The wait is finally over as we are into the first week of the 2022-2023 NFL season. That is season LVII for those of you counting. This quick overview is meant to recap how the schedule for each season in general and the new one in particular it comes to be.
The NFL is split into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Each conference is made out of four divisions (East, West, north and South) and each conference has four teams. That gives a total of 32 teams.
Each team will play 17 regular season games between September and the beginning of January. Playoffs are scheduled to start on January 14.
The breakdown of the 17 games is as follows:
- 6 games against opponents from the same division (2 games against each team in the division, one at home and one on the road)
- 4 games against the teams from a division within the same conference (2 games at home and 2 on the road)
- 4 games against the teams from a division in teh other conference (2 games at home and 2 away)
- 2 games against teams from the remaining divisions in its own conference (1 game at home and 1 on the road)
- The new season will feature an additional game -the 17th, which is against a team from the other conference and from a division that was not scheduled to play against. It can be at home or on the road.
Games broadcasting
For the 2022-2023 season, most of the games will be played on Sunday afternoon with the remaining ones on Mondays, Thursdays and occasionally on Saturdays.
For the Sunday games, Fox will broadcast NFC road games while CBS will show AFC road games. The Thursday games will be shown on Prime Video, a digital provider.
Did you know that each season a number of games are played internationally? The new season will feature three games played in London, one in Munich and one in Mexico City.
Bye Week
Each team has one bye week between Weeks 6 and 14. The league tries to limit the number of times a team that played the week before has to face a team coming off its bye. The schedule makers also consider where a team’s bye week fell in past seasons. A team with an early bye week one year will receive consideration for a later bye week the next season.
Conclusion
The process is challenging, and there may be no such thing as a perfect schedule, but the schedule makers consistently provide the NFL’s fans and broadcast partners with a compelling and entertaining slate of games week after week.