We have reached the annual speculation in the NFL of how games will be scheduled for the final week (Week 18) of the regular season. Since the NFL went to all-divisional games the final week in 2010, the NFL has gotten better about having games that matter being played at the same time though while doing so, having to cater to its broadcast partners with Disney (ESPN/ABC) now getting a doubleheader on the final Saturday and NBC getting the final game of the regular season on Sunday night football. The latter, however, was exposed in 2022 when the NFL made Lions-Packers the final Sunday night game even though there was a possibility the Lions would be eliminated from playoff contention before that game started as the Seahawks were at home against the Rams where they would have eliminated the Lions had they won but not the Packers. While the Lions won that game at Lambeau Field and eliminated the Packers, the Lions had been eliminated before that game kicked as the Seahawks won in overtime. Ironically, in 2017 the NFL did not have a final Sunday Night game because there was no game that wasn’t tied to another game that could have affected the outcome and possibly be meaningless before the Sunday night game kicked off (though that year, the final Sunday was also New Year’s Eve and it was quite possible the NFL was limited to which games they could flex to Sunday Night Football because some cities very possibly could have told the NFL their game could not be moved to Sunday Night Football because they didn’t have enough law enforcement available to handle that AND New Year’s Eve celebrations as some personnel likely that day would have had to work both the game and then New Year’s Eve).
This is exactly why the NFL should keep Week 18 as it is while adding Thursday and Monday night games to that week and add a new 19th week to the NFL season that in this case would add a second bye week that would be tied to mid-week games. This would allow for a new Week 19 being “all games in a conference simultaneously” that is usually done on the last day of the season in most professional soccer leagues worldwide and is done with the final Group stage games in most international competitions dating back to a controversial situation in the 1982 World Cup in Spain known as The Disgrace of Gijon. That was where in the final group stage game, West Germany (as they were known prior to it and East Germany re-merging in 1990) and Austria played a match where if West Germany won by one or two goals, both countries would be assured of advancing to the second round of that World Cup. West Germany needed to win the match because they had been upset by Algeria in the first round and goal differential, NOT head-to-head was the tie breaker as it still is for most of soccer. West Germany scored a quick goal to make it 1-0 and the rest of the game was players simply passing the ball around with no attempt to score knowing both countries advanced. This led to in 1986 the final matches of the group stages being played simultaneously, which now is commonly used worldwide, including by Major League Baseball starting all of its games on the last day within 20 minutes of each other between 3:00 and 3:20 PM Eastern Time.
For the NFL, it can be split up by conference so there are two game windows on the final day, in each case with all games in one conference kicking off at 3:30 PM ET and the other at 8:30 PM ET (the gap between the end of the first and second windows is specifically to allow CBS to satisfy FCC requirements with “60 Minutes” and then have a pre-game show before the 8:30 PM ET games). This would have ALL of the broadcast partners involved (including cable and DT-2/3/4 options) with NBC having first choice of games in each time slot, then CBS/FOX splitting the second and third picks (one picking second for 3:30, the other for 8:30), ABC getting the fourth pick, ESPN the fifth pick (also available on LivWell, ABC’s DT-2 channel), Amazon Prime and NFL Network jointly picking sixth (airing on both outlets and COZI-TV, NBC’s DT-2 Channel) and back to FOX and CBS splitting the last two picks (FOX’s game airing on FS1 and either MOVIES, FOX’s DT-2 Channel, or BUZZR, FOX’s DT-4 Channel, CBS’s game airing on CBSSN and DECADES, CBS’s DT-2 Channel). As it would stand if this were used for the 2023-’24 season, NFC games would likely be at 3:30 and the AFC games likely at 8:30, likely like this (updated to reflect Week 17 results):
NFC Games (3:30 PM ET kickoff):
NBC: Cowboys at Commanders (Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge)
FOX: Eagles at Giants (Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen)
CBS: Buccaneers at Panthers (Ian Eagle, Charles Davis)
ABC: Falcons at Saints (Joe Buck, Troy Aikman)
ESPN (also LivWell): Bears at Packers (Bob Wischusen, Robert Griffin III)
Amazon Prime and NFL Network (also COZI-TV) Seahawks at Cardinals (Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit)
CBSSN (also DECADES): Vikings at Lions (Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Matt Ryan)
FS1 (also MOVIES or BUZZR): Rams at 49ers (Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth)
AFC Games (8:30 PM ET kickoff):
NBC: Bills at Dolphins (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth)
CBS: Texans at Colts (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo)
FOX: Jaguars at Titans (Joe Davis, Daryl Johnston)
ABC: Steelers at Ravens (Chris Fowler, Louis Riddick, Dan Orlovsky)
ESPN (also LivWell): Broncos at Raiders (Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy)
Amazon Prime and NFL Network (also COZI-TV): Browns at Bengals (Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner)
FS1 (also MOVIES or BUZZR): Chiefs at Chargers (Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma)
CBSSN (also DECADES): Jets at Patriots (Kevin Harlan, Trent Green)
This is how the NFL should handle the final week of the regular season. The new Week 19 would not have Sunday Ticket involved at all since all of the games would be available over-the-air and for the lesser games on cable as well. It would allow for each conference to settle things in one time slot most of the time (barring the very limited cases where a game from the other confernece can affect a strength of schedule/victory tiebreaker deciding a playoff game). It is the best way for the NFL to handle the final week of the regular season.
wallyhorse 