. The home conference for this game will rotate each season."

The home conference rotation creates a minor competitive imbalance, which is why the league has tweaked the formula. 

Let's use the Bills and the AFC East as an example. In 2021, the 17th game for each team in the AFC East was a home game against a team from the NFC East. After a four-year rotation, the AFC East played the NFC East again in 2025, and like the first time, the AFC East got to host that game AGAIN. On the other hand, the AFC East got stuck with road games against the NFC West in both 2022 and 2026. 

AFC East 17th game schedule rotation
2021: NFC East (Home)
2022: NFC West (Away)
2023: NFC South (Home)
2024: NFC North (Away)
2025: NFC East (Home)
2026: NFC West (Away)
2027: NFC South (Home)
2028: NFC North (Away)

Under the current rotation, the AFC East would always host the NFC East every four years for the 17th game, but the NFL wants to flip that. Starting with the 2029 season, the AFC East will play at the NFC East. The biggest change there is the fact that NFC teams will get to play nine home games in both 2028 and 2029. 

"It was an eight-year cycle of this conference at this conference," North said. "For the next eight years after [the 2028] season, it flips. And so if we stay with this rotation and it's still AFC East playing the NFC West, for instance, instead of the Bills going to San Fran or the Rams, [an NFC West team] will come to Buffalo."

As North mentioned, this tweak will only be made if the NFL schedule is still at 17 games, but that might not be the case. As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones noted this week, an 18-game schedule is definitely coming; it's just a matter of when. According to Jones, the NFL could implement an 18-game schedule as soon as 2028, but it also could be pushed out to 2031 if the league can't get the NFLPA on board. If it's pushed out to 2031, then the NFL will tweak the 17-game scheduling formula following the 2028 season and use that formula until the regular season expands to 18 games.