ESPN has recently reported that the NFL may be headed to an 18 game season. Colts President Bill Polian said, “I think that the owners, and principally the commissioner, have decided that it’s the way to go.” This is not an official decision, but the talks about possibly converting the NFL schedule to an 18 game season seem to now be gaining steam.
The implementation of the new schedule would be fairly simple. The NFL would cut down the number of preseason games from 4 to 2, and add the extra two games to the regular season schedule. There have been talks about possibly adding an additional bye week into the regular season to help prevent injuries, but nothing has been decided. The playoffs would begin at the same time, and the season would conclude no later than it does now.
The obvious incentive for switching to this new format is money. With two additional regular season games the increase in revenue for tickets, television coverage, and advertising would all receive a major boost. In the 16 game format teams play every team in their division twice (6 games), then they play every team from two other divisions (8 games). This leaves only two games that the NFL can decide who teams will play. These two games usually create the largest headlines and draw the most attention. For example New York v. New York, Peyton v. Eli, Rematch of the Super Bowl, Patriots v. Colts. The switch to an 18 game season would allow for 4 games to be decided by the NFL. This would allow for many more marquee games and much more excitement.
Obviously more regular season games and more marquee match-ups would be very exciting for fans, so what is the downside? The downside of this new format is three-fold. First, it decreases the importance of any given regular season game. A 0-2 start to the season isn’t quite as heartbreaking when you can conceivably still have a 14 or 15 game season. Games will lose a little of their importance. The second downside is injuries. Two more games is 120 more minutes of wear and tear on player’s bodies. Injury lists are already full, and teams already rest their starters for the last one or two games of the season. Will teams start resting starters midseason or three or four games before the playoffs? Once again this could add many more worthless games to the schedule. The last downside of an 18 game season is the loss of two preseason games. What could be bad about losing two worthless preseason games? Preseason games are an important part of the preparation and evaluation of a team. Without those two extra preseason games their could be lots of sloppy games the first two games. There are also many teams trying to assess their talent on the team, and those last two games are a great chance for a player to prove themselves.
An 18 game schedule would definitely increase excitement and earn the NFL some money, but is it worth the potential risk of ruining the NFL system as it is today? The same questions were most likely asked when the NFL switched from a 14 to 16 game schedule, but they are worth asking again.
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